SOLSC #17: Collaboration

It is Tuesday and time to write a 'Slice of Life." 
Thank you  Two Writing Teachers for creating this supportive community
of teacher-writers!

You’ve been poemed ♥️

Her text flashed across my phone screen while I was reading books to my granddaughter. Immediately, a new smile crossed my face, and Bird asked – 

What is it, Nana? Let me see.

Even at two years of age, she understands that my attention was (ever so briefly) diverted, and that the phone is very captivating.

Nothing, hon – I’ll check later.

We went back to our good book, while I held this tiny morsel of excitement about the new poem that awaited me from my friend Dee. 

We’ve been good friends for years and years – Dee is my high school bestie. We live many states apart, but have always kept close. Early last April, we did a weekend girls’ trip together, exploring Richmond, Virginia. Simultaneously, I was participating in the April poetry challenge #VerseLove through Ethical ELA (you should check this out!). 

A prompt that weekend was offered by two writers, Gae Polisner and Lori Landau, to create a collaborative poem, where you take a line from one person’s writing and use these words in a new poem of your own. I read this poetry prompt aloud to my friend Dee, and right there on the spot, we decided to begin our own collaborative poetry journey. 

Dee and I both love to write; we have been avid letter and email writers with one another through the years. We both keep journals, where we write to release. She had never really written poetry, and I am fairly inexperienced with poetry, as well – but we both enjoy poetry immensely. What if we used poetry as a vehicle to share with one another, to connect?

Just as Gae Polisner and Lori Landau shared about themselves, Dee and I created a single google doc for these treasures – Dee & Ree Write Poetry. It is our running log of collaborative poetry…a volley of words. I think I wrote the first poem; she read and reacted and found one line, one small morsel to use in her own poem. And away we went! 

The google doc allows us to write when we – individually – have the time, and to respond whenever. There is no expectation of response time between poems; life can get complicated, stuff happens. There are times when I immediately answer her poem with a poem, and other times when several weeks pass before I find words. There are also no rules about what or how to write. Sometimes I create a poem using a particular poetry form, often it is just free verse. I enjoy sharing about what is happening in my life, and I also enjoy writing other poems that are my venting about the world. The google doc is a poetic conversation between good friends. 

Here we are almost one full year out from the start of this experiment, and we both love love love the writing. We’re not even sure that our poems are any ‘good’ at all, but we love the window this writing has provided into each other’s lives. I know I am writing better, deeper, more wholeheartedly. Perhaps it is because I have a clearer idea who my audience is? I just counted how many poems are in this one document – there are 54 thus far this year, wowsa! We’ve each written 27…averaging two a month; how delightful is that? 

This poetry collaboration has been one of the highlights of my past year, nourishing and joyful.  Let me close with a recent poem of mine to Dee, using the line “we’re making new earth” from her preceding poem –

edge of spring

this chilly grey day at the edge of spring
the guys hung drywall and 
I worked in my son's yard
piling high the broken dried branches 
sweeping browned leaves from the deck
turning the hard soil to transplant 
extras from our place
yes, early this morning, 
Tony dug up mahonia, siberian irises, 
and wispy raspberry plants to share
we’re making new earth
I whispered to the worms
as I dug
I was surprised to see these
little soft-bodied beings
I’d imagined them much deeper 
in the ground this time of year
I guess winter is waning 
after what’s really been a wash 
of a winter, nothing but grey 
brown cold windy this year
still
everything is so clear with bare trees 
I cherish the way light peeks through 
I will miss this
I enjoyed the stillness
working by myself, dreaming
hearing the clunk-tap-gsh of my shovel
yes, I was making new earth