Day 31 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

I enjoyed my Poem a day challenge for the month of March. I knew I had lots of poetry books but I didn't realize just how many but it was too many to sample in one month. From here on out, I will make sure that I spend a little time reading poetry each day .

Day 30 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

This is one of my favorite books of poetry and it is called, "Wandering Poems by A Wandering Poet." It is a handwritten book and put together by the poet and in times of stress it is perfect. "Meandering softly as a vagrant breeze

I drift among the ten thousand things

Awed watcher

Leaving no trace."

Day 29 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

Haiku, haiku, haiku, this is all that I could handle today, three lines of 5, 7, 5. Today, my third grandchild was born and I have had only three hours of sleep and I am going to bed.

Day 28 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

I love Alice Walker's poetry more than I like her novels. For me, I feel as though I get to know more about her by reading her poems and essays. This book starts off with poems about her trip to east Africa and they are short, just the way I like it, and they paint lovely pictures and remind me of the experience I have when reading haiku.

Day 27 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

Ah, the "muy hermosa la poesia" of Pablo Neruda, what a treat. This book is a lot of fun for me because on left page is the spanish and the right page has the english translation and since I am studying spanish I like trying my hand at figuring out what he is saying. Needless to say it takes me a lot longer to get through one poem but, it is worth it to me.

Day 26 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

Poems in acknowledgement of the sacred are my favorite and that is why I love Hafiz and the sufi poets. This book is one of my favorites because it is a rare compilation of women throughout the ages communing with the divine.

Day 25 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

Whenever I go on a trip some where, I always go to the local independent bookstores, where they still exist, and I look for books by local poets. If I visit really cool towns like the ones on the Point Reyes/Inverness/Bolinas/Stinson beach seashore, I can find journals like the "West Marin Review," that feature local poets, prose writers, artists and photographers and that is a plus. After such a lovely trip what could be better than returning home and being able to read a poem about Inverness ridge, Tomales bay, huckleberries and deer. Perfect!

Day 24 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

It was hard for me to focus on my poetry read today because so much was happening but, I did manage to read a few and once again, I was looking for the back story so I went to the front of the book and read the introduction. It turns out that for me, I enjoyed her introduction on what made her want to be a writer. She says that it was her love of books and that she was passionate about them. She loved the weight of a book in her lap, the leather binding, the smell of old paper and the smell of ink in new books, she even loved looking at a closed book and wondering what "possibilities" were inside. Now, I can totally relate to that because I share this love with her.

Day 23 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

For me, it is always a joy to read poetry by someone that I know personally because, I already have the back story and through reading their poetry, I gain much more insight into their inner workings. My friend Malia is of mixed heritage, she is Hawaiian and African and she brings a unique perspective as to what means to be hapa. She writes about the love she has for her Hawaiian/African culture and people.

Day 50 of My 365 Day Meditation Challenge

Today is the 50th day of my 365 meditation challenge and this is quite an accomplishment. What started out as a 28 day challenge has now ballooned into so much more and I am excited to meet my new self at the completion of my year of meditating every day for twenty minutes twice a day. I am documenting it all in a special journal in which I make entries everyday.

Day 22 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

It is very interesting to read all of these different books of poetry and "Nectar of Woman" is quite unique. The author explains that this is stream of consciousness poetry writing, it came to her while driving her car across deserts and down long highways usually at night. I do stream of consciousness writing every morning but never thought of publishing it as is and the thought frankly, is really frightening to me. She said that she didn't want to change it, she wanted to leave it the way it came out and sometimes for me it works and other times I have to ask, where is she going with this but, I do like that she gave me a heads up by giving me the back story on how this book came to be. What I enjoy about this collection even more, is that she is not following the tried and tested rules of writing poems, her flow is uniquely her own, and, it inspires freedom in expression.

Day 21 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

Often when I read books of poetry, I feel like I could do better if I had a back story on the poets because a lot of the language is coded and you kind of have to be in the know in order to get the inside joke. For the most part I was lost while reading the poems in this book but I did have a few moments of clarity or at least I think I did.

