Last Poem of April

Today is the final day of April, and thus the last day of National Poetry Month. In addition, today is also "Poem in Your Pocket Day", and I celebrated it by reading a poem by my esteemed friend Kathryn Belsey, Kitty to those of us who love her, to both of my co-op writing classes at Class Day. I won't share the poem here because I do not have her permission, but the title is "The Beautiful Gate," and Acts 3:2 is printed at the top of the page. Sharing poetry with my students -- with anyone really -- is one of my favorite things to do, so I tackled the "Poetry in Your Pocket Day" challenge with great enthusiasm.

But with the end of National Poetry Month comes the end of the NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) and thus the end of my own challenge to post 30 new orginal poems on this blog. As of two days ago, I had published 29 poems, and here is my 30th and last. It's still quite rough, like all of the poems I've written and posted this month.

the last poem

an adventure
it has been,
composing daily,
turning my soul
upside down
and impatiently
shaking --
words and letters
cascading
onto the table.
i shift them
into place --
this one before,
this at the close,
trying to create
revelation
from my chaotic ideas.

at times success has come --
blushingly taking a bow
at the curtain call.
at times it has been elusive,
fluttering high above me,
just beyond reach --
teasing and tantalizing.

an adventure
it has been,
composing daily --
success and failure,
but mostly something in between --
tinged with pride and
considered "success"
simply in completion.

(c) 2009 Susanne Barrett

More April Poetry

National Poetry Month has been a blast. I haven't always posted a poem a day, but I've been posting more than one poem on other days, so I'm practically even. I got a bit busy over the last few days, so I have a few to make up. My goal was to write thirty rough drafts of poems in April, and I think I'll make it. Some of the poems are crap (simply no other words to describe 'em); others have a little something in them that works, a phrase or line that may provide a foundation for another poem at a later date. A few contain real promise of becoming good, with some inspired revision. And I knew it when I started -- that a lot of what I would be writing would be crap. But I have been delighted by a few poems that show an inkling of becoming something worthwhile, and if I hadn't been brave enough to write (and publish) crap, the good stuff wouldn't have come along, either. So overall, I'm quite pleased overall with the project. :)

I'm teaching some poetry forms to my little bi-weekly writing class that includes our two middle kids T and J, plus a lovely little neighborly writer, and also to one of the high school students I tutor who finished his MLA research essay and now has some time to be creative and have fun with language now that the big deadlines are over for the year. Yesterday I sat down with this latter student and his mom, and we played around with cinquains, diamante, haiku, tanka, acrostics, and free verse. If you aren't familiar with these forms, you can find definitions and examples of all sorts of poetic forms at this wonderful site: Shadow Poetry. Cinquain and diamante forms are more schoolish exercises -- not really serious poetry but definitely a good way to learn to plug words into a set format.

So here are a few of the poems I wrote with them:

Cinquain:

Dashwood,
excited in his doggie way,
playing, darting through the house
yet adorable while cuddling with me --
Dachshund.

Diamante:

cooking
fragrant, delicious
chopping, braising, sauteeing
delectable, satisfying, satisfying, sparkling
scrubbing, buffing, mopping
shiny, lemony
cleaning

Haiku: At Home

sun streaming on floor,
blurs of motion, flashing shapes --
kids and dog at play.

Tanka: On Writing Poetry

words rush from my pen --
mind stops, blocked, then whirls on.
ideas spinning,
simile and metaphor
tango with angry faces.

all poems here (c) 2009 Susanne Barrett

There. Now I am caught up through tomorrow, with only one poem left to write!

I am enjoying this foray into poetry much more than I thought I would, although I must admit that I will be quite glad when rhyming Tweets and Facebook updates are done, especially since I am much more of a free-verse writer than a rhyming, set-form-and-meter kind of poet.

One Thing: Shakespeare Class

On Monday I'll be starting to facilitate the One Thing: Shakespeare class on Brave Writer. Last year we studied a lot of biography of Will along with history of the Elizabethan theatre before looking at sonnets and scenes from Much Ado About Nothing. It was a rockin' four weeks last May, but we celebrated Shakespeare Month with style.

