haiku for International Women’s Day

March 6, 2014 By 1 Comment

waiting for the dawn
turning over a new leaf
silent sentinels

In honor of the March 8th International Women’s Day 2014 theme of Inspiring Change

Patricia Noeth
Iowa City Branch, IA

Included in this year’s International Women’s Day theme:
“Inspiring Change for equal representation of women in the arts…”
Read more about International Women’s Day and how you can get involved by clicking here.

How are you inspiring change? Let us know and we’ll tweet and post about it!

Add International Women’s Day to your Google calendar:

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Poem of the Week–As the Wind Approaches

February 27, 2014 By Leave a Comment

As The Wind Approaches

Climbing roses pull their petals
flat against the fence.

Not one tentacle of crabgrass,
creeping prostrate along mown grass,
bids welcome.

Newly-plowed ground sacrifices dust
in hopes of holding furrows.

If this wind had human qualities,
it would whirl with joy
at any outstretched arms,
which it does — for me.

by Cleo Griffith
Modesto Branch, CA

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Poem of the Week–Bear Butte, and a discussion on format

February 20, 2014 By 4 Comments

Bear Butte

Wind talks to me

whispers
secrets

through shy
pine

covered lips

speaks of Sioux
and holy
ways

long winters
full of deer trails

prayers drifted
as winged
seeds

cones tumbled through
thick branches

thunking the ground
to roll downhill

propagating
another
set

of possibilities

by Sheryl Nelms
Dallas Branch, TX

Editor’s Note:

The Pen Woman magazine, free to NLAPW members and available for purchase to the public, has just gone to press and will be arriving in members’ mailboxes in the coming weeks. Visit our Bookstore to purchase the magazine or our other Pen Women Press publications.

Poetry followers will notice a change in the formatting of the poems in the magazine: the byline now appears below the poem. One reason for the change is that because we include the branch information of our members, having the byline after the body of the poem prevents that additional info from breaking up the flow between the title and the body of the poem.

Another question I have been asked is whether a title should include the form of the poem in parenthesis after the title, such as Mad Girl’s Love Song (a villanelle) by Sylvia Plath. My personal opinion is that in common forms, such as villanelles, sonnets, and haiku, it is not necessary, and you’ll notice Sylvia Plath didn’t include it. For more “obscure” forms, such as a sestina, or to specify a specific form, such as Petrarchan sonnet or a Mason sonnet, it might be a good idea, depending on the audience. Some editors find it distracting (Would you put Free Verse next to a title?) or even insulting (Really? I wouldn’t have known this was a sonnet if you hadn’t told me). On the other hand, the form might also be an integral part of the title. as in Sonnet for a Rainy Day, or see A Kind of Villanelle by Joyce Sutphen).

What do you think? What have you done in your own poetry? What do you like, not like?

Treanor Baring

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Poem of the Week–Ribboning Worlds

February 13, 2014 By 1 Comment

Ribboning Worlds

Shhh…

Simple soft wind, protected grace, intuition

Inside- A child innocent, enters lush fragrant meadow, silken soft yellows, twirling leaves shape tiny fingers

A taste to follow, she dares to cross the border, as shushing willows warn

Shhh…

cross over

Outside— You can hear it. It is nearly lost in the rushes of the weeds, the clank of industry, the boisterous voices of the bosses, the cry of hungry babies. In the language of face, pain, joy, and complacency abound. But, I insist, be still and listen. She will teach about the thin thread of love, ribboning worlds, sometimes disguised under naked rules that bind her feet, force her to carry weapons, marching on bloody soles, and she shudders under the images of the impossible.

Shhh…

cross back

Read her silence, be with her

Kathy Handley,
Cape Cod Branch, MA

author of Birds of Paradise, A Novel
A World of Love and Envy, Short Stories, Flash Fiction and Poetry

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Poem of the Week–Going On

February 6, 2014 By 1 Comment

Going On

The road drives itself through the miles
or is the road driven through the miles?
As a passenger in the bus
I am fueled with only memories
and through the vehicle’s windows
I see gone years pressing against the glass
the latchless windows securely closed,
keeping the past from entering.
Traveling through the driving miles
new road signs paint the way;
the compass reads north and
tickets of future are scattered on the pavement

by Lois Batchelor Howard
Palm Springs Branch, CA

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Poem of the Week–Freedom

January 30, 2014 By 5 Comments

Freedom

The sun, blue skies, green trees
The road.

