I don’t usually post poems on a Saturday, but yesterday as I did the Poetry Friday rounds, I came across Laura Shovan’s February Poetry Project prompts and decided that it was time I had a go at some.
The project offers a different prompt each day for the month, and the idea is to try to create a daily writing habit, even if only for the month, and of course to be inspired or challenged by the prompts.
The prompt for February First was ‘Bodies Dance’ and included three youtube dance clips. I was especially inspired by the third of these, a scene from the movie White Nights. What I noticed was the way the two characters start to dance, a bit out of synch and then, gradually, their timing comes together. That led to this poem:
Partners
I move this way
You do too
I do me
and you do you
and as we dance
and our eyes link
our movements meld
till they’re in synch.
We dance in tune
we dance in time
like a song we’re singing
like a poem we rhyme.
No one here
to stop and see
as you do you
and I do me.
(Poem copyright Sally Murphy 2021)
The February 2 prompt, provided by Tricia Stohr Hunt was ‘Hands’ and, almost without having to stop and think, I started writing about my mum’s hands. I hope she doesn’t mind.
Hands
My mother’s hands
show signs of age
as if the years
of care
of toil
of wisdom
are written
on skin folds
and spots
and scars.
My granddaughter’s hands
show no such signs
instead
smooth
and plump
and kissable
but I hope
that they, too,
will one day
show signs
of a life well lived.
(Poem copyright Sally Murphy 2021)
Thanks Laura for the prompts. If you want to have a go, you can head to Laura’s blog, and you’ll see the other prompts added each day over the month. I’m off to see if I can catch up on the other prompts.
A gift from my big sister, this is just the right kind of book to read in January, especially in a January in the midst of a global pandemic. As you might guess, the book is about happiness, but if you don’t know Bill Bailey’s other work, you might not know what to expect. Through a series of vignettes and reflections, Bailey gives his take on moments of happiness in his own life, exploring both what he feels happiness and contentment actually are, and how we might find them. It is funny, but it is also clever, and, more than once, I found myself heading off to follow up on research he mentions.
Shovan