Some of you will have noticed that I'm running a little behind schedule this morning.
I've been busy fiddling with "Squiggles ... and Giggles" ... where I make weekly postings ... and it has been more squiggles than giggles, believe me. It always seems to be that way when I'm trying new things ... new to me, at least ... like learning how to post a recorded version of one of my poems online.
Well, it finally worked! Not satisfied with having just one recording visitors could listen to, I doubled the postings ... and listened to both ... at least a couple of times.
So, since it worked on "Squiggles ... and Giggles," why not, I thought, try it on "Chosen Words"?
This time, though, I thought (providing I'm still hitting the right keys), why not share my "lucky poem"? Lucky poem? Please read on:
I apologize to those who have heard this story before, but I feel impelled to share it just one more time.
"Chance of Rain" is my lucky poem. It began life as a much longer poem, written at the kitchen table after one of my summer walks.
It was so hot that I had paused in the shade to consider whether I really thought I could make it up the next hill and then home. Just then I felt a slight breeze. Thus encouraged, I set off again toward home.
But I had started thinking of how the oppressive heat and humidity were so like the area of Southern Illinois where I grew up. I kept thinking about that, recalling what it had been like, that terrible heat.
When I got home, I started writing. I imagined an older person, about my age, sitting on a porch, scanning the skies for signs of rain. I imagined the rain's coming, sweeping across the fields. I described the old man's reaction to the rain ... all of this in considerable detail.
This narrative became a long poem which I submitted to Capper's. It was there that an alert editor, Ann Crahan, spotted eight lines that appealed to her in the middle of my poem. How lucky for me!
She suggested that we keep those eight lines and my title. I agreed, and it became my first poem accepted for publication.
Over the years, I wrote many more pieces about rain ... or its absence ... and when those poems suggested themselves to me as a possible collection, it seemed fitting that "Chance of Rain," my first-born, my lucky poem, should be the title piece of that collection, published by Finishing Line Press in 2003.
The poem:
CHANCE OF RAIN
The rain comes
in great galloping
gulps, faster than
the soil can sop it up.
It drums on the roof,
dances in the yard,
celebrates all the way
down the hill.
© 2003
Today's word: lucky
I've been busy fiddling with "Squiggles ... and Giggles" ... where I make weekly postings ... and it has been more squiggles than giggles, believe me. It always seems to be that way when I'm trying new things ... new to me, at least ... like learning how to post a recorded version of one of my poems online.
Well, it finally worked! Not satisfied with having just one recording visitors could listen to, I doubled the postings ... and listened to both ... at least a couple of times.
So, since it worked on "Squiggles ... and Giggles," why not, I thought, try it on "Chosen Words"?
This time, though, I thought (providing I'm still hitting the right keys), why not share my "lucky poem"? Lucky poem? Please read on:
I apologize to those who have heard this story before, but I feel impelled to share it just one more time.
"Chance of Rain" is my lucky poem. It began life as a much longer poem, written at the kitchen table after one of my summer walks.
It was so hot that I had paused in the shade to consider whether I really thought I could make it up the next hill and then home. Just then I felt a slight breeze. Thus encouraged, I set off again toward home.
But I had started thinking of how the oppressive heat and humidity were so like the area of Southern Illinois where I grew up. I kept thinking about that, recalling what it had been like, that terrible heat.
When I got home, I started writing. I imagined an older person, about my age, sitting on a porch, scanning the skies for signs of rain. I imagined the rain's coming, sweeping across the fields. I described the old man's reaction to the rain ... all of this in considerable detail.
This narrative became a long poem which I submitted to Capper's. It was there that an alert editor, Ann Crahan, spotted eight lines that appealed to her in the middle of my poem. How lucky for me!
She suggested that we keep those eight lines and my title. I agreed, and it became my first poem accepted for publication.
Over the years, I wrote many more pieces about rain ... or its absence ... and when those poems suggested themselves to me as a possible collection, it seemed fitting that "Chance of Rain," my first-born, my lucky poem, should be the title piece of that collection, published by Finishing Line Press in 2003.
The poem:
CHANCE OF RAIN
The rain comes
in great galloping
gulps, faster than
the soil can sop it up.
It drums on the roof,
dances in the yard,
celebrates all the way
down the hill.
© 2003
Today's word: lucky
3 comments:
Another favorite! It dances along like the rain.
I love this poem too. It reminds me that I "discovered" your blog back in early 2005 :)
Good to be here.
Thank you, Helen in Miami, for running the hurdles again and leaving a comment. Of course, I'm delighted that you liked the poem. And, Colorado Lady! So good to hear from you ... as I have over these past few years. I'm glad you discovered the blog ... and liked what you saw there ... and thanks for all your encouraging words. Best wishes.
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