Day 20 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

Reading this book of poetry while hanging out on the Point Reyes Seashore is really quite magical. Her poems have names like, "Sea Leaves", "The Sunflowers", "Grassy Pond, Which Really Is a Swamp", and," The Lilies Break Open Over the Dark Water." There are many many more and her love of nature shines through and makes me want to go out on a nice long hike.

Day 19 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

We are chillaxing on this rainy super moon, almost spring equinox night and it just seems fitting to read Love Poems by Nikki G. She has real staying power as a Poet where so many have fallen by the wayside.

Day 18 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

What is Haiku? Well according to the New Oxford American dictionary it is, " a Japanese poem of seventeen syllables, in three lines of five, seven and five, traditionally evoking images of the natural world."Well Sonia Sanchez's book, Morning Haiku, does not fit this definition but it does invoke some lovely images. "Your mouth/a sweet wind/painted in hieroglyphics," or how about this one, "your poems/yellow tattoos on the/ morning dew." She doesn't have the right number count according to the definition given but she does often use the natural world to describe her sense of life.


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Day 17 of my March - Read a Poem a Day Challenge

I love Jill Scott and her sassy ways and her book of poetry is filled with that energy. She writes a lot about failed relationships and women giving their power away and women taking their power back. Even though she deals with some serious topics, this book is very upbeat and empowering. The one complaint I is when she uses descriptions of bodily functions.

Day 16 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

Maybe by the time I am through with this poetry challenge, I will want to sit down and try my hand at poetry again but as for now, I am enjoying reading books like, "Climates of the Mind," which is filled with personal introspection. She uses the natural world as a vehicle to explore her inner workings and I love that because she is not just all in her head, the moon, trees, the sea, the nature of these things are unravelled in an attempt to understand herself.

Day 15 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

With all of the tense stuff going on in the world, it was nice to read the poetry of a young woman on topics like flying in airplanes, her love of jellies, her world travels and how her poetry took her to many places. She started writing poetry at age five and in her first book, she published those poems. This book inspires me to encourage my granddaughter to continue her writing and to maybe publish it on her blog or to create a little book.

Day 14 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

There is a poem in this book called, "Reckless Divas" that really got me going It is a kind of mirror mirror on the wall type poem. The mirror wants the older woman to act her age and there in lies the problem and in the end the woman listens to the mirror, "without asking she shied away from the mirror and joined the illustrious ladies of Former Head-turners Anonymous." It is a well written poem, but boy do I dislike the way other women work overtime to try and push women they deem as old, into the attics and bury them alive. Act your age, yes, I will act my age and not yours. If you feel like you can't samba anymore or pop your hip, that is your dilemma because my mirror is created in my own image and we have a love thing going on and so much more to accomplish. Excuse me illustrious ladies, I have some dancing to do!

Day 13 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

Today started off gloomy weather wise, and later turned into a rainy afternoon and this was a wonderful setting to sit cozy and warm in Hummingbird cottage drinking tea and reading zen poems by Ko Un in his beautiful book called "Flowers of a Moment." My days are becoming much more divine thanks to poetry and meditation.

Day 12 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

Just got in under the wire for this post! I rushed in from a wonderful dance performance. This is one of my favorite books of poetry and it is a compilation of the writings of many mystics like Hafiz, Rumi, St. Francis of Assisi, Meister Eckhart and many others.

Day 11 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

"Juju beads on the

Zen Manual

My knees are cold" Jack Kerouac's Haiku

This is one of the poems that I liked and that is not saying much or is it? This book talked a little too much about death for my comfort. It is not my favorite subject, especially not the way in which he talks about it. Kerouac is the most famous of the so called "Beat" poets and truth be told, I am not impressed by them as a whole but I do enjoy the poetry of Ted Joans and Leroy Jones. In San Francisco's North Beach, their home, there is an alley named after him.

