The Morehead Writing Project invited us all to join last evening for a 90-minute virtual writing marathon, a poetic tour of the Commonwealth of Kentucky from the very first Kentucky poet laureate to the current poet laureate.

‘Come write, connect with other writers, and escape for a time. This is not a professional development experience. This is a personal development experience that can include the personal refreshments and snacks of your choosing. Invite the other writers in your life to join.’

I joined and this poem is the result.  An annotated map of Kentucky laureates and their poetry was the core of the evening’s activities.  The poem I wrote is below:

Rising Is the Simplest Metaphor

I am in-formed and rising
like foxfire and fireflies on our farm,
reverse meteoric to the sky.
Hope is up.
Good is up.
Rising is good.

Our farm in-forms us,
our holler farm,
our 43.7 acres,
our children,
our 35 years of rising sheep.
And every part of it has been hard.
Our barn collapsing
against itself,
our canoes crunching ashore
on Green River gravel bars,
our uncommonwealth rising to meet us.
I, too, am part of these hills and
their elemental rising up
and that is good.

This land is the way home and
we made that path by walking it.
This rising feels like breath falling
This rising is peace lifting us,
whispering us up
rising easy like the simplest metaphor
rising to the surface,
a face through water.

 

Thanks to the National Writing Project and their Writer’s Studio.