Hello Gentle Readers. Although April is National Poetry Month in the U.S., any month is a good month for a poetry. Back in 2002, I learned poets, especially women poets, wrote at all ages about anything and everything. Since then, I have discovered poems about feisty old women, lilacs, the ravages of war, dust, planting peas in a garden, tending to a loved one in a nursing home, iris flowers, a begging bowl, assisting a cow birth a calf, a sock, and more. It is not an exaggeration to say a whole new world opened to me.
The way a poem works is fascinating. Language, punctuation, words, sounds, rhythm, meaning, metaphor, title, and arrangement on a page all come together in a short amount of space. One can read a poem and consider all, some, or none of these elements. Sometimes one element is more prominent than another and I wonder why.
Lately, I've been thinking about the negative space surrounding a poem. How did the poet decide on line breaks, space between stanzas, or the placement on a page? Or did this space occur as a result of the words and phrases in the poem? I suspect either or both can be true in a poem. Negative space can make a powerful statement or it can be very subtle.
Negative space is at work in all kinds of making as well as the natural world. In knitting, the beauty of lace depends in part on negative space. Colorwork is affected by space around patterns. Embroidery, patchwork and applique´ as well as the quilted design stitched through three layers of a quilt all make use of negative space.
I began this poem thinking about negative spaces. Although it marks the month of March, I share it in April. Happy Poetry Month.
This is so very lovely, Jane! I especially like the first line. We don't have a lot of foliage on trees yet, so I've been enjoying the shadows of limbs on the patio. Thank you for sharing it with us. I also enjoyed the list of the many poem subjects. I like the ones celebrating everyday life (although I have never assisted at a cow birth).
ReplyDeleteNegative space was a very big deal when I took design classes in college and its importance was pounded in our heads. Up until then I never gave it a thought. I think it's why I like the spring stage in the development of trees. You can see the sky in between the buds on the branches and it's very beautiful.
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