sky so clear and blue
red-headed swallows
swoop to the red roof
kids mad for chocolate
watch them swoop too
hair drying in the sun
hot coffee and a book
time to pull on boots
take a basket to collect in
pile high the table and
eat up together the garden
mary mccallum
___
It's the First Birthday of Tuesday Poem - and this is a celebratory poem to add to the general euphoria. Hey sweet day, indeed.
Over at the Tuesday Poem blog, we're celebrating with a communal birthday poem that is unfolding over the week - poet by poet, line by line. I guess you'd call it a sweet week.
I asked other poets to join me, and they did, most especially Dunedin poet Claire Beynon; and we linked up, but it quickly became obvious we needed a central hub. So we created the Tuesday Poem blog, with each of us taking turns to select a poem to post at the hub, and all of us linked to it via the sidebar.
Each week, we Tuesday Poets post our own poem or one that we like (and have permission for). And then we read, we comment, we share, we're good to each other. We're a community - we like hanging out.
Claire became my co-curator, bringing with her South Island and US poets, and one Irishman. We had about a dozen poets at the start, and it grew to 30 (our limit), and currently hovers a little below that. We span four countries - NZ, Australia, the UK and the US - the Irish poet (hi John) has joined the alumnae list now but keeps visiting.
I've got a tremendous amount from Tuesday Poem - more than I ever expected: the community for a start. I have also written and polished a number of poems I am pleased with -- my writing no doubt stimulated by the 30 or so poems and poetry-related posts I read a week, and pushed into shape by the regular deadline. There is also something wonderful about the immediacy of the medium, and the direct and generous feedback.
Happy Birthday TP, I am looking forward to another sweet year.
Click on the quill in the sidebar or here to get to Tuesday Poem.
6 comments:
This poem is a real sweetie.
Happy Tuesday Poem birthday, Mary.
This poem is deceptively simple, but upon re-reading reveals much density of image and idea.
Thanks Belinda, Helen and Andrew! Happy TP Birthday to you too...
Mary, I love your excited embrace of and attention to poetry (and to life in general). Thanks for posting that Gerard M Hopkins poem the other day. It's one of my favourites too and I loved the story of how you recited it to your husband-to-be.
Thanks Susan - lovely thing to say. Poetry is something that makes life more exciting for me on a daily basis, whereas fiction is a longer haul, a greater investment, I guess. But no less worth it. I love a comment by Bernadette Hall that good poetry replenishes your view of the world. GMH's poetry so often expresses and evokes joy and delight in the world and in people which is why I love it - it is constantly replenishing. And I guess that's poetry, too, we return to it over and over....
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