Sunday, November 20, 2011

Poetry Picnic Week 14: What I'm Thankful for in My Life


Welcome to Jingle Poetry at The Gooseberry Garden Poetry Picnic Week 14. We’ve enjoyed

your participation last week and look forward to reading this week’s entries.

This week, we will cover the idea of thankfulness and its many facets in one’s life. 




I, Kay Salady, welcome you to the 14th Poetry Picnic today!

I’ve chosen three poems centered on thankfulness as examples for you and certainly hope you’ll enjoy them as much as I have.  I look forward to reading your entries!

Ode to a Chestnut on the Ground by Pablo Neruda

From bristly foliage
you fell
complete, polished wood, gleaming mahogany,
as perfect
as a violin newly
born of the treetops,
that falling
offers its sealed-in gifts,
the hidden sweetness
that grew in secret
amid birds and leaves,
a model of form,
kin to wood and flour,
an oval instrument
that holds within it
intact delight, an edible rose.
In the heights you abandoned
the sea-urchin burr
that parted its spines
in the light of the chestnut tree;
through that slit
you glimpsed the world,
birds

bursting with syllables,
starry
dew
below,
the heads of boys
and girls,
grasses stirring restlessly,
smoke rising, rising.
You made your decision,
chestnut, and leaped to earth,
burnished and ready,
firm and smooth
as the small breasts
of the islands of America.
You fell,
you struck
the ground,
but
nothing happened,
the grass
still stirred, the old
chestnut sighed with the mouths
of a forest of trees,
a red leaf of autumn fell,
resolutely, the hours marched on
across the earth.
Because you are
only
a seed,
chestnut tree, autumn, earth,
water, heights, silence
prepared the germ,
the floury density,
the maternal eyelids
that buried will again
open toward the heights
the simple majesty of foliage,
the dark damp plan
of new roots,
the ancient but new dimensions
of another chestnut tree in the earth.


After Apple-Picking by Robert Frost


My long two-pointed ladder's sticking through a tree
Toward heaven still,
And there's a barrel that I didn't fill
Beside it, and there may be two or three
Apples I didn't pick upon some bough.
But I am done with apple-picking now.
Essence of winter sleep is on the night,
the scent of apples: I am drowsing off.
I cannot rub the strangeness from my sight
I got from looking through a pane of glass
I skimmed this morning from the drinking trough
and held against the world of hoary grass.
It melted, and I let it fall and break.
But I was well
upon my way to sleep before it fell,
and I could tell
what form my dreaming was about to take.
Magnified apples appear and disappear,
Stem end and blossom end,
and every fleck of russet showing dear.
My instep arch not only keeps the ache,
it keeps the pressure of a ladder-round.
I feel the ladder sway as the boughs bend.
And I keep hearing from the cellar bin
the rumbling sound
of load on load of apples coming in.
For I have had too much
of apple-picking: I am overtired
of the great harvest I myself desired.
There were ten thousand fruit to touch,
Cherish in hand, lift down, and not let fall.
For all
That struck the earth,
No matter if not bruised or spiked with stubble,
Went surely to the cider-apple heap
as of no worth.
One can see what will trouble
this sleep of mine, whatever sleep it is.
Were he not gone,
The woodchuck could say whether it's like his
Long sleep, as I describe its coming on,
Or just some human sleep.


On Fields O’er Which the Reaper’s Hand has Passed by Henry David Thoreau


On fields o’er which the reapers hand has pass’d
Lit by the harvest moon and autumn sun,
My thoughts like stubble floating in the wind
And of such fineness as October airs,
There after harvest could I glean my life
A richer harvest reaping without toil,
And weaving gorgeous fancies at my will
In subtler webs than finest summer haze.





Methods of Submission to Our Poetry Picnic:

Share your work using InLinkz below, and leave a comment in case it is your first time! It would be great if you could link back to us on your blog.

Weekly poetry collection starts on Sunday, at 2pm (CDT), and will stay open till Wednesday, 8pm (CDT), 78 hours for you to share your poetry with us.

Theme for Next Week:


For Week 15, we will have theme ”November, Winter, Change,and  Hope!!

Jingle Poetry at The Gooseberry Garden  

Appreciates Your Continued Support, 
Please Feel FREE to share, encourage, and get inspired! Random poems are welcome too!


H-A-P-P-Y P-O-E-T-R-Y P-I-C-N-I-C!

42 comments:

Maxwell Mead Williams Robinson Barry said...

beautiful Job, Kay.

Smiles.

JBinford-Bell said...

Got my poem which I did to an original photograph of mine done early. Just waiting for you to open the Poetry Picnic.

Maggie said...

Hey, there you are.

Happy picnic. : )

Susie Clevenger said...

I have so much to be thankful for...at the top of my list is an ordinary day.

Anonymous said...

Great poems, Kay.

ZQ said...

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Family, friends, neighbors, blessings are abundant in our hearts, thoughts, and actions.

Becky Sain said...

Hi Kay!
Glad to be here.

The Poet said...

Hello friends.
Thank you Kay for hosting this week.
I'm familiar with a couple of these poets. Nice choices.

Have a wonderful week ahead everyone!

Beautiful Woman Of My Heart

M. A. S. said...

This pretty much fits the category. It's something I wrote many months ago. Nobody read it, but I like it.

indiwriter said...

Warm wishes to all here for the Thanksgiving week!

My Poetry

Old Raven said...

