Day 22 ... NaPoWriMo / Poem-a-Day 2017

Happy Earth Day! Maureen Thorson’s NaPoWriMo prompt: "In honor of Earth Day, I’d like to challenge you to write a georgic. The original georgic poem was written by Virgil, and while it was ostensibly a practical and instructional guide regarding agricultural concerns, it also offers political commentary on the use of land in the wake of war. . . . Your Georgic could be a simple set of instructions on how to grow or care for something, but it could also incorporate larger themes as to how land should be used (or not used), or for what purposes." Robert Lee Brewer’s Poem-a-Day prompt: "write a fable poem. A fable is a story that conveys a moral, usually told with animal characters." Alan's note that came with his poem: "Enjoying the rain today, and here's my brief poem, a memory from my elementary school years, when they led us to believe odd things about Native People." The First Agriculture I Learned A fish finds a net and gasps in the air to lie curled in earth, a seed in its curve, life's flesh-to-life path. —Draft by Thomas Alan Holmes    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Alan continues: "I was thinking today of how little we learned about Native American people when I was in school, although I imagine at least half of the students would have said they were part Cherokee or Creek from a couple of generations back. I remember a poem that suggested that all Indian life had been replaced by the modern (white) world ('Indian Children' by Annette Wynne), some discussion of how to convert a log into a canoe, and some brief discussion of the Trail of Tears. We learned less about Native Americans than we did about African Americans, and, frankly, that wasn't much. "I have been increasingly concerned about how we teach history and civics to our public school children. I believe that I did not learn as much as I needed to learn, because it was not taught to me at the time, but I do not know what justification our diverse American culture can offer today." My poem today blends the two prompts of Georgic and Fable with another prompt earlier in NaPoWriMo for a creation myth.     (Just looked up it up . . . Day 19.) Eartha When the world was young and new the long pink worms had a meeting to decide what their destiny would be. After long debate among the older worms, the young wormling Eartha suggested, "Let us pass our Mother the Soil through our bodies and bring Father Air down into the tunnels we excavate." This speech was met with many huzzahs and a vote passed to change their name to Earthworms after wise, good Eartha. And thus it came to pass that the ground is softened and aerated for maple seeds to wing down and find a home, a base for their lofty branches to reach for sky. —Draft by Vince Gotera    [Do not copy or quote . . . thanks.] Friends, won’t you comment, please? Love to know what you’re thinking. To comment, look for a red line below that starts Posted by, then click once on the word comments in that line. If you don’t find the word “comments” in that line, then look for a blue link below that says Post a comment and click it once. Thanks! Ingat, everyone.  ヅ

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