“… untidy on the shelf”
Messy
Poetry is messy
all these snippets of poems
lying around
all these lines that keep asking
to be changed or moved
into another poem altogether
how do I keep track?
And look at these books
—mere brochures
with spines too skinny for titles
slight, yet too weighty
for the garbage
lovely to hold
but untidy on the shelf
and as impossible to catalogue
—with their love, humor peace,
protest, outrage and grace—
as the motley bunch of us
at our last reading.
© 2013 by Violet Nesdoly
**************
At the beginning of the year, do you find yourself with the urge to organize—even your poetry? And how impossible is that!
Welcome to Poetry Friday, the impossible-to-catalogue weekly collection of poetry and poetry-related blog posts for readers of all ages!
Please click on the button below to add your Poetry Friday link to the inlinkz widget.
Of course comments are welcome too. Please use them to tell us more about your post 🙂 THANK YOU!
Violet Nesdoly / poems 
Violet N.
January 17, 2013 at 6:10 pm
Here’s a bit about the early entries:
– Joy Acey posts a poem about being angry and a writing challenge. Find it after midnight at http://www.poetryforkidsjoy.blogspot.com
– April Halprin Wayland brings us the Wednesday Writing Workout from TeachingAuthors.com. She says: “It’s part of our new feature, Wednesday Writing Workout and includes a shout-out to award-winning writer Joanne Rocklin and her book that features an orange tree as a character, a poetry prompt, and an original poem about–what else?–trees.
As I say at the beginning, My mother says that everyone remembers the trees of their childhood.”
Her post is here: http://www.teachingauthors.com/2013/01/memory-poet-tree-wednesday-writing.html
LikeLike
Pearson Sharp
January 17, 2013 at 6:17 pm
eclectic! What a charming poem. I feel the same way, pieces of my life, of poetry, lying about all over the place. Sometimes I trip over them in the night on the way to the loo.
LikeLike
Joyce Ray
January 17, 2013 at 6:33 pm
Violet, I am organizing! I’ve been corralling those snippets and lines that dot my desk, filing, tossing. It feels great! Your poem carries such truth. Poetry is messy. Drafts need to be rearranged, cut and pasted, snipped and shaped. There’s always a mess in the wake of a poem. Some of it is due to the books, poems and articles that collect because they speak to us. Just remember that moment when the poem feels right.
My Musings post will be published in tomorrow’s wee hours. I’ve highlighted MacLachland’s Word After Word After Word.
LikeLike
Laura Shovan
January 17, 2013 at 6:40 pm
Hi, Violet! Thank you for hosting. #12 in my poetry postcard project is an ekphrastic poem, accompanying Paul Klee’s painting “Highway and Byways.” I have written 21 postcard poems (out of 44 planned) and have definitely hit my wall.
http://authoramok.blogspot.com/2013/01/poetry-friday-poetry-postcard-12.html
LikeLike
Fats Suela
January 17, 2013 at 7:00 pm
Hi Violet! What a wonderful poem you have for today. Somehow I think poetry has its own way of rearranging and organizing itself, guiding the poet’s mind and hands. I need to do some shelf organizing myself! I barely have time to do it! Anyway, hope you have a lovely day. Thanks for hosting today’s Poetry Friday. =)
LikeLike
Charles Ghigna
January 17, 2013 at 7:25 pm
Thanks, Violet, for reminding us all that poems ARE “messy” and full of “love, humor, peace, protest, outrage and grace!”
My “One” poem and my son’s painting “Beyond the Pale” are posted at The Bald Ego blog
LikeLike
jama
January 17, 2013 at 7:45 pm
What a great poem!
I’m brightening up an otherwise grey, overcast, rainy week with Mary Oliver’s “Poppies.”
Thanks so much for hosting this week!
LikeLike
mattforrest
January 17, 2013 at 8:27 pm
So familiar! I definitely can relate to this – poems are full of all these things, and more! Over at my wee li’l corner o’ the web, I get serious for a change, with a poem entitled “Francis and the Saint”: http://mattforrest.wordpress.com/2013/01/18/poetry-friday-francis-and-the-saint/
LikeLike
LInda Baie (@LBaie)
January 17, 2013 at 9:43 pm
Hi Violet, I love your poems, that never appear messy to me, although they might have been before getting ‘dressed up’. I like the line about the spines being too small for titles! Thank you for hosting. I am sharing a poem from Tabatha, & a thank you to her today. http://teacherdance.blogspot.com/2013/01/a-thank-you-some-praise.html
LikeLike
Renee LaTulippe (@ReneeMLaTulippe)
January 17, 2013 at 11:58 pm
Good morning, Violet! What a wonderful, observant poem. I think you just described my desk/life. I don’t have a physical journal or notebook (I use an online journal) so the beginning snippets are on scraps all over my desk. I hate the mess, but can’t keep it all organized! Need a new system for the new year. 🙂
I’m in today with a jazzy little poem called “The Rabbit Band” that I wrote for my LIZARD LOU collection, plus some ramblings on how the poem came to be. Thanks for hosting!
http://www.nowaterriver.com/poetry-friday-the-rabbit-band/
LikeLike
Tabatha
January 18, 2013 at 1:15 am
Yes, Violet, poetry is messy enough to have something for us all! Very nice. Thanks for hosting 🙂
LikeLike
Amy Ludwig VanDerwater
January 18, 2013 at 1:53 am
I love this one, Violet. It makes me feel better about my own messes, so hard to catalog, but maybe they’re beautiful in a way too. I’ll be rereading your words in my notebook…thank you! And thank you for hosting too.
