poetry

Perplexed ~ SOL 2023 (Slice 2/31)

| Shari Daniels

Perhaps I was not cut out for the Slice of Life Challenge this year. On Day 1, I wrote a poem and on Day 30, a response poem to the responses to the poem. It is quite perplexing.

It’s not that I needed 29 days to think of something else to write. There are actually 24 new poems in my notebook and roughly 200 filled pages with the scribing of my ink this month. My notebook is bursting at the seams. In fact, I may run out of pages before tomorrow is done. I’m trying not to brag, but my pen has this down.

But, much of the time, the words do not have the desire to creep out of the safekeeping of the notebook. I try to lure them out, but they are shy. Tired. Cozy and safe nestled between the covers of March 2023. Oh dread, I hear the voice of Eeyore. And, Piglet assuring me we did the best we could. And, that I still wrote.

And, such I time I had! So much play happened in the notebook this month! I cannot wait to tell you!

But, not until April – when the month of poetry begins.

That’s when the poems all wake up and fight for their time in the spotlight.

Hmmmm. . . I maybe just started at the wrong month. 🙂

Dear readers. . . (March sol#2023)

| Shari Daniels

A first Slice of Life came out as an apology. Unknowing what to begin with, a poem wriggled out. If you haven’t the time or the energy or the wherewithal to figure out your way through my typewriter malfunctions (misspellings are my own), I’ve edited it below, with a few revisions, for your convenience and efficiencies.

Dear Reader

I apologize up front
as you make a split second decision
to click on the link
that brought you to these words.

I know your day is busy
fraught with to-do lists and wanna/should-do's, too
your precious time is just that -

precious.

But, I just need to let you know
there is no glitter or gold here
no words of wisdom either
or tips or tricks, hacks or shortcuts
on how to do whatever it is
you ought to do today.

All I have to offer are
random words from this old machine,
she skips every now and then
and is missing the apostrophe key

But, oh she is quite adept
at knowing spasms of delight,
admirations and whispers of bliss
or a split second moment of awe.

So, it is with great regret
and sincere apologies
bad spelling and fading ink
that you had to
 slow
down
to read

these painstaking words on this page

but, they are all I have to give.


#a not so good poem by shari daniels 2023

I am participating in the twowritingteachers 31-day Slice of Life challenge this month. If you’d like to read the words of other Slicers, please head over to the Slices of the Day at twowritingteachers (you gotta scroll way down). 🙂

To his mother ~ an epistolary poem

| Shari Daniels

It was Margaret’s poem in my inbox that ignited my spark to receive poem today. She nudged me over to Ruth’s lovely page, who is hosting Poetry Friday today and inviting us to give a go at a recipe poem.

Ellen Bass, my poet guide this month, along with Wendell Barry, has been also offering advice this month. The Epistolary Poem, a poem written as a letter, a form has been shaping poems in my notebook this month.

Could I combine the two? The recipe poem and the letter poem?

Perhaps . . .

Thank you to Margaret, Ruth, Ellen, my husband’s adoration of the food I cook for him and, his mother’s love.

If you’d like to read more poems, or add your own, head over to Ruth’s page to read a few more recipe poems. Be sure to fill your cup of coffee first.

What I really want

| Shari Daniels
draft 2022 Shari Daniels

Jacqueline Suskin, this morning, teaches us about writing Manifesting Poems. The kind of writing that puts our dreams, wishes and hopes for our lives on paper and lets the universe know so it can begin rearranging our path and give us signs in where to go. She shares a poem of of her own and titles it, What I Want is Family. This felt like an invitation.

So, I wrote my own “What I Want” poem. Taking to my typewriter to see if the keys could help, I got it all down. Afterwards, my laptop went to work, cleaning it up, with a few revisions and edits. It’s still pretty drafty, not very good.

But it feels true.

What I Really Want is Love
I really want just love - all of it.
The deep love one feels for another
you know what I'm talking about -
the kind where that soul being you chose
for your partner and you synchronously
roll over under the covers
and he tucks your blanket in snuggly
behind your back, that spot
you can't reach where cool swaths of air
swirl under bringing the chills.
He protects that.

