Tuesday Poem!

Antics for New Poets

(Antic: A ludicruous or extravagant act or gesture; a caper)

Eat from a plate of cold strawberries

with one chili pepper at midnight in a dark room

wearing a black blindfold

and your Cookie Monster p.js.

Remember how you winced

with each bite, mouth filling with sweet juices

until that heat exploded into fireworks

your tears could not cool?

Paint a path from your house to a secret place

with slug slime then pave it with petals.

Dance along the path in rugby boots –

don’t step on the flowers!

Play a stringless electric violin

until your fingers ache

and your mother screams.

Write the notes on your mobile bill

and post to sender.

Make a cubby, a fort, a forest

or an ocean. Dream there.

Fold your dreams into paper boats

or planes and set them sailing

across the carpet.

Invite a poem into your home.

Make it welcome with coffee or green tea.

Bake it something sweet or salty.

Call it a long word like promenade or

rumination. Dress it up in your old clothes.

You have made it happy.

It will be yours forever but

give it to someone

you love.

Catherine Bateson, January, 2014

Even though the Tuesday Poem blog is on holidays, you can still read the occasional poem posted by one of the Tuesday Poem bloggers - just check out the sidebar. There are also interesting year wrap-ups, reading lists and catch-ups being written. While you're there, have another read of the moving poem by the late Sarah Broom which on the Tuesday poem hub.  It's certainly worth revisiting. 

If you're in Melbourne - stay cool! Today's going to be a scorcher. On a side note, isn't that a wonderful word?

What were your favourite poems or poetry collections in 2014? Drop me a note with recommendations or put them in a comment. I'm making this weekend a poetry weekend with a big push to finish a project I've been working on, so I'm looking for extra reading material. Bring it on!