Poetry Friday - Something New Discovered

   It's Poetry Friday, and Jan Godown Annino is hosting HERE at Bookseed Studio. She's sharing a poetic basket filled with music, book recommendations, and special calls for poetry! Thanks for hosting, Jan! 

  

            Many of you know that I volunteer at a unique used bookstore. It's a non-profit run entirely by volunteers. I am the volunteer coordinator, and I am in charge of donations with one other person. The store, with the exception of a few new books purchased for one "new" shelf, has three floors of all, used, books. Each week, donations come in, often so many with our small storage available that we must close the donations until the next Friday. On Thursday afternoons, my crew, some older retirees and several teens, go through the books and organize them in various ways for shelving. It's hard work, but also amazing and wonderful to see what arrives in the boxes, mostly gems, but some junk that sadly includes books falling apart and smelly! In all, though, we manage to have hundreds of books in our inventory through the kindness of many.

          I've taken the Poetry Sisters' challenge this end of January. Here's what Tanita wrote last month! 

           "The Poetry Sisters met on Sunday to map out our writing prompts for the year. We have a plan and a prompt for January. Would you like to try this month's challenge? We will be writing a tanku, a poem that begins with a tanka, followed by a haiku written in response. A tanku can be any length, but each verse should be written in response to the one before. You can find an example at Rattle: Poetry. Are you with us? Good! Please share your poem on January 31st in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals. We look forward to reading your poems!"

  Don't Call It Work

 

I’m at the bookstore

sorting out book donations,

keep curious eyes

for ephemera discards.

Imagination ignites.

 

Maui Boarding pass.

thank you letter to Emma.

Groceries to buy;

only one makes me smile –

something special for Sam.

Piled in a basket,

the guesses only maybes –

characters appear.

 

                     Linda Baie © 

 

        I've received more marvelous postcards, will thank everyone and share next week! The kindness shared keeps the dark away!