This poem was published in P* TAG by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong (2011). Poetry Tag is a game which Janet and Sylvia developed in their Poetry Tag trilogy: Poetry Tag, P*TAG (teen poems) and Poetry Tag Gift Poems (holiday poems). Our instructions were as follows:
1) select a photo;
2) write a short response to the photo;
3) write a poem prompted by the photo;
4) choose 3 words from the poem immediately prior to yours and include them in your poem;
5) tag the next poet from a list of poets posted.
I chose a photo of an ear, like the photo below and wrote:
This photo has so many possibilities! I first looked up the anatomy of an ear and began playing with the outer, the middle, and the inner ear. Then I thought of a teen in a coffee shop. She tries not to listen to the conversation going on next to her, but how can she not? It’s a boy she secretly loves. The casual words at the next table have a deeper meaning for her.
The words I chose from the previous poem by Michele Krueger are: wings, feathered, flight, deep and unfolding.
LISTENING
by April Halprin Wayland
They say
ideas
have velvet wings.
I sip a latte
our tables touch—I try to read
I care too much.
And all you say
and all I hear
is tucked away deep in my ear
where words unfolding
marry, meld
and all the marrow which they held
is changed. Is rearranged.
I listen for the feathered flight
of meaning—the gist of things
and so
perhaps
ideas have wings.
