I took your picture; you took mine. Then, a turtle – Summer! the first day.

(No need to mention Walmart.
Nobody thinks that’s much fun.)

© 2017 – Laurel Archer

This summer could be different.  For years the guys have been the summer adventurers – hikes, gondolas, up town, down town, around town – while the girls have stayed home.  That was our routine and it worked.  But routines have changed and this leaves Emma and I surprisingly free to be a little more adventurous.

So what’s a poet-mom to do but muse and write it down (If Emma was prone to the eye roll, it would be inserted here.  She’s more inclined to put her foot down…but I think she’s actually up for this.  Not probably the poetry, but getting out there.).

Allen Ginsberg, an American poet, adapted the Haiku into what he considered a form more suited to English.  Simply he strung the 17 syllables of the Haiku, ordinarily arranged in three lines of 5/7/5, into one line of poetry.  He called them American Sentences and this is the form I want to build around for this summer writing project, guided by outings with my daughter Emma.  They will be our  Summer Sentences, a poetic album of our wanderings together.

And already I’m adapting the form.  Above, I have added on what would be the final two lines of a Tanka.  Tanka is another Japanese form of poetry consisting of 5 lines.  The first three lines are a Haiku (5/7/5/) and the final two lines of 7 syllables each.