"Within Reach"--Ekphrastic Work Featured Today 📓🖊📸
I’m thrilled to announce that a poem I wrote, “Within Reach,” based on a fantastic photograph by talented film photographer Martí Blesa was published today as part of Film Shooters Collective’s NATIONAL POETRY MONTH, DAY 5.
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Check out all of the posts each day during April at Film Shooters Collective!
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Within Reach
by Melanie Faith
It is, indeed,
something
good to be
one and small
of many who are
one and small.
It is, indeed,
filled
with gray
potential,
elemental
to advance
in ordinary sandals
against cement.
More and more
rectangles
await our future.
Stacked lenses
mirrored,
so when we wave—
that pleasant
pain bloomed
there in the back
of the neck—
we wave back
looking up.
🌟National Poetry Month Ekphrastic Project 📸🖊
Know what’s just around the corner?
National Poetry Month. (Making April everyone’s fav month for 25 years and counting.) 😊
Know what else? I’m thrilled to say that I’ve been asked to take part in Film Shooters Collective’s rad project that pairs film photographers’ work with poets’ verse each day in April. That’s right: I’ve penned a poem based on the amazing art of a fellow photographer. Stay tuned! 📸
Be sure to check Film Shooters Collective’s Insta and website each day for your daily dose of delicious inspiration.
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Care for some sweet poetic inspiration in the meantime? Check out my book—filled with oodles of tips and prompts created with poets in mind:
Poetry Power
Now also available in the 3-book series for e-readers!
Signed copies available at: WritePath Productions, my Etsy store
✨📸 My Photo Chosen for Exhibition 📸✨
Thrilled to announce that my fine-arts photo, "Dad's Razor," was chosen for PhotoPlace Gallery's "The Poetry of the Ordinary" online gallery among the work of so many talented artists.
Check out the whole exhibition (clickety-click on the Online Gallery tab underneath the sofa-and-city-view shot ).
My Poem, "Wobbly," Featured ☕📚
So pleased to announce that my latest poem, “Wobbly,” was featured tonight as part of Lee Ann Berardi Smith’s wonderful series on Facebook of poetry videos during the pandemic, with the hashtag: #poemdemic.
Check out Lee Ann’s amazing video reading (clickety links above), my poem text (below), as well as other excellent videos of Lee Ann sharing verse from many inspired poets.
“Wobbly”
the stack of books
beside the nightstand
beside the bed
got wobbly again
I wouldn’t know why—
I only added three new
hardcovers last week
to the tippy-top
so I sat on the floor
this morning
on the carpet
with the tea stain
my knees tucked in a way
that would let me know
when I stood up
that they loathed to be tucked
that way, and I sorted
and pulled two or three mid-stack
volumes of softcover poetry
to send to an out-of-state poet friend
and a thick historical novel
that had been so-so
but a swap with another friend
and the memoir
about the 1980s painter
to toss into the free
book box by the gift shop
the next time I go past
and the rest,
like elementary-school
friends, I set out
for indeterminate recess
I let them group together
still holding hands
beside the printer
I know, despite my efforts
at any minute,
they might sing that song,
might play that game,
that goes
we all fall down
✨ "3 Suggestions on a Saturday Night" ✨
I have the pleasure of guest blogging today at Nicole Pyles’ wonderful blog, World of my Imagination.
Check out my “3 Suggestions on a Saturday Night” for some literary, movie, and audio amusements.
"Journaling as a Discovery Tool for Current Projects" 🖊📕
Splendid news: I’m guest blogger today at CreateWriteNow!
My article, “Journaling as a Discovery Tool for Current Projects,” was published this morning.
Also check out journaling prompts, Mari’s marvelous book, Journaling Power, and other inspiring journaling resources at CreateWriteNow!
My Poem, "Aim," Published 🖋📓
So pleased to announce that my poem, “Aim,” was published in the current (December 2020) issue of Songs of Eretz. It has a refreshing “Spring” theme— more on that in the editor’s note.
The issue contains the poems of many very talented poets to savor, including meaningful poems by my dear friend, Charles A. Swanson, who is a featured poet in this and many other issues. Check out his poignant elegy to his beautiful granddaughter, Addi. It is an honor to share this issue as “contributor twins” with this steadfast friend from my grad-school days. Here’s to many more of his publications.
Read the complete issue at: Songs of Eretz.
“Aim”
Melanie Faith
That was the night we sped barefoot
down the embankment
across the rolling lawn
past the fountain outside the dining hall, past
Diana the huntress
her bow and arrow pointed perpetually
skyward. Her aim: a silvery spattering of almost-
summer stars. Our aim: celebrating the end
of semester. Our aim: disruption. Each shimmer
of water from rotating sprinklers
a world within a world we had yet
to step into, landed light
and wet on our bare
shoulders. We were a spinning
folly before equilibrium, the best kind.
The brick-tower clock struck two. Someone
squealed from the impact of the cold,
another someone shushed, but it was half-
hearted, against the mirth. Diana
and her bow, at the top of the hill, steady
she kept watch, peering the other way,
head tipped upward to her map of constellations:
ever-aiming into the many night spoils.
Enough stars to gather and gather again
in our open arms.