This new class is going to focus on a single play: Twelfth Night. We're going to actually read the play together and discuss ways to make it really fun! I've found some cool resources and am looking forward to a great class. I really enjoy walking through a play by the Bard scene by scene and even line by line, uncovering his comic genius and incredible word play. It's gonna be sooooo cool!

If you're interested in checking out the class, the link is right here: One Thing: Shakespeare. Brave Writer also has some other great classes available to finish off your homeschooling year just right: Spring Class Schedule. The other One Thing classes are taught for a month throughout the year on topics such as nature journaling, copywork and dictation, grammar, poetry, and other fun subjects. The idea: focus our home school language arts on One Thing each month, and as May is Shakespeare month at Brave Writer, enjoying the Bard we shall.

I love working for Brave Writer. Where else would I get paid for chatting about Shakespeare online? :)

Poetry and Surprised by Joy

I have spent this brisk and windy Saturday with my nose buried in a large four-book volume of C.S. Lewis alternating with writing May's Boomerang for Brave Writer on Robin McKinley's The Hero and the Crown. The latter is fully drafted, but I'm only 75% through Surprised by Joy (read 50% of the book today) with our Logos discussion tomorrow afternoon. I still have time in the spa to read, although underlining and writing in the margins is quite difficult while holding the heavy tome above water level.

Still, here is a quick haiku I scribbled for today to fulfill my poem a day during April (which was not easy to compose with the very loud movie The Dark Knight playing in the same room):

On Reading Lewis

Eyes blurred, I'm reading
Lewis. So late, his thoughts swirl,
nestling into mine.

(c) 2009 Susanne Barrett

Feast Day of Saint Mark, Evangelist

Although today, April 25, is the official feast day of Saint Mark, writer of the shortest of the Synoptic Gospels, we celebrated his day yesterday at the Friday Healing service with Father Acker at Victoria House, the weekday location of Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity. We started the celebration by praying the Collect for the feast day of Saint Mark, Evangelist:

O Almighty God, who hast instructed thy holy Church with the heavenly doctrine of thy Evangelist Saint Mark; Give us grace that, being not like children carried away with every blast of vain doctrine, we may be established in the truth of thy holy Gospel; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The Scripture readings for this day of remembrance of Mark were interesting: for the Epistle reading, Ephesians 4:7-16, and for the Gospel, St. John 15:1-11.

After the Nicene Creed, Father Acker gave a short homily on Saint Mark, mostly for B's sake. He told us that Mark's Gospel was his favorite because Mark focused in on the heart of the Gospel; because Mark is the shortest of the four Gospels, Mark didn't mess around with extra details but got straight to the point. Father Acker also told us that Mark was probably present at Gethsemane since he told many details that were not in other Gospels, like the young man running away without his cloak, which some scholars think may have been Mark himself. Father Acker also related that Mark was probably 13 or 14 years old when Jesus was living, and that he most likely was among the group of disciples following Jesus in His earthly travels. Tradition tells us that Mark was the nephew of Barnabas, which also explains the rift between Paul and Barnabas concerning Mark, a rift that was healed between Mark and Paul, at least.

Here also is the Saint of the Day e-mail I received this morning, marking the Feast Day of Saint Mark, Evangelist:

Saint of the Day from AmericanCatholic.org
Most of what we know about Mark comes directly from the New Testament. He is usually identified with the Mark of Acts 12:12. (When Peter escaped from prison, he went to the home of Mark's mother.)

Paul and Barnabas took him along on the first missionary journey, but for some reason Mark returned alone to Jerusalem. It is evident, from Paul's refusal to let Mark accompany him on the second journey despite Barnabas's insistence, that Mark had displeased Paul. Later, Paul asks Mark to visit him in prison so we may assume the trouble did not last long.

