Ode to Josh's Shoe

note: Josh was sitting with one leg crossed over the other so his foot was up in the air

Josh's brown shoe looking sideways at me
Three feet up and it sees so much
But the world's still sideways

Laces pulled tight holding tongue well in place
Bow hanging low, dangling to and fro
'Cause it's an important, slow job

Sole firm and stern feeling glad for a rest
From keeping his feet off the cold of the street
Through snow and ice

Sock hiding there, riding safe, soft and tall
Unseen and humble, cushioning everything
Like toes and ankles

Minutes: 15 January 2009

15 Jan 2009: The first Altoid poeticization session of the new year.
Attending: Megan, Diane, Josh, and Sarah, with Gabe "observing" (i.e. doing his homework in the same room as us).

Free write topics/titles:

• Megan: a shipwreck
• Diane: Poet's Query (she just posted it here on the blog)
• Josh: first 8 lines of a happy sonnet. (This provoked discussion of why it's often easier to write depressing poetry.)
  
• Sarah: the water polo game!
• Gabe: ATATATGCCCCCGCCGTCACTCA (he was working on bioinformatics stuff -- very poetic)

We read a couple of ode-ish sonnets: "To Night" and "To Science". I was planning on reading Kim's recently completed Black and White poem, but I forgot until too late :-(

Closing free write didn't happen this time. Instead, we concluded by discussing the possibility of having a Special Shakespeare Edition of the Altoids -- getting together to read a play, maybe combined with dinner??

Thanks for coming those who did, and those who didn't, feel free to come next week! (Thursday lounge 9pm or apt 304 if lounge is occupied)

"Poet's Query"

What shall I write of?
It seems the books
are bursting at the bindings
with poems of love
or nature's glories:
of rain, leaving tear stains
on Mother Nature's weathered cheeks.
Surely this should not add to the masses.
What is my purpose?
Shall I write with hopes
to change a life, a nation?
or to simply scrawl my thoughts down,
leaving this, my fragile poem
unfinished and...

Black and White

I used to think
in black and white
A thing was wrong
or a thing was right

Why don't you think
the way I do?
What's right for me
is right for you.

But then one day,
twixt dusk and dawn
I saw the grey
come creeping on.

I stumbled--
There was naught to grasp
No absolute
for me to grasp

But on I pressed
through mists of dark
Not quite depressed
Yet not a lark

And as I toiled
throughout the day
A guiding hand
Showed me the way

And through the struggle
I gained strength
and hope sprang up
Until at length

A shaft of light
pierced through the gloom
And in my heart
I felt more room

The fog was broken
by the beams
of Daybreaks'
diamond dewy dreams

A thousand colors,
shades and hues
Of purple, orange
reds and blues

Danced across
the damask skies
Till teardrops glistened
On my eyes

The golden morning
sailed on
Yet in my mem'ry
It lives on

That day when first
I learned to see
The rainbow's
Multiplicity

And when I'm tempted
to give voice
to judgment
on another's choice

I feel the glory
of that day
And then I'm thankful
for the grey.