**Original Poetry – Butter Toast Makes You Tall**

Poem on an image of buttered toast

Butter Toast Makes You Tall by Jen Lowry

(Dedicated to my son growing tall)

That butter knife goes clang

Yet again 

Two pieces of honey wheat

Ninja cooking machine

Standing patiently 

Waiting for the moment

The crunch

The toast love

Growing taller by the second

It’s all that buttered toast.

And love.

And moments.

I patiently watch you, honey.

Clang goes my heart. 

You are grown.

This afternoon my son was tasked to write random words on slips of paper and put them in a mason jar. During our One Word Poetry Challenge event on a livestream, two of my poets of the Writing Warriors for Jesus (WWJs), joined me for a fun afternoon of laughter and fellowship. AND dared to take this challenge. The word was knife. Listening to all three takes on the different words reminded me of the power of poetry and freedom. Our experiences, dreams, hopes, thoughts, randomness, beauty, belief, heart – all can come out to play with our imaginations and poetry is born. In three minutes time. One word. One poem at a time. Shared with friends. If you would like to check out the video and join in on the challenge, click below!

Join the challenge. Write your poetry along with the recording, then share it with the world. If you would like to take the next challenge, I’m pulling a word out of the mason jar right now to get you started. The next word is:

Extraordinary

Write a poem using that word in three minutes! Share it! Will you accept the challenge?

Hugs,

Jen Lowry

Thanks to Tish Bouvier, @TishBouvier, for joining us! Her new Haiku book, Everyday Haiku: Life is a Prayer, is releasing on April 17th! Check it out! You’ll love it! https://www.amazon.com/Tish-Bouvier/e/B01MDJW6XO/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1

Thanks to Ann Harrison, http://www.annwritesinspiration.com, for joining us! Her poetry book is now in ebook and audio! Check out her inspirational book of poetry – The Spirit of Creativity: Inspirational Poems for the Creative at Heart on Amazon! https://www.amazon.com/Spirit-Creativity-Inspirational-Poems-Creative-ebook/dp/B0868YHR8C/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1618369578&sr=1-1

Y’all, I’m excited about Fact vs. Fiction: Southern Poetry! Book two of Southern Fiction releases on April 30, 2021! I hope y’all love it! https://www.amazon.com/Fact-vs-Fiction-Southern-Poetry-ebook/dp/B0916BNZN2/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=fact+vs.+fiction&qid=1618369677&s=digital-text&sr=1-1

Original Poetry – The Wrong Shoes

The Wrong Shoes

Buses lined up along the narrow streets

On the corner of Jones

A gray haired man at the stop hanging out

He wore a kind face like Morgan Freeman

With twinkling eyes as if he had the joke I might not get

He was sitting sprawled on the concrete

Not on the bench that was only occupied by one

Woman in a. flowery dress talking with dramatic flair into a flip

Phone

I noticed one loafer was off and one was on

I stared at his brown cobbler style shoe for a moment and wondered

What compelled him to let it slip

His clean green sock pulled tight

Did his feet hurt like mine

Walking from stop to stop

We kept going

Left him there on the cement

With his hands clasped on knees

Would he ride the same bus as phone woman

And sit beside her then

I wondered

What story would he have to tell

When he walked through his door today

Maybe no different than mine

My feet hurt he would say to no one in particular

And not get a reply

Being from a small town any time we get to walk the streets of the big city takes me straight to inspiration. I want to sit on a bench and close my eyes, head leaning back to get the good position for taking in sounds.

At the corner of Jones I couldn’t help but snap this picture. I laughed aloud and told the boys I couldn’t get away from Sweet Potato Jones if I wanted to today. On the way back down the street on the corner of Jones later in the day I witnessed what I wrote about in The Wrong Shoes. The image is as clear in front of me as if I am still walking towards it. We were taking our time at that point. The day was getting closer to that time where everything seems to slow down, long enough to take in a particular scene with a stamp for later.

Now when all I hear are the crickets, the rotating fan, and snores – I find myself reliving the day and the poems present themselves to me. The stranger on the street with one shoe off came back to visit. He made it here with you and me, forever a part of my collection of poetry.

Hugs,

Jen

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Original Poetry – Words Crash Like Waves

Words Crash Like Waves

Words Crash Like Waves

Inside My Head

Fragments

A Sentence Here Or There

Dialogue Pieced Like Strands

Of Jewelry Made By A Child

Mismatched Colored Beads

Not Worn But Kept Hidden

In A Ballerina Box

Buried In My Brain

Worn With A Smile

Of Contentment

Of How All These Words

Crash Like Waves Inside My Head

---

I love to play around with poetry now. Before I didn’t take too many liberties as the poet even though it was my own expression. I have learned over time that the poetry I create is all mine and no one has to cling to it. It’s not forced on anyone else. It just decides to wake up one day and show itself. It lives. I don’t control it anymore.

So, why did you make all the words cap? It isn’t matching APA format. Waves of words like these are powerful. They are stronger to me than the lowercase i. They are loud. They must be capital. No other way to describe how it makes me feel other than BOOM! If you read the way my poem is structured, who gets the wave? Who sees how I liked to shape this one ? I see it even if no one else gets that it was an up and down crest of a magnificent wave abating to rise again but not crash because it is meant to let the eye keep roaming upwards off the page towards my brain.

Weird to probably everyone else but me. I’m okay with that. Welcome to my author life. Stick around and subscribe to my blog for more …

Hugs,

Jen

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