Micro Poetry ~ "I am my own muse ..."

"I am my own muse, the subject I know best."
Frida Kahlo 

Greetings to all poets on Day 19 of Poetry Writing Month. By this time, I am sure that many a muse is feeling torn between exhilaration and exhaustion. For our challenge today, I am returning to one of my favourite prompts, the Micro Poem of between one and twelve lines in a form of your choice.

By way of inspiration, I have chosen the poem, aptly entitled, April, by Pulitzer Prize winner and U.S. Poet Laureate, the late W.S. Merwin.

April
W.S. Merwin
(1927 - 2019)

Writing in the Guardian, Jay Parini described Merwin’s mature style as “his own kind of free verse, [where] he layered image upon bright image, allowing the lines to hang in space, largely without punctuation, without rhymes ... with a kind of graceful urgency.” Although Merwin’s writing has undergone stylistic changes through the course of his career, a recurring theme is man’s separation from nature.

Do you have a recurring theme which continues to inspire you to write poetry? I believe that poetry is at its most authentic when the poet becomes, as Frida Kahlo puts it so eloquently, his/her own muse.

I do hope that your own muse will speak to you today as you return to your unique theme. In addition, as this is FRIDAY, a poem in 55 words would be welcomed.

Bits of Inspiration ~ Frida Kahlo

Today I want to inspire you with the life and art of Frida Kahlo. Frida was born on July 6, 1907 in Coyoacán, a village on the outskirts of Mexico City. She was a painter who often painted self portraits. At age six she contracted polio and at age eighteen she was severely injured in an automobile accident. It was because of her accident that her plans to attend medical school were ended and the childhood hobby of art led her to pursue becoming an artist. Much of her art was painted from her experiences with pain.

There is so much to learn about this amazing woman. I think I am so drawn to her because she was a woman who suffered incredible pain, and chose to let it be her muse, her inspiration to create art. I made several attempts at doing a Reader's Digest condensed version of her life for this post, but I simply couldn't do it. So after all the head scratching I settled on sharing her image and some of her quotes as inspiration.

“I used to think I was the strangest person in the world but then I thought there are so many people in the world, there must be someone just like me who feels bizarre and flawed in the same ways I do. I would imagine her, and imagine that she must be out there thinking of me, too. Well, I hope that if you are out there and read this and know that, yes, it’s true I’m here, and I’m just as strange as you.” 

― Frida Kahlo

Self portrait with thorn necklace and hummingbird

By Source (WP:NFCC#4), Fair use, Link

"The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration." ~ Frida Kahlo

“I am my own muse. I am the subject I know best. The subject I want to better.”

― Frida Kahlo

“They thought I was a Surrealist, but I wasn't. I never painted dreams. I painted my own reality.” 

― Frida Kahlo

“Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light. Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing.” 

― Frida Kahlo

For today's challenge choose a quote, a photo, one of Frida's art pieces as inspiration or like Frida, choose yourself to paint with words. As always write a new poem for the challenge, post it on Mr. Linky, and take time to read the work or your fellow poets. (Learn more about Frida  and view her art here.