The oldest and the shortest of the four Gospels, the Gospel of Mark emphasizes Jesus' rejection by humanity while being God's triumphant envoy. Probably written for Gentile converts in Rome—after the death of Peter and Paul sometime between A.D. 60 and 70—Mark's Gospel is the gradual manifestation of a "scandal": a crucified Messiah.

Evidently a friend of Mark (Peter called him "my son"), Peter is only one of the Gospel sources, others being the Church in Jerusalem (Jewish roots) and the Church at Antioch (largely Gentile).

Like one other Gospel writer, Luke, Mark was not one of the 12 apostles. We cannot be certain whether he knew Jesus personally. Some scholars feel that the evangelist is speaking of himself when describing the arrest of Jesus in Gethsemane: "Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body. They seized him, but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked" (Mark 14:51-52).

Others hold Mark to be the first bishop of Alexandria, Egypt. Venice, famous for the Piazza San Marco, claims Mark as its patron saint; the large basilica there is believed to contain his remains.

A winged lion is Mark's symbol. The lion derives from Mark's description of John the Baptist as a "voice of one crying out in the desert" (Mark 1:3), which artists compared to a roaring lion. The wings come from the application of Ezekiel's vision of four winged creatures (Ezekiel, chapter one) to the evangelists.

Comment:
Mark fulfilled in his life what every Christian is called to do: proclaim to all people the Good News that is the source of salvation. In particular, Mark's way was by writing. Others may proclaim the Good News by music, drama, poetry or by teaching children around a family table.

Quote:
There is very little in Mark that is not in the other Gospels—only four passages. One is: “...This is how it is with the kingdom of God; it is as if a man were to scatter seed on the land and would sleep and rise night and day and the seed would sprout and grow, he knows not how. Of its own accord the land yields fruit, first the blade, then the ear, then the full grain in the ear. And when the grain is ripe, he wields the sickle at once, for the harvest has come” (Mark 4:26-29).

So today we remember a Gospel writer, an Evangelist, who walked with Jesus as a teenager, who definitely made mistakes along the way (one mistake that led to a major disagreement in the early Church between Paul and Barnabas), and who transcribed God's Word to us. As Mark was faithful in evanglizing the world, may we also be faithful in spreading the Good News within our own sphere of influence.

The 24th Poem of National Poetry Month

Well, after drafting 23 poems thus far this month, I certainly cannot complain about not having enough raw material to work with for quite a while. I have a date with the local writers' workshop on the second Tuesday in May to bring along a revision of my Rossetti poem, and I certainly have a goodly number to work on besides that one.

NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month) thus far has been a real success, at least in enabling me to produce a lot of raw work to consider and revise. I'm very excited about the possibilities I've unearthed over the past few months.

So here I am at 10 PM, wondering what to write tonight. I really enjoyed the acrostic poem I wrote the other day, and I've assigned my little junior high writing class (T, J, and a neighboring girl) the assignment of writing at least one each of the following poetic forms over the next two weeks: haiku, tanka, cinquain, diamante, acrostic, and free verse. I've written haiku, tanka, and free verse this month, but only one acrostic. (Cinquains and diamante are more "kid" forms taught in elementary, so I'll write some with them, but they're not really the serious poetry I am hoping to accomplish this month.) So an acrostic it is!

Poetry

Pen in hand, seeking
Obsolete phrases and words ~
Eeking meaning from nothing.
Truth sharpens, fades, focuses again ~
Reality and imagination merge, dance,
Yielding their essence to me.

(c) 2009 Susanne Barrett

Happy 445th, William Shakespeare!

Today marks the 445th birthday of William Shakespeare, playwright and poet extraordinaire. We're actually not positive that Shakespeare was born on April 23 -- historically we know that he was baptized on April 26, 1564, and at that time, most babies were baptized three days after their birth. We do know for certain that Shakespeare died on April 23, 1616, apparently on his 52nd birthday.