No doctors, no nurses,
No stethoscopes, no scans,
No charts, no needles,
No chemicals,
No hanging bags of blood.

The sun, blue skies, green trees,
The road.

by Mary Joan Meagher
Minnesota Branch, MN

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Poem of the Week–Obsessive Compulsive Finally Makes a House a Home

January 23, 2014 By 3 Comments

Obsessive Compulsive
Finally Makes a House a Home

In the beginning my every stanza
Was equally syllabic, economically rich
End rhymed, alliterated and ultra traditional
All papers carefully gathered
Placed in manila envelopes
And laid upon my highly waxed desk

My house was a showplace
Brass polished, porcelain gleaming
Rugs vacuumed twice daily
Floors waxed, never a dish in the sink
Pillows puffed, cushions afraid to overlap their sofas
Fido adorned in seasonal collars
And I had fifteen glorious minutes a day for my 2.5 children

Well I broke, and broke badly, don’t exactly know why
The .5 child at home yet now clothes himself directly from the dryer
Cushions and pillows have grown daring and droop at will
I’ve written “Clean Me” in the dust on my desk
My poems often defy structure, I might enjamb, but I versify in freedom
I dine with the family, dust busting crumbs after meals instead of during
Fido lost his collar to a fence, I can see it through my streaky windows
I’m extremely busy, well kinda busy, finally making my house a home

by Barb Whitmarsh
St. Louis Branch, MO

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Poem of the Week–Sonnet on a Theme and a haiku

January 16, 2014 By Leave a Comment

pirouette

sailing in crisp air
on smooth glaciating pond
a leaf twirls alone

by Mary Jedlicka Humston
Iowa City Branch, IA
*this poem was published with the 2013 Iowa City Poetry in Public program

Sonnet on a Theme

Not every theme comes to a storied end.
Some waste away, melt, fossilize or fail.
Not every mountain stream finds comfort’s bend
Into the rushing river by the trail.
Not every song becomes a masterpiece,
Not every beat induces feet to dance,
And nearly every start is doomed to cease
And retreat follows almost each advance.
Still, we do not put our pen and paper down.
We ask musicians, singers, to create
For communication, not renown.
We seek to know each other, not our fate.
We grasp our themes, all hesitation gone,
expand our separate thoughts from dusk to dawn.

Cleo Griffith
Modesto, CA Branch

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Poem of the Week–haiku and The Rope Swing at Wadleigh Pond

January 9, 2014 By 2 Comments

Cotton ball snowflakes
Powder the sleeping garden
Kitty grave blanket

by Linda A. Mohr
Boca Raton Branch, FL

The Rope Swing at Wadleigh Pond

The ancient pine tree leaned over the water
It’s gnarled roots visible up the worn path to the platform
A long rope hung from a thickened branch and
When it cut an arc through the summer air
The lads let out Tarzan screams of
Fearless, reckless abandon
“Let go, Let go
Let
Go!”
For one brief second
Flight, weightlessness, release
Plummeting downward
Swallowed by water
Scrambling upward for air
Gasping, grasping the rope to do it all over again.

Until one day in the blizzard of ’13
With no one to shout “Don’t go,
Don’t go
Don’t
Go!”
The tree weighted with snow,
It’s tired roots no longer able to hold
Finally, crashed into Wadleigh Pond
The arc of rope and tree now one
Now gone
Yet
Memories of summer fun and youthful bravado swing out into the future of their lives.

by Susan Bassler Pickford
Member-at-large, ME

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Poem of the Week–Journey

January 3, 2014 By 1 Comment

The Journey

Each day I make my way
On a never ending journey.
Some days are better than others.
Having no idea where the road leads,
Where or when it will end.
Some days are painful others joyous.
I realize how fortunate I am
To have so many days.
Memories sustain me, make me smile.
No one knows when their journey will end.
Enjoying as much as we can is what we all must do and,
Then be ready for the next great adventure.

by Etta Schaeffer
Boca Raton Branch, FL

Filed Under: NLAPW, NLAPW Poem of the Week
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