Poetry Friday

Sorry for my absence around here lately - it's been a very cold, very wet week. We've had the chickens living in the parrot cage on the verandah because their shed flooded (good thing Yeti built a huge cage)... the parrot has been living inside because he's scared of the chooks... Wombat is now only napping once a day, and is either exhausted & floppy or overtired & hyper as a result... I am three days late with one assignment and have another due on Monday... and I am still leaking milk & uncomfortable (Wombat, however, seems to have adjusted perfectly well to bottle milk.) But what does that matter now that it is:


I first read this poem in Francis and Clare in Poetry: An Anthology (eds Janet McCann & David Craig).

Saint Francis and the Sow

... sometimes it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing;
as Saint Francis
put his hand on the creased forehead
of the sow, and told her in words and in touch
blessings of earth on the sow...

(Galway Kinnell)

And since I am using Poetry Friday as a personal inspiration as well, here is one from me... My Dad sent me a pile of his nature photos and suggested I write poems for them so we could publish a book together. That was several years ago. I am hoping that Poetry Friday will provide the regular incentive I need to finish writing the project. This is my favourite so far:

Brother Tree Frog ~
no saintly caress needed
to remind you of your innate glory.
Clad in emerald splendour
you squat in plump contentment,
considering
a closer relationship with
Sister Mosquito.

(MW)

Today's Poetry Friday Round-up is thanks to cloudscome at a wrung sponge.