Skip to main content

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

February (an acrostic poem): February Enters cloaked in ice fog, Bringing Rain and sleet. Under grey skies we Adjust scarves and gloves, Raise hoods, and Yearn for spring © Elisabeth Norton, 2022, All rights reserved

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

Comments

  1. Oh, this is a lovely acrostic. I like acrostics that don't stop me at the end of each line, and yours is such a one...and yes...that yearning. Here south of Buffalo, NY, we feel it, keep knitting, keep drinking hot chocolate. Thank you for this hosting...and this hope. xo

    ReplyDelete
  2. Love acrostics, and yours is a lovely way to mark February (where did January go?). Thanks so much for hosting this week!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Love acrostics! Yours is a lovely way to mark February (where did January go?) As it's been especially cold this winter, the yearning for Spring has definitely begun. Thanks for hosting this week (my link goes live at 6 a.m. EST).

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love a well-written acrostic! They are a great form in and of themselves and also a way to dive into a new topic and spark ideas. February does have some challenges and the yearning for spring is real. Thanks for hosting this week!

    ReplyDelete
  5. oooooh, I love a good acrostic. When I need to focus or buckle-down on something, an acrostic helps me. Poetry to the rescue! Best of luck on your deadlines. I'm wishing you lots of words as good as 'February' and that "ice fog. Thanks for hosting.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love your acrostic! It is perfect for this SNOWY day! I am definitely yearning to see all those bulbs I planted way back in October. Thanks for hosting this week!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Beautiful poem, Elisabeth! My hubby and I were just talking about those recent pictures of ice fog in the news... we don't have that down here on the SC coast. Sea fog, though! Thanks for this lovely marking of time and seasons, and for hosting us all this week.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Lovely flowing acrostic Elisabeth, I especially like the ending "Yearn for spring." Nice image too, I'm picking out the bits of green in there and longing for more… Thanks for hosting the Roundup!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Elisabeth ~ thank you for hosting this week! February is different in my galaxy (So Calif). My hat's off to you and your acrostic. I just tried to write an acrostic showing the Calif side of February and failed miserably. So here's my short response: February? /Brrrrrr!/(But not /here)

    ReplyDelete
  10. Rain, sleet, and ice fog are exactly what we're dealing with right now in New Hampshire! Perfect little poem for the start of this month, Elisabeth. Thanks for hosting!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Elisabeth, your poem possesses all the atmospheric elements a good poem requires. I can feel the encroaching cold. If you like Acrostic poetry, then you would surely love, The Lost Words, by Robert Macfarlane. A beautifully illustrated book celebrating the lost words of the natural world using acrostic structured poems, the writer calls 'spells.' Stay warm and thank you for hosting.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Oh, February is beginning with just what you wrote, Elisabeth. We don't have ice fog but plenty of snow and cold, ice crystals on windows. I love that the acrostic fits so well. Thanks for hosting!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Rain and fog here today in NJ also. I generally enjoy winter, but today brought a damp chill that makes me yearn for warm sun of spring. Loved your poem. Thanks for hosting.

    ReplyDelete
  14. We're under the same 'cloak of ice fog', Elisabeth. Acrostics are great for letting our frosty emotions get 'down' to business to become a poem - well done. Happy February and thanks for hosting today! :)

    ReplyDelete
  15. Elisabeth, those last four lines are precisely right...winter is tiresome now, and the yearning has began in earnest! Thanks for hosting--I have a weather poem too.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Elisabeth, thank you for hosting and for that moody February poem! It's wet and cold here but in the ditches there are daffodils. xo

    ReplyDelete
  17. Yes, yearning for spring! :) Thank you, Elisabeth, for hosting. And thanks for your February poem. It's the longest short month of the year, isn't it?

    ReplyDelete
  18. I'm glad you took time from the deadlines to write this poem! I can feel the ice fog. Stay warm. Thank you for hosting!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Thank you for hosting us, Elisabeth! When I couldn't think of what form to use, I looked at Heidi's site for inspiration and found a post where she says that acrostics come through for her. It worked for me, too. :) Yay, acrostics!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Thank you for hosting today, Elisabeth! Your acrostic captures this dreary February day exactly. I'm longing to shed those "scarves and gloves." Well done!

    ReplyDelete
  21. Elisabeth, I am more than overwhelmed by deadlines and grandparent sat for 5 days so I am coming late to the Poetry Friday Roundup Party. I am still trying to work on my post so it will come late. Your February acrostic is lovely and the opening is telling with details of what climate change is now turning into across the states. I would like to add it to my Winter's Embrace Gallery if you approve. It is raining here and the day is gloomy but the temps are cozy in the house and a cup of tea warms me up.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Scarves, gloves, and hoods. You got it. That is February around here, too. What a great acrostic!

    ReplyDelete
  23. What a gorgeous acrostic, Elisabeth. I esp love ones that are more lyrical like this. I love winter, but the bitter cold we've had a lot of in MN so far this year--brrrr! Thank you for hosting!

    ReplyDelete
  24. Thanks for hosting, Elisabeth! Has February in Switzerland been super snowy? Here in TX, we just have 2 days of snow and that stops everything! Meanwhile, lovely acrostic!

    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: Thoughts about History and Timelines

History is a timeline of events, each event a dot too small to express the millions of experiences of a given day week month year of a given war earthquake flood famine drought tragedy Each dot on a timeline is a period, a pause that says “Stop! This is something you should know about.” The timeline pulls us inexorably forward, the dots behind us growing smaller as we look back over our shoulders. Some merge with the line, too small to stop anyone in their tracks anymore, the stories around that dot lost to time. But some dots are not diminished with time. Some dots will always make us pause to remember. ©2021, Elisabeth Norton, all rights reserved Our Poetry Friday host is Tricia over at The Miss Rumphious Effect. Hop over to her blog for all of today's poetic inspiration. I'd also like to highlight a wonderful poem 9/11/02 or One Year Later , written by my friend Jennifer in honor of some of the first responders to 9/11. 

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