How Inspiration ‘Sometimes’ Works

My head is not up in the clouds or buried in sand, unrelenting in the pursuit of ignoring highly regarded and obvious literature all around me. Not with the way I scour to read moving stories. Only the foolish could carry such a reading torch and be so recalcitrant.

It, therefore, must’ve been one of my...umm... dozens of robust grainy moods that explains how one itty-bitty poetry book eluded me. At least twice I missed this one; so obviously the first time when I bought the book, and the other time, right before it ended up on my DNF shelf.

At any rate, Spotted It...Read it and Enjoyed it. In rhythm and rhyme with National Poetry Month this post is inspired by Nikki Giovanni’s ‘Blues For All The Changes’.

True Story.

Doting on the occasion is memory of the time I found a poem I'd been searching for, for years. Going back to elementary school, thus I’m talking a dinosaur of years ago, I read a lovely poem I lost track of. I committed (most of it) to memory, for I so adored this poem, but couldn’t recall either the title or the author who wrote the poem.

Moving along, up comes a day when I got to thinking about that poem. I riffled through old vintage books hoping to come across it, and when the Internet came on scene I Googled various riffs of the lyrics, all to No Avail with No Luck. Nonetheless, the cadence of this prose laid on my conscience so relentlessly and restlessly I eventually personalized my own version of what I remembered. That’s how ‘I Love Poetry’, published in my 2008 poetry collection 'GEM,' was born.

And then, Lo and behold, (2010) I was reading ‘When We Were Colored’ by Eva Rutland, when towards the tail end of the book, What Do We Know!?! There it was! ‘In the Morning’ by Paul Laurence Dunbar!

I threw the book up in the air! I screamed! I shouted! I danced and cried! Oh.My.Goodness! Like what were the odds!?!

And so, Okay, and Alright. Here’s what I came up with (inside GEM published 2008).

I Love Poetry

I was introduced to poetry by a burlisome someone.
A burlisome someone, I’m quite sure was a woman.
For the burlisome voice was  tough and tenacious,
praisin’ the Lord, and tellin’ everyone its business,
‘bout this lazy someone, I think it was her boy,
squattin’ in her place, and getting’ on her nerves,
rustlin’ her patience with a certain kind of nonsense.

Over the years I’ve looked, and I’ve looked,
for the certainty in a profound voice,
draped with drama and delicious pickled preferences,
sweepin’ her cabin with style and good grace,
whilst chastisin’ this lazy, lazy some kind of chile,
all in a spicy good humored saucy-like taste.

By early dawn she really had me goin’,
tendin’ to ruckus between cracks and crevices,
mussin’ and fussin’ so early in the morning,
darnin’ that chile’s socks, and washin’ all da’ linen,
whilst bangin’ and clangin’ tin pots and pans,
mad as all Biblical sin, not to hear that lazy chile of hers,
not stir even once to give her a hand.

She cooked up breakfast and then set the darn table,
mussin’ and fussin’ in an unversed psalm,
none too happy, none too calm,
‘bout the likes of her lazy chile ignorin’ her qualm.
But she fixed him, and served his tail right
she fixed that good for nothin’ lazy tail good,
a fixin’ I had no doubt drama mama would.
She knew that chile of hers wasn’t movin’ out of bed,
unlessin’ she stripped from her apron
and taught his sulkin’ lazy tail a real good lesson,
‘bout not stirrin’ to the sounds and likes of her mussin’ and fussin’,
to joining her at the table to recite the Lord’s blessin’.

I Love Poetry.

A few links to acknowledge Poetry Month: 

Thoughts on Giovanni’s book
2015 Interview ‘30 DAYS OF POETRY LOVE’ with Rhonda Y.C. Johnson (RYCJ) 

Links to Favorite POEMS (written by Favorite Poets)

‘In the Morning’ by Paul Laurence Dunbar
‘The Raven’ by Edgar Allan Poe
‘Phenomenal Woman’ and ‘Still I Rise’ by Maya Angelou

#POETRYMONTH #ILovePoetry #AmWriting #AmRevising #JustBlogged #writinglife