It's difficult to choose a favorite play; in fact, I have to do it by category. My favorite tragedy is Othello; my favorite history is Henry V; my favorite comedy Measure for Measure, which I think I have to say is my favorite play overall. In fact, the latter play was the most recent Old Globe production I've seen, and I had never before seen a production, either live or on film, of Measure for Measure.

This morning as we started our school day here at home, right after our morning prayers, I read aloud several of Shakespeare's sonnets, including Sonnet 18 and Sonnet 116, the two most famous, as well as a couple more. And after lunch I read aloud a kids' book on Shakespeare and his works called The Bard of Avon: The Story of William Shakespeare by Diane Stanley and Peter Vennema, illustrated by Diane Stanley. We also discussed Shakespeare and I read a few of his other poems in our little writing class with T, J, and Olivia.

On May 4 I will be starting my second Shakespeare Class at Brave Writer called One Thing: Shakespeare. Over a four-week period, we'll be reading an entire play together, the brilliant comedy Twelfth Night. I am preparing for getting the class going, and, as always, I am really excited to be teaching another wonderful Brave Writer course. Yay, Shakespeare!!!

I also wrote a very rough ode tonight to Shakespeare in honor of his 445th birthday. It needs a lot of work, but here's my 23rd poem of the month:

An Ode to William Shakespeare, On the 445th Anniversary of His Birth

Dear William ~
such the Bard you are!
Great, expansive love
expressed in perfect
blank verse.
Tales told of heroes and kings,
of ladies fair and brave
and of fools truthful and wise.

Tragedies, histories, comedies
have all flowed from your pen ~
remarkable women and
driven yet romantic men.
Love and hate,
jealousy and plotting,
you have drawn them all
with depth,
with wit,
and with empathy ~
characters whom we still
admire and debate
four hundred years later.

(c) 2009 Susanne Barrett

More April Poetry

My poetry notebook is a rather mottled compendium of my own writings and the thoughts, poetry, and information of other writers. In it I have my notes from Kitty's MFA residency abstracts, info on different poetry forms, a first person account of the events of Good Friday, various fragments of poems, etc. And much evidence of many erasures.

Today is the 22nd day of April, and I just counted the number of poems I've posted on this blog so far this month: 16. So I'm a few days behind -- six, to be exact, in my quest to post a poem a day. Obviously these are first drafts -- rough, unformed ideas most of the time. But they're the beginnings of poems that I hope will turn into more than they are now. We'll see. But at least I am now caught up.

So here are a few poems I drafted tonight -- obviously very rough and first-drafty.

A Mother's Haiku

Um, scratching my head,
confused, bemused, bewildered
at kids' rapid growth.

(c) 2009 Susanne Barrett

A Tanka: The Gift of Music

Piano softly
played, Mozart wafting through the
house, bringing peace, grace
to a sometimes anxious home ~
children learning to play well.

(c) Susanne Barrett

A Tanka on Faith

Faith is hard, difficult ~
able to move mountains yet
flighty, elusive,
ephemeral. But it still lives,
ever-present and quite real.

(c) 2009 Susanne Barrett

An Acrostic

Foolish in the world's eyes,
Asking the difficult questions ~
In His Presence kneeling,
Truth-seeking always ~
Hoping for strength in my weakness,
Feeling Him with me, beside me ~
Unlearning the old ways while
Loving far beyond myself.

(c) Susanne Barrett

"Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen." -- Hebrews 11:1

I must unthink, unzip
my usual reactions,
the knee-jerks
of mind and heart.
I pull the old self off
over my head,
slipping into the new "me,"
silky and fresh,
fitting perfectly.

(c) 2009 Susanne Barrett

Faith Stuff

Why is it so wrenching,
so difficult to write about God?
Is faith ephemeral?
Beyond a friendly smile or nod

from strangers in the street,
through my fingers it drips, slips ~
a delusion, shimmering like the sea
at night as the tide rises and dips.

My heart twists, wrung out
with regretful tears, salty and wet
as Truth buried, then unearthed ~
not a deposit, but a debt.