Day 10 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

This book of poetry leaves me with a light airy feeling and my mind's eye has images of dolphins, and summer light, lovers and the sea but often I feel like I need to get the back story on this author in order to fully understand what I am reading.

Day 9 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

Wow I read several of the poems in this book and although they are suppose to be written by famous western poets, I was not impressed. I love the ocean and I was looking for something more romantic and magical but all I got was dark tales, ships sailing, and sometimes just the use of the word "sea" was enough to get it into this book. Even though I did not enjoy most of the poems that I read, just the mere act of reading poetry everyday is a wonderful thing that I am doing for myself.

Day 8 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

I sure it was the beautiful lovely cover of this book that drew me in and the fact that I read her non-fiction book, The Prisoner's Wife: A Memoir but this book was way too heavy for a sunny afternoon. The poem that was the book's name sake was about suicide and there were others about molestation and domestic abuse and of course survival. This one can leave you with a troubled mind.

Day 7 of my March- Read a Poem a Day Challenge

I just discovered this poet, her picture was on the cover of Poets&Writers magazine and although I have yet to read the article, I immediately ordered her book from amazon. This book is hot off the presses and it starts with a poem about Rosa Parks and next, a powerful poem called "Left," which gives me another sad take on the Katrina tragedy another horrible American tragedy. The poems in this book delve into the subjects that my family and I have heated discussions about. I am so looking forward to experiencing Ms. Finney's take on these very hot topics!

Day 6 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

I am in love with her words. She writes, "I'm the silent partner alone on the beach searching the immense sand for language brazen enough to shatter fear", wow and this book is filled to the brim with beautiful phrasing. Day 6 and I am finally getting around to reading all of the poetry books that I have stockpiled for years. Who will emerge at the end of March?

Day 5 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

I love Saul Williams and reading this book, which seems to be one poem( I have not completed it yet), dedicated to the return of the Goddess, the Great Mother, for me it was akin to reading Hafiz and his poems dedicated to the beloved.

Day 4 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

"Reach

Past the last pinnacle

Of speech

Into the vast

Inarticulate face

Of silence"

from the poem "Ascent" by Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Reading poetry for the last four days and I feel as though I am treating my mind to a marvelous feast.

Day 3 of my March-Read a Poem a Day Challenge

Today's choice of poetry was quite a trip and I often lost my way while reading. What is she saying, where is she going with these words that seem to be strung together in a haphazard way. Even though Kyger's style was tricky for me, my mind enjoyed the journey.

Day 2 of My March- Read a Poem a Day Challenge

I resolve to read a poem a day for the month of March but in meeting this challenge, I am left wanting more than just one. Today was a gloomy showery day and reading Jon Francis' poetry was perfect because he travels up and down the California coastline with his young daughter in an old van that he calls Tripper writing his poems and reading them is the next best thing to actually walking or sitting on a beach yourself.

Day 1 of my March- Read a Poem a Day Challenge

So here we go, my first challenge for the month of March is to read at least a poem a day. I used to read poetry every night before bed but when I changed my sleeping patterns and started going to bed early, I lost my late reading time slot. I love poetry and I have dozens of wonderful books so this should be a lot of fun for me. I will post a picture of the book that I read from that day.

A Challenging Month

For the month of February, I joined the 28 day meditation Challenge initiated by a website one of my friends posted on her FB page and it was life altering. I learned to meditate many decades ago and I did it religiously for years before dropping off and only doing it in times of great stress. For the last year and a half, I have been living in some kind of brain fog which I could not seem to escape and then along came this challenge and to my joy, I found myself emerging from the fog that had me trapped. When I started the challenge, I had no idea that my freedom would be the outcome, yet here I am on the other side and feeling better than I have felt in years. As a result of that challenge, I am continuing my meditation because it is so crucial to my mind/body/spirit health. So now I have decided to give myself a new challenge every month for a year. That means I have to come up with twelve life expanding monthly challenges, so here I go!!