Happy Poetry Friday!
This month we were invited to write poems for two poem prompts…One from the Poetry Sisters where our poem evolves from a question, and we could write in whatever poem form we’d like to use. I took their lead and wrote to the question from the book Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer. I’ll include the question below closer to the poem. Thanks to all the Poetry Sisters for the prompt. Stop by their blogs for their poem responses: Laura, Tanita, Mary Lee, Liz, Kelly, Tricia, Sara, and Andi. Find more of these poems tagged with #PoetryPals.
The second poem prompt comes from Irene Latham who is also hosting the roundup this week, and dum da da dum… celebrating her new book, The Museum on the Moon: The Curious Objects on the Lunar Surface, which looks fascinating, and it’s coming out August 8, 2023. Irene requested poems about the June Moon. I’m also sending out a thanks to Alan J. Wright who introduced me to the monotetra poem form, for I used this form for my June Moon poem.
GARDENEERING JUNE MOON
June moon will you flower milkweed…
Bees-buzz by knee-high Joe Pye weed,
Gardener-me still planting seed…
Grow and succeed, grow and succeed.
June moon does flower day lily,
Monarch comes, though it’s still chilly.
Caterpillars eat like silly,
Magic really, magic really.
June moon multi-showers flowers
Zucchini–orangey-towers,
Sundrops May-June budding flowers
June-moon powers, June-moon powers.
© 2023 Michelle Kogan, draft
Here’s the question for the poem below and the prompt from the book Braiding Sweetgrass:
If grief can be a doorway to love, then let us all weep for the world we are breaking apart so we can love it back to wholeness again.
COMMUNAL EARTH RECIPROCITY
Golden Shovel striking line: Let us all weep for the world we are breaking apart.
From Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
In our colliding-climate world, Let
love, gratitude, and science guide Us
in caring for our crying earth. Let All
join in a communal Weep
followed by earth sustainable actions. For
through our joint efforts perhaps we can begin to heal The
depleted World.
Perhaps, we’ll begin to heal each other, and perhaps We
will reinvest sustainably, with caring traits that Are
a part of reciprocity, and may help us turn away from Breaking
our earth totally Apart.
© 2023 Michelle Kogan, draft
Poet and author Irene Latham at her blog, Live Your Poem is hosting this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup, thanks Irene. She’s celebrating a new book, with poems all about June Moon, be sure to stop by!
Michelle Kogan Illustration, Painting, & Writing 
Reciprocity, yep! Our depleted world has given us so much, I hope that we can begin to heal it, too. Thank you for both poems, Michelle.
Love all those June moon flowers!
You are the queen of June-moon powers, Michelle! An what a lovely striking line to work with. Gorgeous, all! Thank you! xo
June-moon power! Both poems are resonate, Michelle. Well done. 🙂
Love the joyous rhythm of your moon poem, Michelle, & the searing call in the second one: “Let /love, gratitude, and science guide Us /in caring for our crying earth.” People are constantly talking. Now they need to be acting!
Michelle, your monotetra poem is a beauty of blossoms! I love how you wove so much of the bounty of June into it with rhyme , rhythm and repetition. As for your second poem, here’s hoping we can heal each other and Earth.
Love that gardeneering poem; my sunflowers got taller than me this week, and I feel that’s a good sign of something for a June Moon. Meanwhile, the golden shovel was a BRILLIANT idea — It’s such a great quote and you used it so well!
Yes yes YES to both of your poems! I love each of the monotetra’s stanza’s final lines — the repetition really works well. And here’s to a good collective weep…and the ACTION!
Two different poems this week, the first with bounce in its step with rhyme and rhythm. Then we turn toward the serious matter of saving the earth, a call we will have to make again and again. Helps me to see the variety of ways poetry speaks to us.
Two beautiful poems, Michelle, and so different. Your gardeneering poem took me right into my own garden and makes me want to learn more about the monotetra form. Love “In our colliding-climate world, Let
love, gratitude, and science guide Us
in caring for our crying earth. “
I love “June-moon powers.”
Michelle, it took me a while to visit your blog but I am so happy that I did. Your poems are so different but equally full of poetic goodness. The June moon poem with its choice of rhyme and the 2nd poem is another one of your call to action poems that brings an important environmental message. I do love your artwork also.