A Word with Laurie: Review

With 2012 drawing to a close, I thought it would be a good time to review the words I selected this year with links back to their original articles.

Nonsense

 

Ethereal

 

Perspective

 

Effervescence

 

Turgid

 

Dementia

 

Demarcation

 

Miscreant

 

Bottleneck

 

Zen/Meditation

 

Burlap

You can use any of the words in your poem today, or use all of the words if you'd like an extra challenge. Please link to Mr. Linky and then kindly visit other participants in this prompt.

Happy New Year!

A Word with Laurie

Hi, toads and followers, Laurie here. In the spirit of giving thanks, I wanted to let all of you know how thankful I am for you and how grateful I am to be a part of the garden. I must admit, though, I'm still recovering from too much turkey. Perhaps some hopping will help get those creative juices flowing. Why don't you join me? Get out an old pillowcase and step into it. Next, hop around the room. Does this bring back any memories? Like sack races? Read on...



Clip-Art Pics courtesy of PicGifs.com

Now let's get going with why we're really gathered here today: the word. As I was perusing poems that were linked to the past month's Open Link Mondays here at the garden, Susan Chast's poem, Cornucopia, caught my attention. The beautiful picture, squash and flowers... what a sensuous delight. When I saw burlap, I thought how perfect that word would be to use today.



Burlap sacks hanging out to dry, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

burlap~ n. A strong, coarsely woven cloth made of fibers of jute, flax, or hemp and used to make bags, to reinforce linoleum, and in interior decoration. (American Heritage® Dictionary)

Burlap is also known as Hessian cloth.
It's not just a tough material for sack races, sandbags, storing potatoes, gardening, twine and rope; burlap can also be creatively made into curtains, lamp shades, pillow shams, book covers, wallpaper, table runners, wrapping paper, wreaths, sachet, lunch kits, hook rugs, and the list goes on.

Coffee beans, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

How to incorporate burlap into your poem:

1. Create texture within your offering.
2. Write a poem on a piece of burlap, or a picture of it. Here are some images you can use.
3. Use the word "burlap" in the piece.
4. Perhaps one of the pictures in this post will inspire you.

*

Don't be a couch potato... write an original poem, link it to Mr. Linky, visit others who have linked and leave comments on their blogs. That's how it works, folks. Now hop to it!

The Sunday Challenge ~ Featuring Laurie Kolp

I am so happy to be introducing one of our very own toads for our last feature item on photographers for this year.  Laurie Kolp is an award-winning writer. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in curriculum and instruction with a specialty in reading from Texas A&M University. She taught school for twelve years. Now she tutors children with dyslexia and takes care of her family (with iPhone always handy). Laurie is a member of The Academy of American Poets, and lives in Southeast Texas with her husband, three children and two dogs.

Self-Portrait of the Artist

For as long as I can remember, I've carried a notepad and pencil in one hand and a camera in the other. Now I have it all wrapped into one very special smart phone, and I always have it with me. Aren't we spoiled?

© Laurie Kolp
Horse Buggy ~ New Orleans

I like to view the world with virgin eyes. When I'm writing poetry based on a certain prompt, I try to touch upon a different aspect of it, such as adding a different twist or vague interpretation... some based on my past experiences in life, some not. Here is an example from Mary's Mixed Bag prompt, Neighborhoods:

College Apartments
by Laurie Kolp

Clanky
hanky-panky,
flashing views
like cymbals clashing. I
hear the echoes, smell
the beer, hide from the fear
with college textbooks,
reading pleasure while I
lie alone on the lawn,
bikini clad and covered up-
drinking in the atmosphere
away from the rumpus
ruckus at the pool,
away from the dissent
having spent
my childhood years
in disaccord, discord,
feeling discarded.

This is not your typical "neighborhood" response, which is my goal; to see things differently, make YOU think differently.

© Laurie Kolp

The same is true in photography. Family trip photos are not your typical stand-before-the-landmark-and-smile memories as you can see in the Disney Family picture above.

© Laurie Kolp

Writing poetry and taking pictures puts me in the moment, stills my worrisome mind as I concentrate on the creative task before me. Both mediums provide tangible results for my inner thoughts. I find so much beauty in the world and am captivated by life, but I especially feel a connection with my higher power when I'm outside. In the quiet stillness of nature, I can hear the guidance of a still small voice inside of me.

© Laurie Kolp

I believe pictures are visual forms of poetry. They capture a unique moment in time which can later be used for inspiration. For me, snapshots touch upon my sensitivity to the world and how I interpret things around me... perceptions, misconceptions; it matters not. Everyone sees things differently. Each time I look at one of my photos is like the first time.

© Laurie Kolp
New York Subway

I recently started a blog, 100 Lazy Days, to display my pictures for a certain challenge. I absolutely love going back through my gazillion photos and selecting the ones I choose to share. I think I'll have to do another hundred days when these are up.

