• Home
  • Poetry Prompts
  • For Writers
  • Daily Poem-Subscribe! ✨
  • Teaching Tools
  • Free Stuff + BOOKS
  • Patron Love

A Basket of Favorite Thank You Notes

By T.S. Poetry 6 Comments

bicycle basket
Each month, we slip a few poetic thank you notes to unlikely recipients: potatoes, evergreens, candles, ice. Some of those notes are simply poetic pictures. All are an invitation to take part in Tweetspeak’s way of being in the world: smart, fun, life-giving.

Looking over the past few months, here are just a few of our favorite thank you notes. Thank you for writing them! Or snapping a thankful picture.

Thank You Notes: Candles

How long must you simmer
the purple-black fruit
of the Ceylon cinnamon tree—

before it yields           handheld light?

—Bethany Rohde (“Candle” poem was featured in Every Day Poems)

Thank You Notes: Ice

Written for the Ice Poetry Prompt water jug on head
See Deb Crawford’s ice poem, featured in Every Day Poems. Photo by Department of Foreign Affairs, Creative Commons, Flickr.

ice cap>
ice pack>
ice field>
ice floe>
ice berg>
T
I
T
A
N
I
C

—Katie

Dear ice, I like
your inward bonds—
how they leave space,
room to breathe,
It’s your best property
as a solid: you can float
above the flow.

—Monica Sharman

Thank You Notes: Evergreens


—photo by Susan Etole

Thank You Notes: Potatoes, Parsnips & Other Root Vegetables

Baby Carrots

Quiet sweetness steamed
whirl-cut
into glossy puree

Undeniably orange yet
willing
to meld and melt
into my toddler’s
mac and cheese

You get past
his baby teeth

—Bethany Rohde

We Did the Mash

I saw you there in your sleek brown coat,
but it was your Irish eyes
that set me steaming.
(I’ve got an eye for an eye, you know.)
You were so fine.
I sidled up to you,
tried to butter you up,
but that lumper boyfriend of yours
saw something sprouting,
and he was boiling mad.
He grabbed the nearest knife,
thought to skin me alive
make chips out of me.
Well, I peeled out of there in an instant,
believe you me.
But then—good morning glory!
I saw your sweet cousin,
fresh scrubbed and all decked out in purple
with blossoms in her hair.
The party had just begun,
the scene was rocking
and everyone was having fun.
So we did the mash.
Mmmmm.

—Sandra Heska King

Quid Pro Carrot

In appreciation and exchange for your working-class lack of pretensions, your knowledge of the dark, your tiny hairs that still try to root themselves in the air, your delicate green feathertops, your versatility, your raw crunch, your roasted sweetness, your very orangeosity, I give you this: I will never again let you die a sad, lonely, lingering death entombed in the crisper.

—Laura Lynn Brown

Featured photo by Jenny Downing, Creative Commons, via Flickr.

  • Author
  • Recent Posts
T.S. Poetry
T.S. Poetry
Helping you get inspired. With poetry & poetic things.
T.S. Poetry
Latest posts by T.S. Poetry (see all)
  • The Poetry Club Tea Date ✨ First Fall - December 10, 2020
  • The Poetry Club Tea Date ✨ Braiding His Hair - October 22, 2020
  • 5-Minute Refresh: Proof of Thought - October 15, 2020

Related

❤️✨ Sharing is caring

Filed Under: Blog, Thank You Notes

Comments

  1. Bethany Rohde says

    April 7, 2017 at 12:46 pm

    Oh my—what a fun surprise. I enjoyed opening each envelope and taking in its unique charm. Thank you for including a couple of my notes alongside such lovely offerings.

    Reply
  2. Donna says

    April 7, 2017 at 4:05 pm

    Oh what fun! Laura Lynn Brown, I just knew that was yours by the feel of it, long before I got to your name! Wonderful!

    Bethany and Sandra, so delicious.

    Reply
  3. Monica Sharman says

    April 8, 2017 at 2:54 pm

    Ah! Thanks for including my note to ice! Love that this prompt was for photos, too.

    Reply
  4. Sandra Heska King says

    April 9, 2017 at 5:34 am

    What fun to see potatoes included here with these beauties. I’d forgotten all about it.

