Whose Poem Is It Anyway

Our fifth annual Poetry-as-Prayer weekend got underway with Friday evening, complete with blue skies, and a relatively calm sea.  It wasn't long before the words began to flow.  Our fearless leader was Richard Osler from beautiful Canada; he comes south with the geese each year just to spend time with us. Thank you Richard!

Richard had given us a pre-retreat assignment, to answer the following 10 questions.

1. Provide an image or a line from a favorite poem.
2. Draw a small portrait of your first pet.
3. Name two objects colored in your mother’s favorite colour.
4. The scent/smell that best evokes your sense of Christmas.
5. What is your favorite three-word sentence.
6. Explain how you got a scar on your body.
7. Provide an indisputable scientific fact.
8. Give three rules from a favorite hobby/pastime.
9. What is an imaginary definition of your last name?
10. Pick a favorite line from the Psalms.

Then he tricked us all, made us pass our answer to the right, and proceed to create poetry. Of course, he thought that was really funny!

I was privileged to receive Susan's answers; she's a long-time friend and soul traveler. The rules were that we had to use only the words we found in what we had been given, to make a counterclaim, to describe the drawing in one sentence, and to use the favorite 3-word sentence twice. So, this is my first attempt:

A Poem by Susan

By Sheila Conner

Just 13

You traveled

by a dwelling place for people

who live in peace and love

You had to go by two roads

It made no difference at all,

taking the road less traveled.

Tippy,

with spotted belly and round ears

smelled the pine-fresh shard

and tried to catch the tree,

as glass shattered.

Let it be

As the earth rotates around the sun

Let it be

You don’t have to finish the book

Be still and know the sky and the ocean

Don’t feel guilty

Catch it! Allow it!

Teach me.

On my own early Saturday morning, I gave it a second try:

Another Poem by Susan

Written by Sheila Conner

Tippy took the less-traveled road,
and I, the one that made all the difference.

Round face with eyes grinning back

I was a dwelling place of love and peace,

dropped, shattered, stitched

The scar does not feel guilty

You don't have to finish washing the dishes

Allow the book to cut the smell of the fresh tree

The earth doesn't rotate around the sun

Let it be

Be still and know

   the rules are shattered

Let it be.

It was an interesting and fun experience putting words together in a crazy new way, and I was pleased with my poems.  Better still, Susan seemed pleased too.

I'll post more later. Off to the last session I go!