Poetry Friday–Art Exhibit + Summer Poem Swap

Woman, Pink-spotted Hawk Moth, & Moonflower,
© 2022, Michelle Kogan, pencil and watercolor.

Nurture Nature and Women’s Body-Health Rights
Promote Persistence, Science, & Equity!
Save Women & Our Earth!
© 2022 Michelle Kogan

Happy Poetry Friday!

The mixed-media drawing here is featured in the group exhibit:

Our Bodies, Our Health: Navigating the Wars Within and Around Us

At: Koehnline Museum of Art

October 13 – November 10, 2022

Public Reception: Thursday, October 13, 5 – 8-pm

Koehnline Museum of Art
Oakton Community College
1600 East Golf Road, Des Plaines, IL 60016
http://www.oakton.edu/museum

Janet Fagal and I were poem swaps partners this summer. However our summers did runneth over, just as my Fall is now. So, today I’m sharing her two lovely poems along with all the treasures she included. I’m looking forward to spending some quiet moments with Georgia Heard and Rebecca Kai Dotlich’s book, A Field Guide to the Heart! Many thanks Janet, and I like both of your poems and love your TOO MANY ZUCCHINI? JUST CALL GRANDMA poem! Time to start drawing some more dinosaurs…

And thanks also to our lovely Summer Poem Swap originator and organizer, Tabatha Yeatts!!!

© 2022 Janet Fagal,

© 2022 Janet Fagal.

Check out this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup at Sarah Grace Tuttle’s blog: Sarah Grace Tuttle Children’s Author and Poet. Thanks for hosting Sarah! Sarah is graciously sharing a bit of her writing process.

Poetry Friday-Definito Poem Prompt

Gourdian Finch and Gourds, © 2016 Michelle Kogan, watercolor.

Happy Poetry Friday!

I’m sharing a definito poem this week, from the Poetry Sister’s September poem prompt. Thanks Heidi Mordhorst for creating this form! And thanks to all the Poetry Sister’s for the prompt: Laura, Tanita, Mary Lee, Liz, Kelly, Sara, Tricia, and Andi. You can find more of these poems tagged with #PoetryPals.

Last week I offered a few words about something brewing… Well it’s brewed and begun. I’m teaching a Color Theory Class at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, in Continuing Studies. We had our first class last night, and we are on our way! In honor of this I dipped into Johannes Itten’s 12 Part Color Circle for poem fodder. The poems a bit drafty as I’m a bit busy, in a very good way! I also shared my Gourdian Finch and Gourds painting, as it shares many of the colors from the 12 part wheel.

HUES

I’m going on a spectrum hunt
to capture a rainbow of color,
available on an artist’s palette
or digi-screen displaying RGB.
I’m scouting for 12 to create
artful balance and harmony.
There’re primaries, secondaries and intermediaries.
Let’s start with red–blue–yellow—Got you!
Now green–orange–violet—Woo-hoo!
Next red-orange, red-violet, blue-violet, blue-green,
yellow-green and yellow orange—color-licious oh whoa…
Ta-da! We found you, our spectacular 12 part color spectrum hues!

© 2022 Michelle Kogan draft

The dynamic, ever so talented poet, writer, artist, and more, Tabatha Yeatts is hosting this weeks Poetry Friday Roundup, thanks Tabatha! Be sure to stop by her blog, Tabatha Yeatts: The Opposite of Indifference.

Poetry Friday–Quick Fall Post…

Mocha Moon Flower Petal, © 2022, Michelle Kogan, pen sketch.

Happy Poetry Friday & Happy Fall

Stopping in quickly to wish all a Happy Fall!
It’s been a busy week and another ahead of me– Something new is brewing…
I’ll fill you in on the why’s perhaps next week…
But for now here’s my first sijo poem, courtesy of friend and poet Jan Godown Annino, as she shared Linda Sue Park’s book of sijo poems a while back, Tap Dancing on the Roof, it’s wonderful!!!
A sijo has three lines, and each line has 14-16 characters. The first line introduces the poem, the second line expands on it, and the third line has a twist, “humor or irony, an unexpected image, a pun, or play on words.”

MOCHA MOON BLOOM

I fell a day before Fall, her last mocha moon memory.

She embraced each of us, our buds, swell, and our big beautiful blooms.

Now, we’ll both winter-wait, perhaps patiently, but perhaps not…

© 2022 Michelle Kogan draft

Stop by Rose Cappelli’s blog Imagine the Possibilities for the Poetry Friday Roundup, thanks for hosting Rose!

Poetry Friday–Hummingbird

Happy Poetry Friday!

I caught a few moments of a lovely female ruby-throated hummingbird while painting outside last week…

Ruby-throated

hummingbird
hovers by my side
with windmill-wings
and inquisitive eyes,

eyes that gaze into mine
without a wink, in steady line
till body side-juts over,
above and flash–away…

away till they return to
sip sweet nectar, and then
as if pulled skyward by string,
tree-bound for torpor night snooze

© 2022 Michelle Kogan
draft

Torpor–when their body temperature drops to preserve energy, allowing them to rest and keep them warm for they get cold very easily, and the cold can kill them.

