2012 Poetry Month

Envelope Poems

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THINK NOTHING OF IT
by April Halprin Wayland
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There’s gotta be a word for this.
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For that thing that happens
when I need new tennis shoes
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and then–wow!–look at all the tennis shoe commercials on TV!
and suddenly everyone is wearing tennis shoes.
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Or when I’m walking home, it’s kinda late,
a mom yells, “Dinner time!” out a window,
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and suddenly I smell sautéed onions
coming from the house I’m passing,
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and I smell bacon floating out of the next,
and chicken and rice out of the next.
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Or like today, a college girl, buttoning her green and pink
striped sweater,
nearly tripped on the striped floor of the mall,
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and suddenly I noticed the guy in the candy place
was wearing a striped rugby shirt
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and selling huge red, white and blue
striped candy suckers.
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So I tried thinking about circles.
About donkeys.  About ice cubes.
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But a curly-haired kid in a stroller let go of
his purple and yellow striped balloon,
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which got stuck
in the striped wood of the rafters.
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ACK!
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I tore out of the mall and into the sunshine
which fell in stripes over the striped crosswalk
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just as an orange-striped cat was running across the street
and a car with black racing stripes was rounding the corner.
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There’s gotta be a word for this.
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(c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved
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The story behind the poem:
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I was sitting on the grass at UC Berkeley with my notebook and pen, watching students, professors and parents pass by, wondering what to write about. Then I remembered how I distract myself if I’m nervous or don’t want to dwell on something.  I think of a color, like red, and then look for the things around me that are red.  It always works and it always astonishes me how many items I find, no matter what color I pick.
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With that in mind, I began to notice the checks and stripes people were wearing…and my mind was off and running.
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I put it into an Envelope Poem, so named because the contents of the poem are sealed between the same line at the beginning and at the end.
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It’s your turn.  Pick a color or a shape or a pattern and look for it as you take a walk in a park, a school, a town. Now, write an envelope poem.

 

3 Responses

  1. According to my mother, a wise woman, the name for that is perceptive set. Great poem! And thanks for the prompts–the other day you inspired me to write a villanelle that turned out really well.

  2. Ways to look at the world – through sounds, through patterns, through perceptions. Do we write poetry or does poetry write us?

  3. Ah, Kate–the perceptive set! Thank you–and to your mom, as well! Years ago someone told me it was called a skatoma (sp?) but that doesn’t seem to be the right word when I look it up.

    And glad the poetry prompts are helpful. And that your villanelle turned out really well, (which could be a line in your villanelle)

    And Hannah…yes, and so beautifully put!

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