Happy New Year Poetry Friday friends! Thanks for visiting the first post of the year here on the ridge. Catherine is hosting the first poetry round-up of 2018 at her space, Reading to the Core. Be sure to ring in the new year by stopping by!

On New Year's day, there was a super-blue-wolf-full moon! I hope you had a chance to see it rising in the night sky. Not to worry though if you missed it because there will be another super-blue-wolf moon on January 31st. I read that it will also be a super-blue-blood lunar eclipse moon. Wow! We are certainly experiencing some spectacular astronomical events this year already. 

I always find writing inspiration from my favorite magnet topics like the stars and the moon! In this image, I put two photos of the full moon side by side to give the effect of the eyes of the wolf moon on the rise. The poem this image inspired turned out to be a little sadder than many of the poems I write, but I think poems must be written as we feel them. I was also trying to play with line breaks in a way that allowed the poem to be read as one voice or two voices. The two italicized lines can either be read as the first voice or the moon's echo in response. Try reading it with a friend in this way. I'm not sure if there is a technical poetry term for this strategy, but it was fun to fiddle with anyway! And if you prefer to read something not quite so full of sadness, I have included a haiku in honor of the wolf moon as well. Happy moon watching in 2018!    

A poet can express a wide range of emotions throughout a single poem or focus intently on one. A writer can invite the reader to feel whatever they choose, and sometimes the writer hopes to elicit a certain response from the reader. Think about poems or other pieces of literature that you have read with expressive emotions. In what way or ways did the writer invite you to feel or decide something on your own? Maybe it was the word choice or the use of line breaks to create "rooms" throughout the poem. Take note of this and try it out in your own writing., staying true to the feeling in your words. 

Poetry Friday is a dream this week! Be sure to visit Brenda at her fairyland space, Friendly Fairy Tales.

Dear friends, this week I have been thinking about how important it is to return to the people, places, and things we love. I do this a lot, especially when I start realizing how much I have missed. One evening, I was walking out in my yard by the old elm tree, and I suddenly noticed how much had changed. While I was off living in my own world, the natural world I love was changing and living its life as well. As I stood there gazing up at the branches, I was sad that I had passed by so many times without stopping. I missed the birds. I missed the trees. I missed the spiders and the crickets. So I imagined that they could hear me and that we could talk to each other. This poem is that conversation. I talked to my dear friends, and they answered, like a soft echo of the breeze through the trees.

Too Long
 
I miss the elm.
I miss the spider.
 
Too long, too long                  
                       you have passed us by.
 
I miss the wren.
I miss the cricket.
 
Too long, too long
                       you have passed us by.
 
Too long, too long
I have passed you by,
dear earthly friends.
 
© Kiesha Shepard
​

Try reading this poem with a friend. Partner A reads the narrator's statements. Partner B reads the nature's response echo in italics. Then switch. Try adding stanzas and response lines to my poem if you like, or better yet, have fun experimenting with your own call and response type poems.! 

Welcome Poetry Friday readers! This week, I am sharing a poem that sprang up while I was exploring some different ways to use space and line length.

For more poetic posts, visit Dori at Dori Reads. She's rounding up the poetry peeks for us today. Thanks, Dori!

Try having some fun with white space and line length in one of your poems. Notice how the changes in space and length influence the different aspects of your poem. How do the changes impact both the structure and the mood? Read your poem out loud, paying careful attention to your chosen syntax and line breaks. Rewrite if you choose, but be sure to save each draft! You might decide to take them out of the compost pile later and plant them in a new poem where they will grow just fine.  Keep revising and rereading until your poem says to you, "I'm ready!"