WIP– Ruby-throated female hummingbird with milkweed, pod © 2022 Michelle Kogan, oil on canvas.

Emily Dickinson was taken with hummingbirds too…

A ROUTE OF EVANESCENCE
by Emily Dickinson

A Route of Evanescence,
With a revolving Wheel –
A Resonance of Emerald
A Rush of Cochineal –

Read the rest of the poem here.

Here’s some commentary on Emily Dickinson’s poem.https://www.shmoop.com/study-guides/poetry/route-of-evanescence/summary

Kathryn Apel at her blog by the same name is hosting this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup, thanks Kat! She’s sharing her exciting poetry and book focused last few months along with some poetry swap poems, be sure to stop by!

Poetry Friday–September & Ladybugs…

Happy Poetry Friday!

I’m looking for that breath, that break, pause, between summer and fall… I haven’t found it yet, but I like September’s changes reminding me to keep on looking.

evening sky grows a
wee bit darker each day, and
autumn settles in…

© 2022 Michelle Kogan
draft

september moon
bewitch, beguiles, but sometimes
slips away too soon…

© 2022 Michelle Kogan
draft

LADYBUG RESCUE
For Lovely Ladybugs Everywhere

Hang’n out on this stalk
sure beats bathtub walk.

One of your relations
had a tub view too

but for that little bug…
I fear it was their final view.

Though here you are
climbing away

free as any September day
carrying on, on your way

as if nothing unusual
ever happened today…

© 2022 Michelle Kogan
draft

I’m building a closer kinship with these lovely ladybugs as they’ve helped me all summer long with my milkweed and other plants. They have such strength and determination and are a marvel to watch too!

Here’s a detail from Ladybug by the Lake archival print available in my Etsy Shop:

Carol Varsalona at her bog Beyond LiteracyLink is hosting this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup, thanks Carol, I’m looking forward to your post!

Poetry Friday— Endings & Beginnings…

WIP, August Summer Garden, Endings & Beginnings… © 2022 Michelle Kogan, pencil drawing.

Happy Poetry Friday and Welcome September…

BEGINNINGS & ENDINGS

Endings and
beginnings
Does nature have a beginning
what about beauty…
Can we get caught up
in a field of fall flowers
tall grasses intertwined
bees anxious for their
last bit of summer nectar–

Watch bee–
As she disappears
into that flower’s love chamber
and rambles in and out of another.
She’s slowing down,
getting sleepy
catching a few z’s on a leaf,
watch her…

How about those curves
only created by nature,
only to dissolve
worn out with late
season’s tears and toils,
but
producing
new seeds—
Nasturtiums, susies, marigolds
for next season’s
beginning…

Are you
breathless yet,
from nature’s rapture…

Turning, churning
summer season
slipping into fall

put aside some
momentary minutes
breathe in summer’s

last breath—
As her season
slumbers out

Breathe in Fall’s
first breath
of new beginnings
and unknown
endings

© 2022 Michelle Kogan
draft

Lovely, literary, Linda Baie is our host for this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup, thanks Linda!
Visit her blog: Teacher Dance, for her poems and many more.

Poetry Friday–”The BOP” Milkweed, & Summer Poem Swap

Healthy Milkweed in my backyard, © 2022 Michelle Kogan.

Happy Poetry Friday!

My poem this week is from the Poetry Sister’s August Challenge, which was to write a poem with the poem form: The Bop. You can mosey on over here to view the basic structure for this poem form. Thanks to all the Poetry Sisters for this new to me, The Bop, poetry challenge: Tanita S. Davis, Laura Purdie Salas, Mary Lee Hahn, Liz Garton Scanlon, Sara Lewis Holmes, Tricia Stohr-Hunt, and Andi Jazmon. Find and read more of these poems tagged #Poetrypals.

BATTLING NASTIES

Summer milkweed chugged along happily
until…
Those orangey-yellow yucky
oleander aphids appeared, sometime late May or
early June and started
sucking life out of my monarch’s milkweed.

Ladybugs ladybugs lend a hand.

Where’d they come from, how’d they get there?
Did my diversified-icy-ballet-swamp
belly flop and multiply-em…
Hurry, hurry no time to scurry,
deep dive research: aphis nerri infestation
eradicate this awful villain.
Women network consultation: Power spray-em,
Squish-em, Cut-em out, Eliminate-em!

Ladybugs ladybugs lend a hand.

Ahhh–Over whelming saturation,
hours-filled hyper-focus leaf surveillance–
fronts and backs power sprayed-em.
Blast those nasties, clear their mayhem.
Catching up–Eradicate-em—
Never Rest Must Abate-em!

Ladybugs ladybugs lend a hand.

©2022 Michelle Kogan
draft

And many thanks to my new horticultural friend Margot Wang, an Ikebanist for her Milkweed networking friends assistance!

