“You can find poetry in your everyday life, your memory, in what people say on the bus, or just what’s in your heart.” Carol Ann Duffy Scottish poet, United Kingdom Poet Laureate 2009-2019

I spent time out in the gardens this weekend; the raised bed paths needed weeding and the garden of weedin’ needed inspecting. Even though I’m not planting this spring, it’s hard to stay out of the dirt.

Working in the gardens is poetry for me. There’s a rhythm in pulling the slender blades of grass defying the mulch, there’s a call back to my own ‘… dust and into dust I shall return’ in smelling the moist dirt clinging to root hairs. The deep tones of wind chimes in the maple tree lend an air of a Buddhist monastery to my labors. Seeing the neat paths and the clean fence line is a form poem with it precise rhyme patterns or shapes.

Inspecting the garden of weedin’ I’m mostly looking for sprigs of poison ivy trying to creep in and take over again. I don’t want a repeat of a few years ago when the creepers twined through the wires and hid the chain link fence, and the Grands couldn’t believe I didn’t know better than to touch leaves of three! I found only three little shoots … which I took care of yesterday. Grass is filling in where trumpet vine and honeysuckle once crowded it out, blacking out the sun, and violets are opening their panda-like faces. The raspberry canes are full of leaves and the promise of plump berries this summer.

There are lilacs from Michigan blooming in small pots and another in a large pot that’s needed planting for at least 3 years now. The small pots take me back to last summer when we spent a couple days on Mackinac Island. The fragrance of all three take me back to my Midwest hometown, the bushes of pink or lavender miniature blossom clusters in the yards of all the homes I lived in.

Another part of my everyday life is writing and connecting with other poets and writers. Tomorrow I’m leading a writing workshop, one where we’ll be generating new pieces–what I call seed pearls–that will eventually be polished into stories and poems. The prompts I’ll introduce will be based on everyday activities, items, and words. The workshop is part of Lancaster County Council of the Arts celebration of the literary arts, with its inaugural Literary Arts Festival on Saturday. The day begins with a reading by award-winning author Susan M Boyer, author of the Liz Talbot mystery series, followed by children’s activities at the library, and ending with an Open Mic at a local coffee shop, featuring local poets and writers. An appropriate way to also celebrate National Poetry Month.

This week’s poet introductions are friends who write of the stuff of everyday life, memories, and what’s in their hearts.

First is Eric Sbarge and his debut collection, I Would Have Left You Everything. I love Eric’s sense of irony and wit, his subtle observations that make the reader say, ‘Of course. How did I not see that?’ His poetry also speaks of love, family, and home.

Second is Gary Phillip’s Subjects Suitable for Poetry. Gary’s Appalachian roots anchor each poem. He writes of the sacred nature of place, grandmothers who know and share old mountain ways of foraging, and that mystical connection between the people and wild critters who both inhabit the hollers and coves of Appalachia.

Third is Genevieve C. Kissack’s A Citrus Taste. Genevieve and her grandmother survived the Nazi occupation of France during WWII. She remembers with a clear eye watching the soldiers march through her town, smelling the scent of citrus as her grandmother peeled a lemon to steep in shimmering water … how family friends celebrated Christmas when there wasn’t much to celebrate or much to celebrate with, and the inspiration from seeing American soldiers liberating the streets below her window.

I call each of these poets friends and, as always, hearing a poet read their own work adds to the experience – Eric with his baritone, Gary with his soft Appalachian drawl, and Genevieve with her beautiful French accent.

I hope there are events in your area celebrating National Poetry Month where you can hear the work of local–and maybe more well-known–poets. Have you read any poetry this week? If you’re in the path of the eclipse today, I encourage you to go outside and experience the eerie wonder ancient civilizations watched in awe and fear. The stuff poetry is made of. I hope you have a great week – see you next Monday!

I would Have Left You Everything by Eric Sbarge

Subjects Suitable for Poetry by Gary Phillips

A Citrus Taste by Genevieve C. Kissack