In Rumors of Water: Thoughts on Creativity & Writing, L.L. Barkat tells us that “writing starts with living” (29).
Summer is full of opportunities for sparkly living—whether it’s morning walks when the sun is just shining through a million drops of dew, afternoon swims with “diamonds” glinting across the pool, or evening meals unfolding beneath a fiery sunset.
Of course, there’s also vibrant life to be had in seeing July’s fireworks or making your way through the light and shadow of the tents at your local farmer’s market. Even the smallest trips can give us fresh eyes and a new spark when we return to our writing chairs.
Reading Gerard Manley Hopkins, one gets the impression that he spent as much time out of his writing chair as in it. For example, take a look at this famous sparkly, speckly poem…
Pied Beauty
Glory be to God for dappled things –
For skies of couple-colour as a brinded cow;
For rose-moles all in stipple upon trout that swim;
Fresh-firecoal chestnut-falls; finches’ wings;
Landscape plotted and pieced – fold, fallow, and plough;
And áll trádes, their gear and tackle and trim.
All things counter, original, spare, strange;
Whatever is fickle, freckled (who knows how?)
With swift, slow; sweet, sour; adazzle, dim;
He fathers-forth whose beauty is past change:
Praise him.
—Gerard Manley Hopkins
Try It
Take a little time to engage in some sparkly living this week—whether it’s at the fireworks, the farmer’s market, or on your morning walk. Pay special attention to what glints and gleams, sparkles and speckles, or… explodes! Then try writing an ode to whatever enlivened you most.
Featured Poem
Thanks to everyone who participated in our recent poetry prompt. Here’s a poem from L.L. Barkat that we enjoyed…
Trek
Blueberries, each
in their own
orbit.
Each,
a universe,
a round promise
only some of which
I will ever
touch.
Photo by Dominic Alves, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post by Kortney Garrison.
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Megan Willome says
Only of my favorite poems ever, the Gerard Manley Hopkins one. I put it in “The Joy of Poetry.”
And I really like L.L.’s too, especially the way she broke apart what I thought would be a third-of-three-line stanza into two—one with one, one with two. Plus I just like poems about walks/hikes/treks.
Kortney Garrison says
“All things counter, original, spare, strange;”
–one of the best lists ever! I wonder if you’ve read Exiles by Ron Hanse? Excellent novel about Hopkins.
Rick Maxson says
Trek is so large a poem for being so small.
Kortney Garrison says
Well said! It speaks of pilgrimage to me.
Rick Maxson says
Mind of Winter
There is the Cardinal’s proclamation
through the solemn air,
bringing to life the ghost of winter.
You must be content with this cry and color,
and the holly berries under the window,
until the bells of crocus pry
the snow, and the wild iris
brings the memory of her eyes.
For now, there is only the naked fragrance
from fresh snow, a memory
fallen in tangled crystal
that holds the wine of inspiration.
Donna says
Rick, I’m grateful for this poem. For the cardinal and the holly berries,and for the tangled crystal. I was trying to describe a child the way snow glitters in the sun up where I’m from.
Kortney Garrison says
All these colors and the crystal and the wine of inspiration puts me in mind of “The Zen of Housework” by Al Zolynas, especially “the grey wine / of domesticity.” https://www.sandiegoreader.com/news/2012/jun/06/poetry-zen-housework/#
Thanks so much for this late winter poem at the beginning of summer, Rick!
Donna says
After-weather Report
I could scarcely hear my friend
Over the tinkling of diamonds
Dangling in the evening sun
Suspended one by one
From tips of a thousand pine needles
Sparkling
Like a crown
Atop her head.
Kortney Garrison says
Love how *loud* this tree is, Donna! Thanks for sharing.