But, I want more than this,
I want everyone to have that kind of love
from someone.
Maybe if only from a pet -
that will do.

More than even this, I want everyone
to walk around will that kind of love inside them
hearts so wide open
radiating that love
spewing it out
all over the world everywhere they go.

To the trees, the hills, the sky,
the fields, the flowers, the insects even.
And, to other humans
especially those not like them.
That's a special kind of love.

If we all that that kind of love
to fill the world with
we'd know to protect it with all our hearts,
do everything we could to save
its preciousness
for our children, and theirs.

It would be only then, I could leave this earth
knowing I loved enough for that
to happen.

October 2022 draft SD

A small delight

| Shari Daniels
draft Shari Daniels 2022

I’ve been reading and writing from Jacqueline Suskin’s book, A Poem A Day, and finding meaning in the smallest of moments.

She writes:

“Meaning is a choice. . . the trick is to be fully aware of your choices. . . what’s valuable to you isn’t random; it’s a crafted lens that you see through, that you add to and take away from willingly, throughout your lifetime. You can delve into the details surrounding you and measure the might of sacredness in each. . . anything can be holy.”

I love this about poetry. How it heightens your sense of sacred moments and how the practice cultivates an awareness so much so that we “saturate our lives with meaning”.

And, of course, since Jacqueline uses a vintage typewriter to type her poems, I was inspired to do the same. Mine has a few hiccups that emphasize even more imperfections of my poems.

But, I kinda like that.

oh. . . To be a squirrel

| Shari Daniels 
Oh, Dear Squirrel,
racing along the twisting branches
high among the tallest of oaks,
leaping from tree to tree
across the air without hesitation

Are you not afraid
of missing a steady branch
your estimations a wee bit off?
or worse. . .
the branch not able to sustain you at all?
and breaking - prompting a long, treacherous fall?

Has this happened to you, Dear Squirrel?
If so - 
How do you manage?
to continue climbing back up 
on the highest of trees 
and repeating the feat?

I mean it must seem like the ground
is light years away from your place so high in the sky,
Do you look down?
or keep your eyes on the road
intent on your destination?

Please tell me dear squirrel,
how do you do it?
What's your fear busting secret?

For I desire to fly like you
across the sky
from tree to tree

with the bravery of a squirrel.

draft 2022 Shari Daniels


Writing and sharing a poem a day ~ 
"The writing is inhaling and the sharing is exhaling.
They don't have to be good, they just have to be true."
                      ~Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Ada’s Invitation: The Lightkeeper

| Shari Daniels 
An early commute of 37 miles to teach writers
Ada's The Slow Down poem a balm
for my languishing soul
The Lightkeeper, she reads 
with a voice of sweet honey

The air thick with fog this warm autumn morn
Stay awake, the poem's words speak loud
a friend, pulling me by the hand,
so I might see this for once in my life.
the light in search of the lost.

Visions of my own lightkeeper friend
swirl between the poem's words and Ada's voice
I feel her hand as I stepped inside of this poem,
lost in my fog, seeking a lighthouse.

Shari, she whispers, the world needs your voice.
I need your voice. Give us your gift. I'll be waiting.

She is in the front row, her cheers are the loudest
Genuine, real, and true, with each word
tossed out for eyes other than mine.

To my lightkeeper friend I say,
You taught me to live like this.
Writing and sharing a poem a day ~ 
"The writing is inhaling and the sharing is exhaling.
They don't have to be good, they just have to be true."
                      ~Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer

Where is home?

| Shari Daniels 
Where is home? I ask
my hunter husband,
for the geese and the ducks?
Is it south or is it north?

They nest in the north,
he replies, and then
head south when it gets cold, 
his eyes occupied somewhere else.

I realize that I say,
brows furrowed.
But where is home?

He didn't have a certain answer
underneath the response
he mumbled.

Humans tend to search
for their home
have a need to call one place
home.

But maybe home
is where ever you are
as long as love
is near.

And safety and rest.

Peace and calm.

draft 2022 Shari Daniels

Writing a poem-a-day.
They don't have to be good,
They just have to be true.
~Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer