Hello, Poetry Friend
I am a recent addition to an Artist’s Way group that has been meeting for thirty years. We gather on Thursday mornings to write poems, to visit, and to read from Julia Cameron’s classic book on creativity. We each have our favorite lines.
Mine is “I now accept hope.”
The word hope puts me in mind of Thomas Hardy’s “The Darkling Thrush,” a poem I memorized a couple of Decembers ago.
Here is the last stanza:
So little cause for carolings Of such ecstatic sound Was written on terrestrial things Afar or nigh around, That I could think there trembled through His happy good-night air Some blessed Hope, whereof he knew And I was unaware.
This December, what blessed Hope is caroling a happy good-night air outside your window? Can you accept it?
In our group, we write our poems from lists of words we gather while chit-chatting. On the Hope Day, here was our list, and here is the poem I wrote from it.
hail, hole, sugar, seven, central, ferry, murder, red dirt, channel, new year’s
Hope is hail without the tornado Hope is ever-filling the hole that stays hole-y Hope is squeezing the last of the honey over apple slices to cover the browning Hope is your lucky number on your unluckiest day Hope is the moment you leave Central time zone and then again, when you cross back Hope is a ferry that crosses international borders Hope is murder, confined to a book Hope is soft red dirt, so unlike your rock-pocked soil Hope is turning off everything, stepping outside, under the moon Hope is what will come, come New Year’s
Poetry Journal
Read Thomas Hardy’s poem "The Darkling Thrush."
Jot down what you notice, what you like, what you don’t, what questions you have, and at least one way in which the poem speaks to your soul.
Read the poem again, aloud (if you didn’t the first time). Is there anything you notice this time that you want to add to your journal?
Write your own poem about hope—even if what you write is sarcastic. That’s how my hope poems started out. If you like, email me what you write.
Take care, Megan
Megan--So glad I found you! I read The Artist's Way with a group last Spring, and Cameron's work redirected my life and writing. I need to reread it. Thomas Hardy was a favorite of mine during high school and I love The Darkling Thrush. Never encountered it before. Thank you for the exercises and for simply being There.
D just let Sophie out, and when he came back in, he said, "I'll leave the door open."
Hope is leaving the door open.
Are you meeting locally or online?