Friday, June 23, 2023

Jeany Morris' poem for Poetry Town

 Poetry Town


Anne Campbell with Catamount Arts
created/came up with an idea that so pleased me,
at the outset:  Poetry Town.

So I invented an excuse to drive the 45-50 minute drive down.
Looking/shopping for rubber boots.

So there appeared in almost all shop windows
a square of paper, which I at first ignored.
Then I looked again.
In almost every shop there hung a poem!
My creative heart fluttered, not exactly leaped. 
 On this bitterly cold and blowy late afternoon,
I walked with a purpose, but slowly, eager anticipation in my steps.

Window after window, one shop had 5 or 6 papers/poems!
I became so excited, each poem promised something,
perhaps a feeling, an idea, randomly.

So I stopped at the last window.  My poem journey ended.

I recalled/remembered our writings.
And I had an epiphany:  We wrote differently, more native, somehow.
I could not be disappointed, really, with the poems
hanging there -- what an intriguing concept,
carried out with professional aplomb.

And we sit in our basement, waiting a prompt,
wiggling our papers and our feet, getting comfortable in our chairs.
We pick up a pencil, the magic begins,
and we startle ourselves with our creativity.

I hang those papers in my eyes.