© Laurie Kolp

Some of Laurie Kolp’s publications include Writer’s Digest, Red River Review, TUCK Magazine, SKIVE Magazine, Poetry Quarterly, pay attention: a river of stones, The Christian Communicator, Christmas Miracles, The Dead Mule’s School Society of Southern Literature, Chicken Soup for the Soul: Devotional Stories for Tough Times. She is also published in numerous online magazines and anthologies.
Her poetry blogs are Laurie Kolp Poetry and Bird's Eye Gemini.
Laurie has generously offered these beautiful photos for our poetic inspiration. If you add an image to your post, please acknowledge the name of the artist.

The Sunday Challenge is posted on Saturday at noon CST to allow extra time for the creative process, so please do not link up old work which kind of fits the image. This is in the spirit of our Real Toads project to create opportunities for poets to be newly inspired. Management reserves the right to remove unrelated links but invites you to share a poem of your choice on Open Link Monday.

In Tandem Laurie & Shanyn

You can track toads. They do not hop like frogs. They walk, in a stately toad like manner. They also climb in same said toad like manner.

Poets can be very much the same. We can be tracked through our words, the trails we leave.  When two poets write together the tandem tracks leave a marvelous sight behind. Something new. Something unique. Something special.

With Real Toads is such a community where our paths cross in wonderful poetic ways.  I was paired with the wonderfully talented Laurie Kolp for this challenge by Kerry.  We worked on our tandem poem, a tribute to this community. Then we added a poem each.

Enjoy friends!

Garden of toads, and visiting frogs.

We hop poem to poem – tasting, savoring.

Enchanted prompts,

The seasons flavoring

Poets gather, seeding words in a wild garden.

A riot of colors, words and sounds – joy!

Encouraging each other with

Supportive comments employed

Nothing lifts the spirit more than this.

An eclectic and wild garden poetic.

And from Laurie...

Regift me, lift me

higher than I want to be,

a mythical toad

flying in a clouded sea;

while you

crown me, drown me

in an effervescent sky

with words unspoken,

this poem I write.

and from me, Shanyn...

Spring rushes for no man.

Neither do my toads.

They slumber deeply

under flowers roots.

Don't disturb them!

Muses wait for no poets.

They madden us

with poems over flowing

or with dusty drought.

Don't waste them!

Poems, once spoken, live.

Once written are eternal.

Toads signal health.

Poems signal soul.

Cherish them both.

Back to Love: Laurie's personal challenge poem

Hey everyone, this is Ruth, baton-tapped by Kerry into challenging fellow Toad Laurie Kolp to build us a poem that's different in some way from how she usually writes - and because she has written so much and in so many forms (I really think there's nothing she couldn't do), I asked her to give us something more, a turnaround, another view. You're going to love what she came up with:
  

Back to Love

  

All you need is love ~ John Lennon

I.
  

What has this world come to?

We walk around like soldiers on land mines

tiptoe through department stores

stare at front doors of restaurants

prepared to draw in a moment’s flash

the weapon we must carry to live.

We hold tighter to our babies

send our kids off to school

in angst, with awareness

of bullies and misbehavior

cheaters, liars, thieves;  

inconsequential consequences

because there are none anymore

just more, more, more

I’ll buy you more!

Shut up, here it is-

cram this iPad in your mouth and leave me alone!

No, we prepare our beloved children-

precious gifts we have been given-

for the possibility

that a peer might pull a gun out and shoot

-bam! bam! you’re dead!-

for no other reason than

he or she can.

Anybody and everybody can

shoot dead the one who pisses them off

the one who says no, sets boundaries

in this materialistic world

where God has become unimportant

a misdemeanor

an old wives tale

a source of offense

for nonbelievers

preaching freedom

to deny His existence:

Take down the Ten Commandments!

Do away with prayer in school!

I watch the nation

crumble away like an ant pile dIStuRbed

a flurry of red ants (on FIRE) seeking, what? 

in this “land of opportunity”

once coveted world-wide

now falling apart-

not from global warming

or doomsday predictions

alien takeovers, UFOs

but because something’s missing

in our lives.
  

II.
  

What is love but a gentle breeze?

A splash of fresh air

cooling in the stillness of doubt.

Morning’s first breath

a whisper in one’s heart

when answers do not come.

A pause, an intuition

that all will be okay

because we love, WE LOVE!

God is love.

Let’s love.
  
©Laurie Kolp

 

So what do you think, Toads? Did Laurie meet the challenge or what?! I marvel at how with one gentle breeze of a line she changed war into peace, gave hopelessness hope. I love it, Laurie! Thank you so much for accepting and responding to the challenge in this wonderful fashion.