    Reply
  5. Katie says

    April 15, 2017 at 9:46 am

    Thank you for featuring my ice> poem!
    Really enjoyed Sandra’s “We Did the Mash” – fun:)

    Reply
    • L.L. Barkat says

      April 15, 2017 at 11:32 am

      You’re very welcome, Katie. 🙂

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Take How to Read a Poem

Get the Introduction, the Billy Collins poem, and Chapter 1

get the sample now

Welcome to Tweetspeak

New to Tweetspeak Poetry? Start here, in The Mischief Café. You're a regular? Check out our January Menu.

Keep the World Poetic

❤️

Welcome a little patron love, when you help keep the world thoughtful and poetic.

5 FREE POETRY PROMPTS

Get 5 FREE inbox poetry prompts from the popular book How to Write a Poem

Join the Poetry Club

Join the poetry club, when you become a subscriber to Every Day Poems ✨

The classic—Now a Graphic Novel!

"Stunning, heartbreaking, and relevant illustrations"

Callie Feyen, teacher

read a summary of The Yellow Wallpaper

Recent Comments

  • Sandra Heska King on Generosity with Self: When You’re In The Wrong Story
  • Callie Feyen on Generosity with Self: When You’re In The Wrong Story
  • Katie on Generosity with Self: When You’re In The Wrong Story
  • Tania Runyan on Great Gatsby Fashion: Jay Gatsby Goes to Goodwill

Featured In

We're happy to have been featured in...

The Huffington Post

The Paris Review

The New York Observer

Tumblr Book News

Join Tweetspeak Poetry

Categories

Explore Work From Black Poets

Learn to Write Form Poems

How to Write an Acrostic

How to Write a Ballad

How to Write a Catalog Poem

How to Write a Ghazal

How to Write a Haiku

How to Write an Ode

How to Write a Pantoum

How to Write a Rondeau

How to Write a Sestina

How to Write a Sonnet

How to Write a Villanelle

Free Printable Poet Bios

Browse all poet bios now

Shakespeare Resources

Poetry Classroom: Sonnet 18

Common Core Picture Poems: Sonnet 73

Sonnet 104 Annotated

Sonnet 116 Annotated

Character Analysis: Romeo and Juliet

Character Analysis: Was Hamlet Sane or Insane?

Why Does Hamlet Wait to Kill the King?

10 Fun Shakespeare Resources

About Shakespeare: Poet and Playwright

Top 10 Shakespeare Sonnets

See all 154 Shakespeare sonnets in our Shakespeare Library!

About Us

  • • Our Story
  • • Meet Our Team
  • • Literary Citizenship
  • • Poet Laura
  • • Poetry for Life: The 5 Vital Approaches
  • • T. S. Poetry Press – All Books
  • • Contact Us

Write With Us

  • • 5 FREE Poetry Prompts-Inbox Delivery
  • • 30 Days to Richer Writing Workshop
  • • How to Write Form Poems-Infographics
  • • Poetry Club Tea Date
  • • Poetry Prompts
  • • Submissions

Read With Us

  • • All Our Books
  • • A Ritual to Read to Each Other
  • • Best Love Poetry
  • • Book Club
  • • Children’s Book Club
  • • Every Day Poems
  • • Literacy Extras
  • • Literary Analysis
  • • Poems to Listen By: Audio Series
  • • Poets and Poems
  • • VerseWrights Journal
  • • William Blake Poems Arts & Experience Library
  • • William Shakespeare Sonnet Library

Celebrate With Us

  • • Poem on Your Pillow Day
  • • Poetic Earth Month
  • • Poet in a Cupcake Day
  • • Poetry at Work Day
  • • Random Acts of Poetry Day
  • • Take Your Poet to School Week
  • • Take Your Poet to Work Day

Gift Ideas

  • • Give the Gift of Every Day Poems
  • • Our Shop
  • • Everybody Loves a Book!

Connect

  • • Donate
  • • Blog Buttons
  • • By Heart
  • • Shop for Tweetspeak Fun Stuff

Copyright © 2021 Tweetspeak Poetry · Site by The Willingham Enterprise · FAQ & Disclosure