This month Linda Mitchell posed our Swagger writing challenge: to write about something seen in many ways. The prompt was to pattern a poem after Pat Schneider’s “The Moon Ten Times,” a poem that sees the moon in many ways. I loved the way this prompt stretched my brain, and I played around with focusing on the wind, a river, winter and a tree. Ultimately, I chose to consider the many ways to see a maple tree.
Maple Tree, Ten Times
- Spring reservoir
sap rising like a song–
sweet and clear
- Wooden cradle
gently rocking
newborn birds
- Open air venue:
Dawn chorus
performs
- Nature’s
verdant
parasol
- Autumn firecracker
rocketing branches
of crimson and gold
- Calm eye
in a swirl
of whirligigs
- Sky quilter
sections the blue dome
into patchwork pieces
- Icy wind chime
glazed limbs flash
tinkle and clink
- Earth’s fingers
stretch
trace the clouds
- Winter’s needlework
bold stitches anchor
sky to earth
- ©Molly Hogan, draft
To check out what the other Swaggers have done with this challenge, click on their names:
Heidi Mordhorst
Margaret Simon
Linda Mitchell
Catherine Flynn
This week’s Poetry Friday Roundup is hosted by Mary Lee Hahn at her blog, A Year of Reading. She’s sharing a link to NPM projects and the Progressive Poem, and also the first and second poems in her NPM project of creating daily haiku.
Nix the comfort zone 
Our maples are dramatically in bloom right now. Throughout the year, they are everything you listed in your poem. I especially love “Autumn firecracker.”
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Mary Lee, I had a stanza about those crimson tassels! They are so striking against the early spring landscape.
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Oh, Molly! Well done. All the ways that a maple tree is part of the show of seasons. That quilt, that open air venue. Such a rich, rich poem. There’s something about that rising sap that creeps into a lot of my writing too. It’s magical to me. Well done!
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Thanks, Linda. I really enjoyed this prompt and have several ideas in mind for revisiting it again. The process is brain-stretching, kind of like a puzzle.
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[…] Heidi MordhorstLinda Mitchell who also has the next line for the 2021 Progressive Poem! Catherine FlynnMolly Hogan […]
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Partial to wooden cradle and winter’s needlework that kind of match the theme of my poem. I love your nod to this beauty.
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Thanks, Margaret. I’ve decided I need to learn how to sew so I can learn all the cool sewing words and use them as metaphors and images. lol
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Consider locating the natural objects of your affection in a coda. Beautiful tree! Your yard? Our son-in-law has tapped two maples in their yard and has curated some delectable syrup.
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This particular maple is in Freeport, Maine at a place called Pettengill Farm Preserve. It’s a lovely walk back to an abandoned (and preserved) old house overlooking rolling fields and tidal waters.
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Thanks, we’ll check it out. Do you know of Barbara Kingsolver’s novels based in nature. “In my own worst seasons I’ve come back from the colorless world of despair by forcing myself to look hard, for a long time, at a single glorious thing: a flame of red geranium outside my bedroom window. And then another: my daughter in a yellow dress. And another: the perfect outline of a full, dark sphere behind the crescent moon. Until I learned to be in love with my life again. Like a stroke victim retraining new parts of the brain to grasp lost skills, I have taught myself joy, over and over again.”
Barbara Kingsolver, b. 1955
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Your poem captured the Maple, 10 times over, Molly. I especially love “a swirl of whirligigs”. 🙂
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I have such happy memories of playing with those whirligigs!
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Gorgeous! I especially like 4. and 7, “sections the blue dome.” This has been a very productive challenge!
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Thanks, Heidi! I loved this challenge. Your milk focus was fabulous!
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Molly, thanks for sharing a wonderful poem and an intriguing form. Trees are an important part of my learning life right now, so I especially appreciate your subject!
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Tim, I’d love to hear more about your learning life with trees!
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I love that you captured so many moods of maple trees, especially the “autumn firecracker” and the “icy wind chime.” Well done, Molly!
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I love this: “the many moods of maples.” That could be another way to approach this challenge!
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Ooh, I think the wooden cradle has to be my favorite. This is a wonderful melange of images.
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Thanks so much. I had to cut myself off at 10 and then I thought of even more after I published. A richly rewarding prompt!
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This is fabulous! I can’t even choose my favorite part. Maybe the cradle, too, like the last commenter.
Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
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Thanks, Ruth! I thought of doing one with birds as well, which might appeal to you, too 🙂
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I love all those parts that we love from a maple tree, Molly. Not many grow here well, so I love when I find one with “Calm eye/in a swirl/
of whirligigs.” Awesome collective!
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Thanks, Linda. I used to have such fun with those whirligigs when I was a kid!
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Love all your maple-y views. I often find myself taking photos looking up at the sky through branches–patchwork pieces describes it perfectly.
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I love that view!
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Molly, the whole poem is just glorious, but the wooden cradle–that’s my favorite image. Thank you!
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Thanks, Laura.
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I love these different views of the maple–such a glorious tree.
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I love maples in all seasons–such lovely trees!
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Yes! The royal maple! My favorites are the Autumn Firecracker stanza and the wind chime a lot. It really takes perseverance to keep finding 10 (or fewer) ways to write about your topic. Lovely. Maybe it could end up being a guessing game?
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The guessing game idea is fun, Janet!
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I like the guessing game idea! Great job with your tribute to maples, Molly. I esp. like the wooden cradle, too.
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Thanks, Tabatha!
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