A daily poetry practice to generate and sustain the Life/Lines among us, for published and novice poets alike
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Prompt
Write a short poem (rhyming not necessary) that includes each of the following 5 words (anywhere and in any order). Poems should not exceed 7 or 8 lines.
learn
listen
build
flow
community
Send us your poem via our Submissions page or post on Twitter or Facebook using the hashtag #lifelines.
Today’s words were contributed by guest curators Faith Sandler and Félipe Martínez, who work together at The Scholarship Foundation of St. Louis. They collaborated with nine artists to compose Know Us, a digital exhibit in celebration of the many students who’ve come aboard along the way to the organization’s recent centennial year.
Poems submitted for April 20
Outside, snow's cruel community replaces
spring. It took so long to build,
and so little to break. You
touch your forehead to mine, and I whisper
something stupid. When, perhaps, or how long.
The broken flow from your mind to mine.
Listen, I want to say. Will it always be
like this? Will it hurt
for good? Will I never learn?
Gwyneth Henke
***
Learn to Listen
For the faintest flutter
Of misinformation flowing
Through the community
Join hands and build
A filter to sort out all the mis’s
Lay them in the sun to dry
For later recycling.
Carol Haake
***
How does whiteness linger?
Having fallen one by one –
the descent, a discordant flow.
Minutes later lies community;
the shape built appears monolithic.
I listen for a voice but
learn not of an individual one.
Lisette Dennis
***
An Almost Absurd Polonius Poem But Not Quite Frivolous
listen to the mumbling voices,
discern their meaning, learn from the choes
in your ears but also in your heart,
build sentences from words, imprison yourself.
Take ebb and flow of meaning
and let your mind and heart be a community.
Let it interact and fire cannons of adaptation.
Words can sink ships. So can education.
— Dan Cuddy (probably should leave my name off, but it is superfluous anyway)
***
Hush
We might be able to build a community
if we would just stop, hush, and listen
to young, quiet voices. We could learn
from the flow of our elders’ wise words,
instead of closing our eyes and ears
in the rushed pursuit
of the almighty buck.
Rebecca Carron Wood
***
Trust the community
Listen to them.
Flow with them.
Learn to build
With them
Instead of destroying them.
— J. Thomas
***
Building trust
starts from learning
with humility.
Listen
to the flow of narrative
from a community.
Look eye to eye
and truly see.
Yixuan Chen
***
A Spring Later
In the building tension of the banal courtroom,
We tautly listened through the judge’s formulas, for
That one word from which would flow either rage
Or reconciliation, and watched Chauvin’s mask behind
The mask, the only movement the darting eyes.
(Did they speed up when the word was said?)
Behind him, a court official typing on a laptop, a box of Kleenexes,
And on the screen beside him, we saw a community
Exhausted in relief.
Have we now learned to hope?
Robert Henke
***
Minneapolis April 20, 2021
We’ll learn, this is not justice.
It’s an echo chamber we listen to for a news
cycle, nothing that the community can build
from, nothing that has equality flow
or hatred ebb. It’s not even a joyous victory,
but we will take it. Every time.
— M.E. Hope
***
Listen, child, and look
Beneath. Seek within.
Build your community on the banks of justice.
Let flow our life from your heart.
(Debra Kennard)
***
MY WAY AND THE HIGHWAY
The politician deceived with impugnity
Lied to those who’d listen in the community
“The money will flow
Learn from me ‘cause I know”
But “Build it now or never“ sowed disunity.
TED
***
While We Wait
A salute to peacemakers who validate and listen,
listeners who learn to embrace differences,
learners who build community relations;
community activists who embrace the flow
of peaceful intention and declare
a moratorium on hate.
Linda O’Connell 4/20/21
***
New Possibilities
Learn to build community if you listen to the flow of suggestions.
Be willing to change and acknowledge divergent views.
Abandon the status quo for possibility.
New suggestions lead to new outcomes.
Dare to try a new path.
Margaret Fourt Goka
***
If you care
really care
If you listen
really listen
you will flow
with intention
you will learn to
build a community
inclusive and welcoming
but for whom?
Sara Burke
***
Title: A Love Letter to Baltimore//Dear Larry Hogan
My home is a city on fire.
That builds & flows and doesn’t need your help.
