Love Poem to a Wren

This week one of my favorite sites, Abbey of the Arts, is hosting its 55th Poem Party. With Saint Valentine's Day this week, the theme of this Poem Party is to write a love poem/letter to something ordinary.

And, for the first time in seven months, I composed a poem.

I've been writing like crazy for the past fourteen months, but my writing has consisted almost entirely of fiction, not poetry. So it felt lovely and comfortable to slip into the poetic mindset and let the words flow, the images come alive under the brass nib of my fountain pen.

There's no thrill for me like that of words birthing themselves across the page, almost beyond conscious thought. I ride the undulating waves of thought, following my mind with each letter pinned to the page in green ink.

I wrote this poem on Valentine's Day and shared it at our Writers' Workshop meeting that night. It was well-received, but because it was the last work shared that evening, we didn't have much time for feedback. The other writers took the poem home with them to ponder what works well and what doesn't, and we'll pick it up next month when we meet again.

So please keep in mind that this poem is only a second draft and needs much more work.

A Love Poem to a Wren
in memory of Gerard Manley Hopkins

oh, to have wings delicate,
untethering my existence from
this kidnapped planet—

to flutter beyond mere feather,
eschewing gravity
ever so briefly.

to skim the reverent waters,
to see all anew—
the vantage unfolding

the fragility of dappled branches,
pardoned, scrubby fields,
plausible seas toppling over
parchment edges.

to be unpinned from the page,
struggling forward toward
that singular moment
before the letting go—

then ah, bright wings
flex angelic,
and at last I—
somehow, I understand.

Copyright 2012 by Susanne Barrett
All Rights Reserved.

If you aren't familiar with Gerard Manley Hopkins, here's a link for you from Poets.org: Hopkins. A couple of words and phrases in my poem are borrowed from his amazing poetry which you can access in the right sidebar of the above link.

So may we all see the intrinsic beauty in ordinary objects in our daily world, and may we give thanks to our Creator for imagining and then bringing into reality this lovely world we live in. May we love the ordinary as well as the extraordinary, this day and always.

Loving the ordinary with you,