Books -- reading and writing.
Home, cooking, the weather.
And whatever connections I can make between these chapters of my life.

Sunday, September 28, 2014

Poetry Sunday

As we pack up to head south, I look forward to my Florida birds.
Thank you to my friend Joan who gave me a book I love dipping into:
Mary Oliver's What Do We Know: Poems and Prose Poems

 If you click on that link, you can read a selection, from Google books.

From "Summer Poem"

...the white heron
like a dropped cloud,
taking one slow step

then standing while then taking
another, writing

her own soft-footed poem
through still waters.


"S





Sadly, my earliest attempts at poetry share none of her beauty and lyricism.


While packing, I uncovered this in a very old scrapbook. It was published in The Commercial Appeal when I was eleven. I share so no one reading this blog should be afraid to share, no matter how embarrassing your early efforts might be. It's all about revision, which I (obviously) didn't understand at age eleven.

I've learned a lot. Maybe not about poetry. But certainly about revising.


More Mary Oliver?
http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/2013/04/poem-of-day.html

http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/2011/05/writing-inspiration-bit-of-poem.html





3 comments:

Margaret Simon said...

You were published at age 11! You should celebrate. I remember my very first poem. "Spring is my favorite time of year/ when the sky is blue and clear." I thought poetry had to rhyme. Mary Oliver is dear to my heart. Her poetry speaks to me.

Rosi said...

I LOVE Mary Oliver! This is a beautiful poem. Thanks for sharing it here. Published at 11? I'm impressed.

Augusta Scattergood said...

Okay, Rosi and Margaret. Yes, published, but not exactly Oliver caliber...
Thanks for stopping by, fellow Mary Oliver fans!