Skip to main content

Poetry Friday: Summer Forest Jazz

 This week passed by in a whirl of appointments and to-do lists. One of the highlights we participating in Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong's workshop on Poetry Anthologies. It was jam-packed with insights on the poetry market and practical tips about anthologies: both seeking publication in them, and producing them. If you're interested, they're holding the workshop again on October 16th. There are still a few spots available. For more details about the workshop and how to register, check out this post.

My poem today was written early in the summer, before the recent extreme rain and intense storms. As I was biking through the forest, the sounds of summer around me made me want to play with onomotopaeia

I stopped and pulled out my notebook and pen and tried to capture the essence of the sounds I was hearing. Those were the seeds of this poem. I've been revising it off and on over the summer and this is the version I'm happiest with (so far ;-).

A tree, river, gravel path in the forest. Poem: Birds, Chir-chir-chir-chirrup, scat singing in the trees.  River rushes,  steel brushes  stirring on the snare. Tires hum a tuneless drone  along the forest path. Bike and gravel play percussion chip! pop! ping! Summer Forest Jazz.  © 2021, Elisabeth Norton

Thanks for stopping by! Our Poetry Friday host today is Christy at Wondering and Wandering. Wander over to her corner of the internet to discover what poetic wonders await you today.

Comments

  1. Thanks so much for this lovely post, Elisabeth! We loved the insights you shared with our group during our session, and it was very exciting to count you among our international participants! As for this poem: it's a master class in sound with all the onomatopoeia, alliteration, assonance, consonance, and rhyme. Wow!!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Such fun! I was "singing" along with your onomatopoeia!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Elisabeth, I love that the birds are scat-singing. The #anthologies101 workshop was so good.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love your jazz in the woods, especially including that "scat singing".

    ReplyDelete
  5. Elisabeth, I've often tried to find poems that might come to me listening to the birds, the trees, etc. It's not easy to translate but you have managed to bring sounds to the page, all different. I can hear "River rushes/steel brushes/stirring on the snare."

    ReplyDelete
  6. The sounds of the forest are heard loud and clear in your poem, Elisabeth. Your words take on a jazzy tune with the introduction of scat.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Oh, I don't like jazz music, but your poem is the kind of jazz I can get into! Love the snare :>)

    ReplyDelete
  8. I love the spontaneity of your poem which fits so well with improvisation in jazz!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Elisabeth, I love the forest jazz music that comes out in your poem. Very smooth and spirited.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Oh, I love those steel brushes on the drum...a favorite sound. Great poem...smooth jazz on my screen.

    ReplyDelete
  11. ooo! I love the Summer Forest Jazz! I am not a huge fan of contemporary jazz, but I do love the older jazz from the 1930s. I can completely see the forest coming to life in your poem. Thanks for sharing.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Thank you for your comments! Comment moderation is active. Your comments will be posted after they have been reviewed. Thank you for your patience!

Popular posts from this blog

Poetry Friday: Welcome to the Party!

There is so much happening in our world right now, it can be hard to take it all in. In these times, more than ever, I am grateful for poetry.  Sometimes I write it.  Sometimes I have no words of my own, so I read and reflect on the poetic words of others.  Either way, poetry helps me process my thoughts and feelings about the world and my experiences in it. My poetic offering today is a poem I wrote earlier this spring, on a rare day when my husband had to go to the office for an in-person meeting and I took our usual lunchtime walk alone.  I am a creature of habit, but on that day I challenged myself to break routine and change direction, and this poem was the result. Today I go against the grain, turn left  Instead of right, Let the path take me away from home Instead of towards it. Today I go against the grain, go up the slope I usually walk down. Climbing uses different muscles Than descent. Today I go with the grain, walk downstream Instead of up, Walk with the flow, Instead of a

Poetry Friday: Spooktober

I've been immersed in poetry and verse in the past couple of weeks - first in a Novel in Verse virtual workshop led by the amazing Nikki Grimes and Padma Venkatraman, then in my own work as I dived in deep to apply all the insights and tips that I took away from that experience.  Poems arrived in my inbox this week, via the Academy of American Poets newsletter featuring a selection of poems for Indigenous Peoples' Day.  I particularly loved the poem by Rainy Dawn Ortiz that starts: Something Else. Some one else Some where else That place is here, In my home, We are here. You can read the rest of the poem and learn more about the poet here .  One of the things I love about being a part of Poetry Friday is the inspiration to play with different poetic forms. Thoughts about poetic forms were milling around in my mind when they bumped into Inktober, an annual event in which illustrators create a drawing each day during the month of October. Sparks flew and an idea was born. I searc

Poetry Friday: The Party is Here!

 Welcome everyone to Poetry Friday! If you're new to Poetry Friday, you can read more about it here . I've been chasing deadlines all week, but poetry always provides a welcome pause in the busiest of schedules. Perhaps because of the kind of writing I've been doing (which is not related to poetry at all) it was a bit hard to get started on a poem this week. I looked at a few of the poetic forms I've bookmarked over the past months, but in the end, turned to one of my favorite forms, the acrostic .  Thanks for joining the Poetry Friday party today! Add your link to the party below. You are invited to the Inlinkz link party! Click here to enter