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!