When will you learn it’s more than “The Wire”
But, a place where community is more than “yourself.”
I love it and I hate it here
But, no matter where I am listen & believe
There is a me in home
And I’ll always bring Baltimore with me.
— Oli Brann
***
words flow
no one listens
to build community
we must learn
that unity grows
in the loam
of listening
Warren Hauff
***
Minnesota to Missouri,
the Mississippi does still flow.
Along the edges, across the land,
first listen, then see,
what is essential, who is community.
No matter the verdict(s),
commence the tear-down
and begin the design-build of democracy.
— faith
***
I want my community
to be diverse-
to build upon ideals-
to learn from each other-
to listen
with the beat and flow of an open heart.
***
Eddie Would Go
To surf is to feel the flow
You must learn to swim extraordinary well
To brave the swell
Listen to your instincts and senses
And those who have come before
The spirit of Aloha is an amazing way of life
to build community
Enter the water - with a clean spirit
Clear conscience and mind
(harmony, mercy, grace, kindness)
Like walking on water or flying
Your fellow surfer in the water with you
Is your brother
If anything happens, he is the first one
Who is going to help you
K.J. Boehler
***
To listen is to learn
to flow within
a community in order
to build a better one.
— Jamie Moog
***
Learn, she pleaded, dig deep and come up strong.
Listen, he urged, to the other.
Build, they cried, make something that will outlive us.
Flow, I sang, find the way between the rocks that will always be there.
And at last, a community, in unison,
found their places in the hymnal and began.
Steve Givens
***
The Buckel (small hill)
My great aunt took me
to the hill outside of town
(in the old country).
We climbed the winding path
bordered by terraced plots
fronted with rocks.
Stone steps led steeply
one green level to the next.
The flow of her voice
like the hum of bees
wafting between the grapevines
and the trees. We kept a cow here
during the war, she said,
with milk for the community.
There was so much
to listen to and learn.
We reached the patio
built by her uncles.
I lay down on the cobbled stones
breathed in the mossy smell
of time and home.
J. Kiefer
***
listen, learn
go with the flow
and then break the
status quo
to build
a new community
That’s how we are meant to live
Jey Sushil
***
Listen. . . . . Listen. . . . . I mean really listen!
If you build your part of the conversation
While others are talking. It is like you are in your brain prison.
You are missing the flow of conversing and simply rehearsing.
You’ve got to learn that listening brings forth unity
The opportunity is at hand for you to understand
It is a time to listen and learn to build a great community.
Maureen Kleekamp
***
The Rhapsody in a Serenade
Hark!
Listen!
Hear the rhapsody of the stream,
its music flows from the rocks.
Cardinals build nest nearby,
a community of wrens fill the trees.
Their songs add harmony
to the stream’s serenade.
How did they learn it?
Terrie Jacks
***
immerse, listen, learn,
dive into the flow--
this is how we build community
kwin
***
everflowing,
water shapes the land,
building communities along the way
its silence tells us to
listen to it, learn from it
John J. Han
***
listen and learn
then build
into a flow
of community
by Lloyd Klinedinst
***
Reading, ‘n Riting ‘n Rithmatic
Taught to the tune of a Hickory Stick
Listen, Learn, Immerse, and Involve
Engage with all you are trying to solve
In the community, build and show
The current of time continues to flow
— Chad Savage
***
If we could learn to listen…
No comments, no advice – just listen.
That could help build a better community-
Kindness might flow through all humanity.
Cat
***
So tempting, to
"learn to listen."
Smile, nod, wait until the hate spews forth,
cracking the foundation
of community.
How to build? Throw away the mortar.
Listen instead to Lao-Tse--
let your actions flow around
fear, cruelty, poverty, loathing.
Instead of falling asleep happy because you listened
Do.
— Jeannette Cooperman
***
My dad always said to go with the flow.
I didn't listen: and you know why.
So I could wind up in a community
where we build castles out of
free canned goods. But I love to learn.
Yesterday my dearest friend
erased a whole forest with his finger.
— Matthew Freeman
***
We Don’t Know And It Doesn’t Matter
The flow inexorable
It might even build
Community
In spite of ourselves
We learn to
Listen
James Goodman
***
Headline image: Doan Tuan via Unsplash