Arts
The Arts section of Orient Lodge
#NaPoWriMo 5: Ananias restoring the Sight of St. Paul
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 04/05/2016 - 19:58What was it like when Saul set out for Damascus?
Did the Christians there talk anxiously amongst themselves,
“What will help to us?”
Did the zealot proudly proclaim,
“Let me be first, bound, carried to Jerusalem
to tortured, die, and gain the martyr’s crown?”
Did the mystic quietly predict
“God’s purpose will be achieved in an unexpected way?”
And when The Lord spoke to Ananias,
what was his reaction,
his first thoughts, his fears?
What went through his mind
as he entered the house
looking for Saul?
Now, in a twenty-first century home,
what does The Lord ask of us
that seems equally unexpected?
#NaPoWriMo – Overview
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Tue, 04/05/2016 - 06:03So, it is National Poetry Writing Month, and many people are talking about writing a poem a day for the month of April. I did something similar back in Lent 2015, so I figure I’ll give it a shot this April.
I decided to participate a few days into April, but I already had my first poems underway. I wrote The Incomplete Garden in response to a prompt from a poetry group I’m part of.
The view from your favorite or least favorite window.
I started the poem on the first and edited it on the second, sending it to the group, since had to miss the get together.
On the second, I drove up to and unconference in Western Mass. I had been listening to some podcasts on creativity and in one of them there was a suggestion to the effect of “look for three things that you don’t see every day on your way to work”. This idea was the starting point for Road Poem 1. As I drove, I noted things along the way and remembered others and wove them into a pieces of a poem which I recorded on my cell phone as I was driving. The next morning I edited the pieces together.
I hesitated about naming it Road Poem 1, because that implies that there should be a Road Poem 2. I will be keeping my eyes open for subsequent road poems. We’ll see.
It was around the time that I was editing Road Poem 1, that I looked out the window described in The Incomplete Garden, and I saw the April Snow which I started working on Sunday morning and edited and posted Monday morning.
On my way to work on Monday, I was listening to a poetry podcast, and the podcast is what made me think of The China Tea Cup. Like with Road Poem 1, I composed the first draft in my mind, then recorded it on my cellphone. In the evening I edited and posted it.
#NaPoWriMo 4: The China Tea Cup
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 04/04/2016 - 19:45The precious china tea cup
sits in the rarefied air
of the glassed in display case.
It’s intricate patterns,
too complicated to comprehend,
helps hide
the imperfections
from all but the most astute
observer.
#NaPoWriMo 3: April Snow
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Mon, 04/04/2016 - 07:15One moment
it’s a white out;
the wind is howling,
no visibility,
and the next;
the sun is shining,
illuminating
thick heavy snow
clinging to trees
and weighing down
daffodils.
Road Poem 1
Submitted by Aldon Hynes on Sun, 04/03/2016 - 08:35I’ve got another hour and a half on the road
and I’m looking for a poem
in the grey branches
beside the interstate
and the women
putting on their make up
as they drive
or the old men
drinking their coffee and smoking cigarettes
as they head off
to the same old job.
I’ve got another hour and a half on the road
and I’m looking for a poem
as I see a young mother
shouting over her shoulder
at her kids
to settle down
as she drives past
the twisted metal
that was once part
of a car.
I’ve got another hour and a half on the road
and I’m looking for a poem
as I see the remains of an old barn
with a for sale sign
that must have been part of a farm
before the interstate came through
and a man in a van
talking on his cellphone
passes
with a license plate
that reads Zone Five
like he’s driving out of a bad
cyberpunk novel.
The GPS tells me
“In a quarter mile keep left to stay on I-91 North”
and when I arrive, what will I have?
