This month Linda Mitchell posed our Inklings challenge. She had us randomly exchange poems amongst our group and invited us to respond in some way or other to that poem, saying we could “fiddle with, play with, tinker, tear-apart, be inspired or stumped by the poem…”
Margaret Simon sent me her poignant poem, “Porch Lights.”
Porch Lights
after Susan Aizenberg
Porches hear their call–
Carolina wrens
Toot-tweet, toot-tweet, toot-tweet
I am practicing
being in the moment
attend only to sound,
this mating echo
before dawn
but a memory comes
of a wren on the back porch
nesting in a flower pot
left behind when we moved Mom
to memory care–
I see a photo of her
on my phone,
smiling as she always has.
She still follows directions.
The doll she holds
needs her more than I do,
now nestled in her arms
where I once lay.
My sorrow
draws me to
listen, hear
the wrens joined
by a chorus
of bus wheels
rushing down my street
as the day begins.
©Margaret Simon
This poem is steeped with love, loss and longing. I considered many responses to it, and found a wonderful one in Charles Wright’s “Sitting at Night on the Front Porch.” Unfortunately, I didn’t write that poem, so I was still at the drawing board. I thought about responding to the grief of losing one’s mother, to the wrens in the discarded nest, to the porch in the title.
I was especially drawn to the porches, though that felt like a light direction to take from this weighty poem. Still, I’m fascinated by them, and by how society has changed since the invention of AC (among other things) took people off their porches and into their homes. I did a little googling and discovered there’s actually a Professional Porch Sitters Union, and they even have a motto: “*Sit down a spell. That can wait.” Oh! I can really get behind that!
In the end, I fiddled around with all sorts of entry points and forms, including triolets, found poems, golden shovels, free verse, haiku and acrostic responses. I’m sharing two of these poems, wishing I’d had a bit more time to work with a triolet that seemed to be coming together.
In the sorrow of a forgotten flower pot, a wren builds its nest
Life is like that
full of paradoxes,
the cloak of our sadness
woven with intermittent
glinting threads of gold
as bright as the echo
of a wren’s call
©Molly Hogan, draft
Sit Down a Spell*
Porches invite you in
Offer respite from blazing heat, incessant rain or the
Rub of daily life. They create a space for
Companionship–a liminal place where
Heartache and joy intertwine,
Embedded within stories and silence…
Sometimes a porch is like a poem
© Molly Hogan, draft
If you’re interested in seeing what the other Inklings did with this challenge, click on the links below:
Catherine Flynn
Mary Lee Hahn
Linda Mitchell
Heidi Mordhorst
Margaret Simon
The Poetry Friday Roundup this week is hosted by Buffy Silverman. Her post comes with a trigger warning for those who are snake-phobic. Check it out here!
Nix the comfort zone 
You honor me with your responses. I love that porch sitting motto and the way the acrostic invites us to consider a porch as a poem. One of my poet friends who is no longer with us wrote a book of short stories about porches. Thanks for transforming my poem with such grace.
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I am mesmerized by the opening line/title of your first poem, Molly – a poem in that one line all by itself. Gorgeous.
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I agree that the title of the first one is a one-line poem. And the poem itself — so full of truth.
And the second one is so masterfully written that you don’t even notice it’s an acrostic. And that last zinger line that sends the reader back to reconsider the whole poem.
Both brilliant responses to Margaret’s poem (she didn’t hold back with the challenge, did she!?!?)
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Oh, my goodness…”sometimes a porch is like a poem” is a magical finish to your poem. Molly, how beautiful the golden thread–call of a wren woven into grief. You are such a wonderful poet. You inspire me. These two poems are just beautiful.
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Molly, Thanks for sharing how you went about looking for inspiration to respond to Margaret’s poem. I love each of the works you came up with. Life is full of paradoxes – the fleeting moment you forget your parent is gone and those golden threads that ground you when you realize they are. Love. Love. Love. Margaret’s poem was beautiful as well and you rose to the occasion to respond in kind.
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“In the sorrow of a forgotten flower pot, a wren builds its nest” is such an intriguing title and perfect response to Margaret’s poem. And oh how I love “Sometimes a porch is like a poem.”
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I’m glad I *sat down for a spell* with your post, Molly. Kudos to both you and Margaret on your poignant creations. “Sometimes a porch is like a poem” – wow. 🙂
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There are so many echoes in our poems this week, which I suppose shouldn’t be surprising! Thank you for this invitation to sit in this space of companionship and consider the “stories and silence” and the ways “heartbreak and joy intertwine.”
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Molly, what a wonderful mash-up of melancholy and splendor! You inklings discover so much beauty in the moment.
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Both poems are so lovely, pulling at the heartstrings, Molly, honoring Margaret’s poem in many ways. I have many porch memories of different places, love that there is a ‘Professional Porch Sitters Union’. ““*Sit down a spell. That can wait.” is awesome! Yes, AC has probably changed things! Thanks for a wonderful post!
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Here I am finally to admire your ways of honoring Margaret’s poem–first the poem-in-a-title plus the cloak of our sadness woven with glints of gold, and then the liminal porch-poem space where I’d like to meet you all in person some day soon…lovely! Twine is really getting its look in this week, huh?
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Molly, this is beautiful. You took what you first considered a “light” subject and made it meaty and full of life and fellowship:
“They create a space for
Companionship–a liminal place where
Heartache and joy intertwine,”
Beautiful! The wren poem too, and I hope you will continue to work on the triolet that is coming together.
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Oh the “rub of daily life.” Thank you for sharing these poems. I really love this challenge you all did.
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