(c) 2009 Susanne Barrett

Intriguing Reading Lately....

My reading has been rather eclectic lately. I didn't manage to finish Imitation of Christ by Thomas a Kempis during Lent. I found it somewhat repetitious and a little annoying -- not sure why. Kempis seemed rather legalistic in his application to the Scriptures, and legalism tends to raise my hackles rather fiercely. I've put it aside to read at a later date after getting close to halfway through it.

However, I've been savouring every word of C.S. Lewis' autobiographical Surprised by Joy which I have to finish for Sunday's Logos meeting after church. I'm really enjoying this slow walk (it seems slow to me, anyway, in comparison to other books I'll be discussing further down in this post) through Lewis' childhood and schooling (where I currently am, about 25% through) and his thoughts and flights of imagination are fascinating. A real treat of a book, but definitely one that must be digested, not ripped through.

Speaking of ripping through a book, it's been eons since I read an entire book within 24 hours, but I did so this weekend. On Thursday I spotted Mary Higgins Clark's newest mystery Just Take My Heart at Target and made a mental note to locate it at the library. I discovered a crisp new copy on our library's New Releases shelf on Friday afternoon and snatched it up; I was the first reader of this particular copy. I started it late Friday evening in the spa, and by Saturday evening, I had finished it. For a little while, her books seemed rather formulaic and I could figure them out quite early, but her last three or four books broke with her earlier formula and are quite different. I enjoyed this one greatly, and it definitely kept me on the edge of my seat all the way to the final chapter. A great read.

So now I'm back to the book I had started just before discovering Mary Higgins Clark's newest offering -- I picked up a battered copy of the Da Vinci Code for a dime at the library a while back, and I thought I'd reread it. The Church history is so off it's laughable, but it is a good read and one that kept me on the edge of my seat. I started reading a few scenes in the middle for fun, but then decided to read it all the way through again, and I'm enjoying it even more so this time. With a sequel coming out in mid-September and a film version of Brown's earlier Angels and Demons coming soon to theatres, perhaps it is a good time to revisit Da Vinci Code.

I'm still very, very slowly plugging away at The Family Cloister; it's a great book but it always seems to wander to the bottom of my book stack. There's a lot to think about and apply with this wonderful book that applies the Rule of Benedict to modern family life. I heartily recommend it and just wish I had more time to devote to it.

So that's what I'm reading lately. What about you? I'm always on the lookout for book recommendations.

First Sunday after Easter

Throughout Eastertide, the Anglican Churches using the 1928 Book of Common Prayer substitute The Venite (Psalm 95:1-7; Psalm 96:9,13) with a series of three Scriptures prayed one after the other, followed by the Gloria Patri. These form a "Call to Worship" at the beginning of Morning Prayer which I love to pray as they truly celebrate Christ's Resurrection with great joy:

Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us: therefore let us keep the feast, Not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. (1 Corinthians 5:7b-8)

Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Christ Jesus our Lord. (Romans 6:9-11)

Christ is risen from the dead, and become the first fruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1 Corinthians 15:20-22)

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; As it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

The Collect for the First Sunday after Easter:

Almighty Father, who hast given thine only Son to die for our sins, and to rise again for our justification; Grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness, that we may always serve Thee in pureness of living and truth; through the merits of the same Thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

In case you're interested, the 1928 BCP Epistle reading for this day is 1 St. John 5:4-12 and the Gospel reading is St. John 20:19-23. A full recap of each Sunday's service at Alpine Anglican Church of the Blessed Trinity as written by the Beadle can be seen at this site: The Beadle's Blog. And if you aren't familiar with who a Beadle is, you may find the definition here: Beadle.

A Joyous First Sunday after Easter to you all! Remember, Eastertide lasts all the way until Pentecost, so we have much time to celebrate the Resurrection -- not that we should ever stop celebrating the pivotal fact of our faith, but now's the time to really, really make a big deal over Christ's Resurrection from the dead.