Happy Poetry Friday!
I’m Happy to share my Summer Poem Swap that very recently arrived from Rebecca Herzog. While working on a poem for me, Rebecca researched insects from my area. She came up with the very ancient pondhawk dragonfly. These dragonflies look very much like the dragonfly art that she also sent me. Here’s the poem:
on a still pond
scintillating wings
wait patiently
swift to the air
the ancient predator
snatches its prey
© 2019 Rebecca Herzog
Many thanks Rebecca, I am very taken with the entire package–cherita poem, dragonfly letter, and art–they are all summer-filled with loveliness!
Thanks also Tabatha Yeatts for organizing and initiating the Summer Poem Swaps, they bring so much joy and great poetry to all!
Detail from: Water Goddess with Bullfrogs and Dragonfly, © 2012 Michelle Kogan, watercolor and watercolor pencil
Here’s a thank you response poem for you Rebecca:
ANCIENT TIME –TRAVELER
Dragonfly time traveler
emerges between 3,000 year-old layered time…
Dragonfly time traveler
flaps his wings with ancient wisdom,
scans his surroundings,
and dives back into
prehistoric
time…
© 2019 Michelle Kogan
Margaret Simon, at her blog Reflections on the Teche, is hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup this week with an incredibly rich post about stolen art, including a poem of hers from a title and art stolen from an artist/author friend. Make sure to stop by and view all the poetry goodness there.
Visit Renée LaTulippe’s site No Water River to find out more about what Poetry Friday is.
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Michelle Kogan Illustration, Painting, & Writing 
ooooooh. lovely! This week seems to be a read and respond week. Ancient predator dovetails so nicely with 3,000 year old time traveler. A successful swap!
Love Rebecca’s lovely alliterative language and your ancient time traveler!
Thanks Kimberly!
Great word choice with “scintillating”. Poetry in the mail is so much fun!
All wonderful, as all the swaps are, Michelle! I love Rebecca’s “swift to the air”, so true of those special insects, & your “dives back into prehistoric time”, true, but sad.
Such a clever themed poetry swap and respond. You girls have got this! (It doesn’t say, but I’m guessing the cherita form is intentional, Rebecca? It fits too perfectly to not be.)
Oohhh….those dragonflies swooping through time and space are just lovely all the way around.
Thanks Kay, there’s something special about a living insect that’s been around while dinosaurs 🦕 where here…
What a wonderful gift to receive!
It took me forever to read and respond here because after I read these poems, I ended researching the difference between dragonflies and damselfies. We have blue damselfies around our Okanagan home. When we tube down the river they light on us and hang out for a bit. It feels like a blessing.
This exchange of poems makes me imagine ancient dragonfly troubadours, traveling from village to village, carrying their poetry lightly on their wings. Wonderful poems!
Wonderful idea Michelle, I’m game for the journey!
Michelle’s comment about dragonfly troubadours is like a third poem 🙂
Love focusing on these ancient predators… Well done, both of you!
Thanks Tabatha—I enjoyed slipping through this portal of prehistoric time…
This is the strangest thing. I know for certain that I already read your post and commented but I do not see it here. I really enjoyed your work this week, Michelle. Rebecca’s scintillating wings inspired you to respond making both of swapees.
Dragonfly time traveler
flaps his wings with ancient wisdom-great image and thought
I also got a perfect-for-me swap poem from Rebecca! Lucky us!
What a beautiful exchange of poems! Dragonflies are fascinating and both poems celebrated them with such beautiful language–“swift to the air” and “flaps his wings with ancient wisdom.” Lovely!
Such lovely dragonflies and poems! Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
I love both the dragonfly poems! Dragonflies always seem magical to me, although I never thought of them as time travelers before (but I will now!) As always, your artwork is beautiful and inspiring.