IGWRT's "Kenia's Wednesday Challenge "One Day"

One day

It's not every day one sees

a girl with butterfly wings,
clouds dance upon hill with little webbed feet,
alphabet letters with paws, tails, ears,
firetrucks painted purple,
turkeys shaped like chubby hands,
smiling sun in the right hand of the sky.

One day packed away in a box, tucked away,
like a child's imagination.


by Margaret Bednar, 10-24-2012


This is for Imaginary Garden with Real Toad's - Kenia's Wednesday Challenge, which is to borrow a line from a friend's poem and use it as inspiration for a surrealist poem.  Well, surreal is very hard for me to do and this really isn't one... but I do think young children grasp it quite easily - all one has to do is look at their art work where elephants can fly and kittens are bigger than a house.

This is also for Friday "Slash" 55

The line I borrowed was from my son's poem below.   He is a sophomore in college and I adore his poetry.  (He is highlighted on the side of my blog and has a tiny fraction of his poems on tumbler - he hasn't kept up with it)  He has hundreds of poems and I hope he gets them organized someday.


Tink

It's not every day you see a girl with butterfly wings

Just standing on the sidewalk.

It's funny how mundane things

Like ten dollar wings, street lamps, and kindergarten chalk

Can conjour such a pondrous fey,

Who waits by starlight for her Pan,

Hair undone, forgotten bangs, astray.

It's not every girl, reminds the boy inside the man.


by William Bednar

IGWRT's "With Thee Conversing I Forget All Time"

With Thee Conversing I Forget All Time

Hand in hand we walk along
This spring like day of birds and song

With thee conversing I forget all time
We smile and dream as up we climb

Swing and laugh, jump and sing
You my queen, and I your king.

by Margaret Bednar, Art Happens, May 17, 2012

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This is for Imaginary Garden with Real Toads "Kenia's Wednesday Challenge".  This was HARD for me to do as I had to find a poet I don't like and find one line I do like from said poet and build a poem around it.  I am embarrassed to say I do NOT like John Milton.  A friend recommended "Paradise Lost" to me long ago and I have tried numerous times to read it and I find it an impossibly tedious poem to read.  I know it is a classic and loved by many and I do keep it on my shelf thinking maybe someday I will appreciate it.   The line I used is the title underlined and is in the Paradise Lost Book IV (between 635-640)  We were supposed to link the poem (we hate) ha ... I have linked you to "Paradise Lost STUDY GUIDE - A simple guide to John Milton's complicated masterpiece"   ... Here is a fun way to spend you summer ;P

By the way...

I have a new "side blog" called i & I.   It is all about spontaneous photography, compositions that catch my eye, sweet moments that can't be choreographed.  They won't be pixel perfect and will often be a bit grainy as they are from my iPhone (the above is an example of my son and his friend :)  (and yes, my friend and I wish arranged marriages come back in vogue).   I invite you to hop on over now and again to "i & I" and ENJOY!  

IGWRT's - Kenia's Challenge: Celebrating Femininity, "The Grand Ol' Hat"

 My Great Aunt, Jennie Beckington, 1905

My Grandmother, Marguerite Hutchins Beckington, born 1892 

The Grand Ol' Hat

                       The

           Good

Ol'

Edwardian Days

When swirling skirts gracefully 

Swept the floor, ankles carefully hidden.

Puffed up like a proud pigeon and resembled

   An instrument measuring time.

Oh, how to show

Individuality? Dare

We suggest such a

Thing?  A prim and

Proper young

Lady

Must wear her hat squarely

Upon her head; no silly feather, please!

But, if one had a desire for a bit of frivolity, well a trip

To the Hat Maker might just do the trick.  A feather added and tilted

To one        side, a splendid ornate hat to promenade.  A       multitude 

Of other       frivolous items could grace the crown:  A poppy,      a plume,

How         about a large cabbage rose?  A bit overwhelming?          Well,

 That was         the very idea!  To have fun, live a little, after all,             it was

 Just                           a hat.  The only thing exposed                          was 

Hair!                        Sometimes splurged, and added a                     bird?

Well,                                 Not a whole bird,                                   nor 

Even                                             a                                           whole

Wing.                                       For                                      many

Years,                             Twenty                           in fact, 

The               Audabon Society            fought

To outlaw such animal cruelty!  

Even hat pins were subject to the law!

Why, they could only extend so far - dangerous

Weapons they.  Known for poking, scraping and stabbing!

Regulations on how far they could protrude without hat-pin

Protectors. Some were banned from public transportation, in fact.

So, no whole birds, but how about bunches of cherries, blackberries

Or ribbon rosettes?  Hats made to whirl, flow and dip; some swathed in

Tulle.  Some glorious hats mysteriously rested upon the hair, thanks to 

The secret of “wadded” hair saved from thy very own brush to make the 

Grand pompadour!   Possibly a bit of mystery might be desired; was that

Even allowed?   It could be arranged with a bit of cobweb trim hanging

Over the face.  Social gatherings were not complete without one’s hat,

In fact it was part of proper etiquette.   Quite disgraceful to be seen

Without!  Even the little widow could not step out... all in black, of

Course.  No feather for that would be too gay but the veil was ok.

Oh yes,  the good  Ol’ Edwardian Days!  Most likely styles to never 

Be seen again. Glimpsed by some of us still alive as we watched

Our grandmothers step out.   Those wonderfully grand ladies who knew 

How to dress in style, held on to their "vogue" until the very end. White 

Gloves, snap purse dangling at the elbow, and perhaps, the hats a

Bit smaller, but there non-the-less.  Ornate glasses framed many of 

Their smiling faces, pearls circling their necks.  Still buttoned up with 

Proper skirt line maintained; although a few inches shorter.  How “modern”

They must have felt.  So here’s a nod to the grand ladies of old, who wore

Those hats with such style and grace.  How were they able to carry off

Such hats as these? Looking at the photos, their eyes might offer a clue.   

The                    Women's

Suffra                     gette's

Atti                        tude?

 In Courage                 And Honor.          

by Margaret Bednar, Art Happens 365, originally written January 2011.

* * * * *

Today this archived poem is linked with Imaginary Garden with Real Toad's - Kenia's Challenge: "Celebrate Femininity".  This was originally written for a Magpie Tales challenge and then again shared at dVerse. So I am SORRY if you have read it before... it just seemed to be an easy fit. 

I remember going through the hat boxes in my grandmother's attic.  They were piled atop one another and these "ancient" hats were packed amongst newspaper.  By the time I was born, I don't think she wore them anymore - and I had a hard time imagining her in them.  How I wish I had those hats today.