Photos and poem Jone Rush MacCulloch © 2022.

I recently received this lovely summer poem swap package from Jone Rush MacCulloch. The open door is to Dardistown castle in Julianstown, Ireland, which Jone visited and photographed this summer, and I think looks enchanting, and I’d love to slip in… Jone’s poem was included in Tabatha Yeatts’ new poetry book Imperfect II, Poems about Perspective: an anthology for middle schoolers. Thanks Jone for all these eye savoring goodies! And thanks Tabatha Yeatts for offering the Summer Poem Swap again this summer!

Jone Rush MacCulloch THIS MORNING, poem and photo, © 2022

Tanita S. Davis, the illustrious writer and poet is hosting this weeks Poetry Friday Roundup, at her blog {fiction, instead of lies}, thanks Tanita! Be sure to check out her books when you are there–I read her most recent book, Partly Cloudy it’s wonderful!

Poetry Friday–Haikus, Stars, & Poem Walks…

Star-sparkle for Linda Mitchell, © Michelle Kogan

Star-sparkle
For Linda Mitchell

august morning star
stirs hope and wonder,
spread her sparkle…

© Michelle Kogan

More: Star-sparkle for Linda Mitchell, © Michelle Kogan

Can’t help thinking about Linda Mitchell when I see my morning glories with their beautiful star pattern…

Happy Poetry Friday!

Busy week, so I’ve been writing haikus when out on walks…

between coughs and
gossip nature waits, wind wafts
and critters scurry…

catalpa pods float
through flute-filled air, gracious they
wait with sky for fall.

august wind swept in
bouncing ball stopped by
bike wizzed– sorry…

All poems, drafts, ©2022 Michelle Kogan

Dave at his blog Leap of Dave, is hosting this weeks Poetry Friday Roundup, thanks Dave, be sure to stop by!

Poetry Friday–Nature…

Salish Sea Tidal Pool, Adobe image.

Happy Poetry Friday!

Margaret Simon shared an intriguing image from the Salish Sea this week for her THIS PHOTO WANTS TO BE A POEM post. I was so taken by the name Salish Sea, I had to look it up and see what this place looked like, it’s gorgeous. This is one of the images I found but I didn’t know if I could share it, it’s published by the magazine and site, Salish Magazine. Unfortunately I didn’t have time to participate in Margaret’s post, but was inspired to write a poem, thanks–and thanks also for hosting this weeks Poetry Friday Roundup at your blog Reflections of the Teche!

SEA TREASURES

Salish Sea
come to me

Unlock treasures
I can’t see.

Tidal pools
filled with jewels

Saucy waves
hide miniature caves.

Salish Sea
filled with…
History,
Mystery,
and miles and miles and miles of sea
do unveil your potpourri…

© 2022 Michelle Kogan
draft

This wonderful poem by Jorge Carrera Andrade landed in my email on Wednesday, from the Poetry Foundation…

BIOGRAPHY FOR THE USE OF BIRDS
Jorge Carrera Andrade
Translated by Steven Ford Brown

I was born in the century of the death of the rose
when the motor had already driven out the angels.
Quito watched as the last stagecoach rolled away,
and at its passing the trees ran past in perfect order,
and also the hedges and houses of new parishes,
at the threshold of the countryside
where cows were slowly chewing silence
as wind spurred on its swift horses.

My mother, clothed in the setting sun,
stored her youth deep in a guitar,
and only on certain evenings would she show it to her children,
wrapped in music, light, and words.
I loved the hydrography of rain,
yellow fleas on apple trees,
and toads that rang two or three times
their thick wooden bells.

The great sail of the air maneuvered endlessly.
The cordillera was a shore of the sky.
A storm came, and as drums rolled
its drenched regiments charged;
but then the sun’s golden patrols

Read the rest of the poem here.

Poetry Friday–Summer Garden Treasures, and more “Things We Feel”

Zucchini in My Garden, © 2022 Michelle Kogan

Happy Poetry Friday!

This week I’m sharing some treasures from my backyard garden…

ZUCCHINI ODE
(To A Favorite Vegie!)

Zucchini how’d you grow like that?
Curving like a crescent moon.

Maybe you came from up above
from a seed dropped by a dove.

Are you a boomerang in disguise?
Please stay clear of my butterflies.

Did your curvy, wurvy vine
sashay away your straight line?

Your shape doesn’t matter a bit to me,
I’ll eat you now, on the count of three!

© 2022 Michelle Kogan

ocean swept through my
yard–waves moved up and down
summer-flutter calm…

© 2022 Michelle Kogan
draft

Sending thanks out to Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell for this lovely book plus package that arrived today–it’s brimming with creative poems, good vibes, and dashing color! Visit Pomelo books to pick one up!

Molly Hogan at her blog Nix the Comfort Zone, is our host for this week’s Poetry Friday Roundup, thanks Molly! She’s sharing some baseball poems pitched to us with a slight curve as she’s not a baseball fan–though her poems have a feeling for baseball fever so make sure to stop by!