Day 23 Spring Holds Its Breath

 

like a child holding

its breath anticipating

a joyful delight

a bud awaits opening

held tight ’til spring’s warmest days

I followed yesterday’s prompt [Day 22 Hope is Blue] and discovered today the buds on pear and apple and other trees, still just holding tightly as if waiting for warmer days, like a child who catches his breath, hoping for some joyful delight.

So I wrote a tanka poem of just that.

It started out as a haiku:

a bud awaiting

opening is the plant’s breath

held for summer’s start

but it was more than that, so I reworded and revised and rearranged until the thought completed my idea.

I drew and painted my budding tree branch and added the poetry to it.  You could do that too. I’ve always found that my students were much more talented than I that way. Try it.


Prompt:

Take a walk today and look, here and there.

Take a walk tomorrow, and look, here and there, again. What changed? What stayed the same? What surprised you?

Whatever it is that was your “here and there,” take a moment and write a few lines. Give it a title. Sign your name to your poem. Share it or tuck it away.


About this post:

Be safe out there.  April is time for NaPoWriMo — National Poetry Writing Monthtry a bit of poetry and art to encourage others to be safe with each other. Something short. Something inclusive. Something of spring and hope. #NaPoWriMo/#GloPoWriMo

The Academy of Poets encourages us to write #shelterinpoems. Get some ideas there and share your own.

Tons of information can be found at Poets.orgNational Poetry Month and here: Virtual Programs.

National Council of Teachers of English also offers suggestions here.