Connect with the natural world for today’s NaPoWriMo prompt from Gabrielle O’Donovan.
Be the voice of something in the natural world
My prompt is to write a poem in the first person from the point of view of something in the natural world that is not a bird or animal – for instance a tree, a river, a cloud. It’s a chance to observe, free associate, have fun. If you can, go outside for inspiration, and spend some time with whatever you are giving a voice to.
I wrote some short poems about trees a few years ago when I was working with Roselle Angwin and recommend her book ‘A Spell in the Forest – Book One. Tongues in Trees’. For more inspiration, you could read Don Patterson’s wonderful sonnet, ‘The Wave’, or Louise Gluck’s ‘The Wild Iris’.
My two short poems are on Willows, and it is worth noting that it is currently Willow month in the Ogham tree calendar.
Salix Babylonica
I am diva of the riverside
I am Monet’s moody blue
I am star-crossed lovers
I am Salome’s seductive dance
I am a coloratura trill
I am the shiver in your spine
the risk of letting go
Crack Willow
I am the hawk’s eye view
I am the blackbird’s call
I am cricket’s straight bat
I am the arch of the harp
I am the song of the wind
I am weaving the earth
flickering your dreams
Gabrielle O’Donovan
Gabrielle O’Donovan is an Australian living on the Cheshire edge of Manchester. She is a member of Second Light women poets’ network and has been published in anthologies, journals, and alongside art exhibitions in the UK, France, and Australia.
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