You will not find me tweating about daily events. You won’t know when I’m having coffee or what I’ve been doing in my spare time. On first discovering Twitter, I came across poets creating tiny wonders in 140 characters. Intrigued I joined in. The beast comes with several hashtags. To name a few: poetry, micropoetry, haiku, tanka.
So I tweat images. My creating goes up and down. A good walk is one that creates an image as I walk. As I tweat it, I often discover it has something to say. Recently I needed to write a poem based on Wallace Stevens “Thirteen ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” I wanted to present a poem that wasn’t necessarily dependent on one alive thing. I had the inspired idea to print out my tweats. Behold I had a poem. The poem did require that I take control of the order of my various #micropoetry tweats.
Here’s the challenge. Tweat an image everyday. Once a month or so toss them into your mind and mix them up until somehow they work as a unit. Since I conceived of this challenge, I admit I’ve not created an image everyday. But I find images spilling onto the notepad by my bed because I failed to honor them during the day.
Below is the poem I created based on “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.”
Ten Ways of Looking While Walking
I
hot western summer
green reeds mark
the absent stream
they learn to meander like water
II
heat sends dogs and I out early
we meet new people
enjoy arching willow and cattails tracing a stream
all still in the hot air
III
hot western summer
ducks glide in,
rest on shrinking pond
water plants flourish
in warm shallow water
IV
by the pond
a dead tree
yet alive
a great egret
bright in the bare interwoven branches
V
egret stands a sharp white
against the emerald green rice field
when the great bird rises on the hot dense air
it stops time
VI
a half moon faces east
looks forward to sunrise
as sun sets it etches
the dry hills with golden light
VII
cold air slams
into summer
grey sky dulls golden grass
cold lets old energized dog forge onto the sidewalk
with small fast legs
VIII
walking nearly night
moon slivered in a western sky
warmth floats on the skin
autumn’s announced arrival
drowned out by summer
IX
frost defines the morning
afternoon the sun changes that definition
sun slants across the hills
makes them golden, warm
X
dog walk
forthright bright after rain
the sky and air
shout autumn
morning joy
breathing we walked
into a mind and heart of silence
Janice DeRuiter
Yesterday I faithfully printed out my most recent tweats. Right now I’m tossing them into my poet hat to see what they have to say. We’ll all be surprised at what comes out.
Contrasts
heat
a palpable presence
shimmers off concrete
steals the breath
holds dogs in its vice
the fenced zebra sinks
to the ground
white dusty now
black stripes echo
the fence
all alone his dark eyes
shine through the dust
sun slunk behind the clouds
embarrassed by not warming this day
twilight sent a blue lullaby
night married frost
my drive ends
the self I used to be passed
through my hands
poems nestled in books
early writing in colored files
does any of those selves still exist?
70 soon
still not grown-up
don’t plan to
each day a surpise of blue sky
crazy dogs
great boy
friend fun
and endless learning
urban
suburban
Friday evening gathered loosely
in the Whole Food aisles
meet
greet
spend
taste your way
to weekend foodie delight
today I became a clothes
rack for a future attorney
outfitting for court is an unknown art form
racks admire
and appreciate
life contrasts
a man with no family
lives
colorless
a man with wife
child
crashes into a concrete wall
deep and black
the sunflower arches
its spine
turns towards the dark sky
and spits into the storm
bare ground its epitaph
spring, madrone glows gold
on the prow of the hill
at ocean’s bright edge
golden light stretches
across the grass
and rocks
I sit low
each crack
lichen
grass becomes
a possibility of design
Janice DeRuiter
amazing collection of images…and the way they become a poem is fantastic…it is organic poetry…this is the most useful application of twitter i have seen and the most creative.
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