Morning, thank you so much for the reminder. IT is good to come back. As you probably know my Word Press Bog is new. I find it very difficult to navigate, so I am in a real learning curve. This is leaving me little time for the poetic life so to speak. :)

Maxwell Mead Williams Robinson Barry said...

welcome all,

will read as soon as possible.

Happy Writing,

Happy Sharing.

Neinei said...

interesting prompt... I tried to link in, but I just cant... :( I found difficulty I dont know why...

Kathe W. said...

lovely blog-love the header image. Happy Thanksgiving!

Daydreamertoo said...

Thank YOU all for the prompt, for being here for us all to take part in each week!

Old Raven said...

Kay ... these are so lovely. Neruda's poem surely allowed us to see the great depth of love he had for this earth. And Frost? Oh my the memories that you stirred. I have met Frost ... I was just 15. I met him sitting on a station wagon tailgate at the Green Mountain Horse Association during a Pony Club summer camp. Today I know what a blessing tat was.

Anonymous said...

Lovely poems--I just added a simple haiku that I think fits in with the topic :)

Mark Butkus said...

I am thankful for all the good poems that I have read this morning.
Cheers,
Mark Butkus
http://www.barnonegroup.com/2010/09/take-two.html

Nel said...

beautiful selection, Kay. :)

Jingle Poetry At Olive Garden said...

welcome, poets,

Happy Poetry Picnic.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Chèvrefeuille said...

Hello all, what a good feeling gives this theme 'Happy Thanksgivin'. Here in The Netherlands we don't have such a day as Thanksgiving, but there are other moments in the year when we say Thanks to life and the world.
In my family Christmas Eve is the day to say Thanks.

Ramesh Sood said...

Your prompt today helped me receive a thought from God or may be it just stemmed from deep inside me..which gave me goosepumps...for the truth of it.. perhaps applicable to most of us... but then lesson to is learnt ..and that's what life is for.. evolving in to purer beings..

Kay said...

I am truly overwhelmed by the comments I've read and also by the poetry. Oh, to have met Frost! Wow! I'm touched by so many who have enjoyed the poetry I'd chosen for the prompt. I've read that it's vital to read the writing of other authors in order to be a great writer. Always remember this and always remember to be thankful, for each day is a blessing. -Kay

Anjum Wasim Dar said...

Dear Gooseberry Garden Thank You for the Poetry Picnic Invitation.
In life we have so much to Thank for everyday each moment we need to count our blessings -they are countless
some lines I am sharing
http://poeticocean.blogspot.com/2011/11/poem-in-response-to-gooseberry-garden_22.html

Melissa Ridley Elmes said...

Mine is not a poem of thankfulness, perse, but it's the one I have at present. Hopefully a thankful poem will show up between now and Thursday! ;op

Anonymous said...

Thank you for the invitation.

Am glad I could make it in time. The submission is not a thanksgiving one, but just thought I'd write one for the November.

Anyway, Happy thanksgiving everyone.

God bless.

nitewrit said...

Added a link to "Walking". It is more on change and I hope, reaches a thankful and hopeful conclusion.

Larry

Rachana Shakyawar said...

Thank you for conducting such a beautiful theme for writing poems!

I'm here sharing the 'Best page in the Book of My Life' :))

I hope you like it!

Wish you all Happy Thanksgiving Day!!
~Keep the Spark ALive..


LINK: http://rachanashakyawar.blogspot.com/2011/11/best-page-in-my-book-of-life.html

Isadora said...

Grateful to all of my fellow peots for their supposrt and encouragement during all the rallies.
Thank you ...
Happy Thankgiving to All ....!!!

here's my entry:
http://insidethemindofisadora.wordpress.com/2011/11/22/grateful-in-our-own-design/

JJ Roa Rodriguez said...

finally, i was able to make up something... LOL!

JJRod'z

SprigBlossoms said...

Happy Thanksgiving! My first time here, and I look forward to reading more :)

Maxwell Mead Williams Robinson Barry said...

Welcome,

I am commenting now,
cheese!

Keep your talent coming,
BEST Wishes.

Dave King said...

Very challenging, this one. Salutary.

Anonymous said...

Happy Thanksgiving!

i am grateful to be here! thank you.
dani ♥

tigercity said...

My poem is called "blink and you'll miss it".. as I'm thankful for the gift of life and all its surprises, heartaches and joys..

ZQ said...

To my best friends:
I have been ill and now feeling like Lauserus to rise again...but I apologize for not following this post as diligently as I should. With respect to the writers and contributors, I will look forward to the next opportunity.
Happy Thanksgiving (and your understanding) for all of you that are gifted and write.

Maxwell Mead Williams Robinson Barry said...

welcome all,

ZQ, no problem,

please get well soon.

Cheers.

Happy Thanksgiving.
Thanks for sharing.

Jeannette, said...

Hello! Thank you for the invitation. Happy thanksgiving to all!

http://preciousnotesmundanethoughts.blogspot.com/

Olive Tree said...

I'm happy to be joining here. Thank you for the invitation. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone who celebrates.

Anonymous said...

Stumbling in near the close of this... Hope everyone who's celebrating has an amazing Thanksgiving, and that you remember to be thankful not only today!

Rohit_blogger at http://floating-expressions.blogspot.in/ said...

done
link no 154 Rohit
http://floating-expressions.blogspot.com/2011/11/perfect-companion.html

Anonymous said...

Kay, I love the poems you picked. I was afraid they would be the cute poems I used to read in kindergarten.
Ode to a Chestnut on the Ground by Pablo Neruda Was really beautiful, well written, and interesting. Frost and Thoreau are almost always good reads :)