At The Poem Farm today, I have a poem about time and longing, inspired by some words I overheard recently. http://www.poemfarm.amylv.com/2013/01/time-poem-about-longing.html
Happy Poetry Friday!
a.
LikeLike
Catherine Johnson
January 18, 2013 at 2:31 am
I love your take on poetry, Violet.
Here’s a poem by Rumi I’d like to share. Thanks!
http://catherinemjohnson.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/rumi-and-roomy/
LikeLike
Robyn Hood Black
January 18, 2013 at 3:52 am
Oh, Violet, what a perfect post for me today! Here it is two and a half weeks into the New Year, and I have NOT gotten my intended tidy-ing done, poetry or otherwise! ;0) Oh, well – I’ll give myself the whole month. And maybe then some. Thanks so much for sharing!
I’m featuring the new look for Frogpond, the journal of the Haiku Society of America: http://www.robynhoodblack.com/blog.htm?post=893845
LikeLike
haitiruth
January 18, 2013 at 5:18 am
I have some Paul Simon today here: http://thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com/2013/01/poetry-friday-questions-for-angels.html
LikeLike
Irene Latham
January 18, 2013 at 5:18 am
Violet, I needed this reminder that messy is okay, so thank you! My book shelves are organized emotionally — books that make me cry here, books that save my life here, books that take me back to childhood here — which makes it difficult for others to find what they are looking for at my house. Yet it makes total sense to me! Thank you so much for hosting.
LikeLike
vnesdoly
January 18, 2013 at 9:38 pm
Irene, I never thought of organizing emotionally. What a novel idea! (or maybe I should say, poetic idea).
LikeLike
davidlharrison
January 18, 2013 at 5:43 am
I posted a new Word of the Month poem last week. Here’s the link. http://davidlharrison.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/my-word-of-the-month-poem-for-january
LikeLike
Carmela Martino
January 18, 2013 at 5:50 am
Terrific poem to as we think about making space/fresh starts for a new year. Thanks for hosting today, Violet. I’m sharing my first poem-in-progress in my new Friday blogging spot: http://www.teachingauthors.com/2013/01/being-writerly-without-a-routine.html
LikeLike
mmsocks
January 18, 2013 at 5:57 am
“Skippin A Stone” is my latest poem in my Drawer. Complete with a picture of its handwritten origin. mmsocks.wordpress.com
LikeLike
djtsmith
January 18, 2013 at 6:31 am
Love your take on the messiness of poems. I totally agree. Some day I will do a screen capture of all the mess that takes place before the final appears!
But for now enjoy my Java January post at : http://mainelywrite.blogspot.com/2013/01/java-january.html
LikeLike
Tracy Lee Karner
January 18, 2013 at 6:58 am
And I thought I was the only one who gets annoyed at the messiness of poetry. I solved my problem with the visual clutter of poetry volumes by investing in bookshelves with doors on them. I never have come up with a way to organize poetry, except alphabetically by poet’s name. But then, there are the anthologies to mess that up.
LikeLike
vnesdoly
January 18, 2013 at 9:37 pm
Now that’s a great idea–bookshelves with doors. I’m with you in organizing mostly alphabetically. But then there are the collections, as you say, and the journals etc.. My own poems are the worst though. Must get a system this year!
LikeLike
Tracy Lee Karner
January 21, 2013 at 7:40 am
I keep down-sizing, hoping that will help me know where everything is (a place for everything, and everything in its place is easier when there’s less of everything)–but still, I’m trying to work out the system. !!
LikeLike
bmagee10
January 18, 2013 at 7:06 am
Thank you for hosting Poetry Friday, Violet! I agree, poetry is messy and so is life. It’s wonderful to have an outlet for our mess, though. Now if I could only keep my bookshelves, kitchen, living room…a little more organize. Thanks for sharing.
LikeLike
Little Willow
January 18, 2013 at 1:15 pm
Thanks for hosting! The character limit cut off the full title of my post:
I posted a poem from the verse novel Orchards by Holly Thompson at my blog, Bildungsroman.
http://slayground.livejournal.com/730691.html
LikeLike
vnesdoly
January 18, 2013 at 9:28 pm
I enjoyed your poem, Little Willow. Tried to leave a comment on your blog, but it wouldn’t let me… Thanks for joining in on Poetry Friday!
LikeLike
Violet N.
January 18, 2013 at 9:34 pm
Thanks so much, everyone, for joining in today! I really enjoyed hosting and reading everyone’s contributions. I hope no one got left out (added a few links here and there but most of you put in your own)!
LikeLike
haitiruth
January 19, 2013 at 6:50 am
I’m back to read the roundup now that I have time on Saturday morning. I love your poem. It’s true – poetry is impossible to categorize neatly. That’s why it’s so wonderful! Thanks for hosting.
LikeLike
Brenda Leyland
February 20, 2013 at 8:23 am
Violet, I so enjoyed my visit to your poetry site today. Such wonderful treasures you store here for us to feast on.
I liked this piece about the mess of poetry. Never thought of it that way, but that’s how I feel about all the snippets and bits of my writings in general. I keep hoping for a better way to organize it all, but in the meantime I’m glad that now, thanks to your vision. even messes can have a poetic flair.
LikeLike
Violet Nesdoly
February 20, 2013 at 8:49 am
Why thank you, Brenda! Once you’ve written for a while, it’s hard not to gather a mess! It’s one of the hazards of the job I think. Throw out something you’ve written and sooner more likely than later, you’ll think back…I wrote something about that but now where is it?! We muddle ahead despite the mess, don’t we? 😉
LikeLike