April Poetry

This April the brighter sunshine highlights the colors and markings of the birds. The starling's subtle teal and black gleams in the light. The robin's orange breast contrasts sharply with the grays of his head and wings. Two winters ago, I watched a downy woodpecker ladder up the tree. Her movement held a certain rhythm:  ta dum'  ta dum'  ta dum.' It reminded me of a line in a poem. 

Although no one knows for sure, poetry probably originated in the oral tradition of epics. Long stories were learned and repeated. Rhyme and rhythm helped storytellers or traveling troubadours memorize the words. When I have enough of a poem on a page, I read it aloud to hear the rhythm. Often with reading, I change a word without even knowing that it needed to be changed. Poetry is made from many moving parts but some kind of rhythm is critical. A break or change in the rhythm of a poem often signals the reader that something interesting is going to happen. In A Poetry Handbook, Mary Oliver wrote that "rhythm underlies everything."

Rhythm is pleasurable and soothing. Rhythmic rocking soothes babies and small children. Watch a woman with a cranky baby, even it is not her own. Her first instinct is to cradle the child while swaying side to side. The quiet or exuberant rhymes of children't books, like Goodnight Moon or Green Eggs and Ham become favorites of preschoolers and older children. Rhyming and rhythmical text help lay a foundation for language and literacy skills.  

Paul Valery said, "A poem is never finished, only abandoned." I worked on this little poem for quite some time. It began with a little downy woodpecker who made her way up the trunk of the birch outside my window. It is ready to be abandoned. 

Be Still and Wait *

Be still and wait

    walk into stillness

    pause with the wind.

Collect and gather

    honor stream, leaves, roots,

    junco, moss, and birch.

Sing a circle

    unravel a song

    follow one drop of rain.

Spin from the stars

    weave as a spider

    leave a strand undone.

Wait long in the center.

    Echo the downy

    begin again.

*Copyright Jane A. Wolfe, 2021