“Missing”

1 April, 20162 April, 2016Leave a comment

I love April. It’s my birthday month and (as far as we can tell) Shakespeare’s birthday, too. It’s also National Poetry Month!

See full illustration below!

I’ve actually had more poems published than fiction, believe it or not, but I haven’t written much poetry since undergrad. Scratch that—I don’t think I’ve written any poetry since undergrad; I’ve been focusing on fiction and comics. I wrote this in 2008, when my now-husband was training at Quantico. Or was it 2009, when he was stationed in North Carolina? (Sheesh, it’s been a long time. This is definitely a throwback!)

“Missing” was originally published in Inkstone and later in The Cedarville Review. This year, Magali Mebsout illustrated it, and I’m excited to share both works with you here.

Click to enlarge. Plain text below.

Like the poem or the illustration?

Click to tweet: It’s #NationalPoetryMonth! Read “Missing” by @larathelark, illustrated by @MagaliMebsout.

MISSING

by Lara Willard

Memory is a crazy woman that hoards
colored rags and throws away food.
—Austin O’Malley

i’d like to tie
kites to my belt loops
dive off the nicollet
and be carried through partly cloudy skies.
i would hurdle chicago, the piedmont
mountains, free-fall into your backyard.

i’m losing you.
memories thin like brushed hair.
decay comes quickly.

you’ve faded into
souvenirs in a suitcase, patches
torn from a favorite blanket:

naked feet on irish pebbles
and rolling over in the wild grass.
submerging into cold pacific water
lips on mouths of glass soda bottles
fingers turning pages of isaac asimov.

i want to see you and sew things together
but the sky is blue and barren
and the kites on the rooftop are limply
scattered like confetti, thrown
and forgotten.

—

Pocket Poem Day

24 April, 201424 April, 2014Leave a comment

Pocket Poetry Day —

It’s Put a Poem in your Pocket day, April 24th, and this month is Poetry Month, so I thought, for fun, I’d share one of my old ones. It’s been too long since I’ve written poetry!

Which poem would you carry in your pocket to share to others today or any day?

Missing

Memory is a crazy woman that hoards
colored rags and throws away food.
—Austin O’Malley

i’d like to tie
kites to my beltloops
dive off the nicollet
and be carried through partly cloudy skies.
i would hurdle chicago, the piedmont mountains,
and free-fall into your backyard.

i’m losing you.
memories are thinning like brushed hair.
you’ve faded into
souvenirs in a suitcase, patches
torn from a favorite blanket:

naked feet on irish pebbles
and rolling over in the wild grass.
submerging into cold pacific water
lips on mouths of glass soda bottles
fingers turning pages of isaac asimov.

i want to see you and sew things together
but the sky is blue and barren
and the kites on the rooftop are limply scattered
like confetti, thrown and forgotten.

Lara Willard, 2009
Photo Credit: Patryk Specjal

Introduction to Poetry

11 April, 20127 April, 2019Leave a comment

Well, now I feel sheepish. I completely forgot that April was National Poetry Month until I was in Seattle and saw posters about it. To make it up to you, I’m going to introduce you to my favorite poets.

I’ll divide them into the categories I read most and give you a link to one of their most well-known poems. I won’t type their poems here because that would be plagiarism.

Taste a sample, and if you like it, check out their books of poetry. Every bookshelf could house more poetry.

Contemporary

These poets are still living.

Ada Limón I just ADORE. Start with “How to Triumph Like a Girl” and “Dead Stars.”

Billy Collins was my favorite poet in college. He’s hilarious and masters visuals in an incredibly fun way. His popular poem “Introduction to Poetry” is appropriate for this post, and you can read it here.

Li-Young Lee is more serious, lyrical. He’s known for “Persimmons,” which is read in most poetry classes, and for good reason. Read (or reread) it here. I also recommend “The Gift” and “Dreaming of Hair.”

For 180 contemporary (1980s-current) poems chosen by somebody at The Library of Congress for American High Schoolers, go here. Don’t expect much diversity there.

Harlem Renaissance

I love Harlem Renaissance poetry. What Jazz did to loosen and free music, Harlem poets did to poetry. Their rhythm is unmistakable. Please, don’t only read what dead white guys have written.

Langston Hughes is probably a familiar name. Read “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” here.

Gwendolyn Brooks might be less familiar, but she is my favorite woman-poet. I think “The Bean Eaters” is her most well-known poem, but be sure to read a bigger sampling of her poems. Some are listed in a little blue box on the right column of her biography here. Also, if I could have a writer’s portrait half as cool as hers, I’d be very pleased.

Classics

There are SO MANY (it’s all we read in K-12). I’ll just let you read two of my favorite pre-20th century poems:

“Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe. If Poe’s fiction is overrated, his poetry is seriously underrated. This is a master of form.

“She Walks in Beauty” by George Byron. This is just such a lovely poem.

Like I said, there are so many more! But that’s why I have a poetry section on this blog. I’ll keep adding to it 🙂 In the meantime, here’s a bunch of recommendations from poets themselves.