Friday, May 02, 2014

Our Collaborative Poem


Tea from Pinglin, Taiwan

Here is our Collaborative Poem.  Any suggestions for a title?  This is comprised of the first lines of the poems you submitted on "Poem in Your Pocket Day."  Thank you!  I made a few grammar changes and added a few transition words, but that's it.  Enjoy!

I thought that I would never see a poem as lovely as a tree
But then once upon a cool path I did tread... the ferns, they spoke to me
The lotus flower opened and closed every day in a ritual of renewal
The grip that swung the ax in Illinois
Was on the pen that set a people free
And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom
We, who with songs beguile your pilgrimage and swear that beauty lives though lilies die
Will not play at tug o' war but rather play at hug o' war
We give up sighing for what might have been; Yesterday's gone, never more to be seen
We had a kettle: we let it leak
Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better, it's not
The moon's the North Wind's Cookie, he bites it day by day
But anything can happen, child, anything can be
If you think that you'll find true understanding
There is this tea I have sometimes
Grow old along with me
And the only way is
To drink your tea slowly and reverently, as if it is the axis on which the world earth revolves

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

You did such a great job knitting all the lines together. It turned out to be a very good poem.

RachelD said...

This is absolutely charming. And touching, and thought-provoking and memorable, all at once.

Whoever linked all those random lines together did a masterful job, and I'm delighted to have seen such a wonderful meeting of the lines.

How well the thoughts intertwine, and how much meaning flows from line to line. Simply splendid.

Rachel
(of the Lincoln lines)

UmbralQueen said...

That was lovely!

Rhett Aultman said...

No advice for a title, but that's an amazing job stringing together those lines.

Anonymous said...

title "The best intentions"

Marilyn Miller said...

Great job!
Steph, you wove a lovely poem together with share words. Thanks!

amherstrose said...

Shared Refreshment

Great effort and result of a fun collaboration, Steph

Angela McRae said...

OK, I could never have imagined this would work out so well! Bravo!