Today
is Tuesday Poem's fourth birthday.
A trio of editors - Mary McCallum,
Michelle Elvy and Claire Beynon - flashed emails around the globe in the early
hours of this morning, tweaking the last few details of this week's
collaborative birthday poem. (Michelle, a boat-based writer and editor, is
currently moored off the coast of Indonesia, five hours West of New Zealand.)
As a
collective we celebrate poetry every week but birthdays are special as each year
during March/April we come together to build a collaborative poem in one giant
poetry celebration. This year, we asked contributing poets to send a line that
included something about either food or birthdays or both, and to send the line
'blind' - that is, without seeing any other contributions. How to fit blue cake
with a clarinetist's curls, or fairy bread with the explosion of candles? Four
vignettes fired together to form one whole that includes a birth and a light, a
cake and a secret, a moment and a memory, anticipation and celebration.
TORCH
I was born the day my mother stopped being pregnant
a full-baked warm wetness taking its first breath
flame flickering, a miniature torch; a moth fluttering
against the pane, the porch. She held: a curved moon-nail,
thistle-like lock, darkened milk; and the clarinetist curled
slow circles around the moon
I was born the day my mother stopped being pregnant
a full-baked warm wetness taking its first breath
flame flickering, a miniature torch; a moth fluttering
against the pane, the porch. She held: a curved moon-nail,
thistle-like lock, darkened milk; and the clarinetist curled
slow circles around the moon
Visit
the Tuesday
Poem hub to see how things unfold. Three plus one: four poems for a
birthday will surprise and delight you!
Extra
cause for celebration --
Tuesday Poem has had 335,130 page views since its inception (on Mary
McCallum's blog, O Audacious
Book) in April 2010 with 16, 280 page views on the hub this past
month. Contributing poets hail from New Zealand, the US, UK, Australia, Italy
and Lesotho with visitors to the blog from places as far flung as the United
States, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, India, Indonesia and Russia.
Happy
Birthday Tuesday Poem! And
our heartfelt 'yes' and 'thank you' to poets and readers of
poetry everywhere.
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