2016 Found Object Poem Project: Day 3

Welcome to Day 3 of our month-long daily writing project. Newbies, this is an annual community writing project that I host every February. You don't have to be a poet to participate. Short prose pieces are a great way to join in the fun.This year's theme is FOUND OBJECTS. For those of you who are new to the project, please read my introductory post. You'll find more information and all of the Week 1 FOUND OBJECTS at this post.It's Day 3. Let's talk about a new category of found item today, objects we spotted in nature.FOUND: Moth EggsWhat caught my eye about these eggs, stuck on the passenger-side window of my mini-van, was how much the bottom group looked like the continent of South America. I especially like the photograph where the continent of eggs appears to be floating in a sea of sky.The photo I posted as our prompt IS a bit mysterious. I'll put more information about the moth at the bottom of this post.The first person in with a guess was Diane Mayr, who said, "I have no idea what the Day 3 pic represents, so I imagined roe. "Roe Your BoatBy Diane MayrPeculiar, pearlescent,gelatinous beadsare clustered in placeswhere sea creatures breed.Place your feet gently.Avoid, please, the weeds.Sail your boats elsewhere.Let fish life proceed.Margaret Simon claimed to be "stumped" by today's found object, but shared a haiku poem that made me look more closely at the image.Please ignore myprovocative position.My shadow self intrigues.By Margaret SimonI'm fascinated by all the interpretations of these little eggs. Here is Jessica Bigi's poem.Berry PickingBy Jessica BigiBare legs scratchy thistlesGrandmother shadow curlingUnder my feetTasseled fields of winding hillsWindy chimes brushing rose cheeksWhistles of laughter swings from bucketsSweetness of berries feel the breezePurple berry gigglesLet grandmother know I’ve eaten moreThan I’ve put in my bucketAt home just for funWe count our berriesLooks like grandmother has berry giggles tooI tried to heed my own call for imagery of the five senses today. Did I get all five?Found ObjectBy Laura ShovanA continent of lemon drops,sweet bite of foreign wordson my tongue.Bath pearls spilled on mirror top,waxy shells ready to releasetheir tangy scent.A nest of snowy Tiger Mothsabout to burst, consume, cocoon.A blizzard of wings.Like me, Mary Lee  Hahn noticed that the bottom grouping of eggs had a very familiar shape.MysteriesThe mysteries of the world are myriad.Sometimes they look like little balls of butter.Sometimes they clump together in the shape of South America.The mysteries of the world puzzle us.They make us take our glasses off and look so closewe dust our noses with them.The mysteries of the world hold hidden ripeness.Each might contain a new life,or the possibility to change the weather patterns of the entire world.The mysteries of the world cast shadows.Hovering above, they block the sunand send a chill through us as they pass over.©Mary Lee Hahn, 2016Molly Hogan wrote, "This picture was certainly challenging!" I wonder what you are all thinking, now that the mystery is solved.Mystery Orbsby Molly HoganI itch to pick one upsquish it with a POPand see what oozes out,feel the dripping liquidsticky on my pinching fingers.I yearn to biteand sink my teethinto pale, silken greento discoverif they are as juicyas they look,sugar-sweet like candyor tongue-zapping,puckering sour.God forbid they’re bacteria!I like how choosing a setting for her poem creates a totally different feel in Linda Baie's response.The Art OpeningThe beads leapt off the canvas.Adults were amused observing the childwho reached out to touch the beads.They wouldn’t admit their desire to touch, too.Even the shadows felt like mistakes.The artist was that good.Linda Baie ©All Rights ReservedJone Rush MacCulloch is joining us from her blog, DeoWriter.honey globesremains of the hivesun pearls© 2016 Jone Rush MacCulloch all rights reserved***Last in is our friend, Poetry Friday blogger Charles Waters.MARBLE DILEMMAMarbles jumble, ready to rumble,fighting to see who will bepicked to get flickedin the next game.(c) Charles Waters 2016***Donna Smith is catching up on the prompts. She says, "Though I knew these were moth eggs by now, I saw pearls."Grandma’s PearlsI broke my grandma’s pearlsThe horror of it all!But then I took a lookAnd gathered up the fall.I tried to line them upBy going two by twoBut I just could not do itBy twos it would not do.Two roly-poly pearls rolled off,They rolled about the floor;I watched as they rolled down the hallUnder the closet door.With the remaining 85I made one single line,Then very neatly arranged the pearls –Three piles of twenty-nine.I gathered them together inTwo piles when Math was done –Creating South AmericaAnd Greenland, just for fun.My cat pounced into GreenlandAnd they began to scatterHe sent them all around the worldThen departed, pitter-patter.I crawled around on hands and kneesTo round them up againBut somehow most escaped meAnd I only counted ten.Oh, Grandma won’t be happy,She won’t be very pleasedI think there’s only 8 pearls nowTwo flew when I just sneezed!Inside a jar they could be safe,So there I put the restI still had 8 and, don’t you know,I think they were the best!But then the jar with precious pearlsOpened when it tipped,It rolled and rolled and turned aboutUntil those 8 pearls slipped.There were no more inside the jarNo pearls that I could seeI don’t know where they rolled to.Oh, where could those pearls be?So I’m a little worried,I might be in some trouble;Do you think I can make more pearlsBy blowing pearly bubbles?©2016, Donna JT Smith, all rights reserved***You'll find Carol Varsalona's digital design for today's poem at her blog, Beyond LiteracyLink.WonderClustersof neon ballshangingin mid airwaitingfor thehuman touchto flickthemaway.©CVarsalona, 2016Thanks so much for joining me today, everyone. Wasn't it fun to have a UFO: Unidentified Found Object to work with?I’m heading out to a high school drama club meeting this evening. I'll continue to post responses to FOUND OBJECT 3 as they come in, but may not be adding additional poems until tomorrow morning.See you tomorrow for Day 4.If you’d like to read what we’ve written so far, here are links to this week’s poems:Monday, February 1FOUND OBJECT: 100 year-old mailing boxPoems by: Diane Mayr, Molly Hogan, Mary Lee Hahn, Linda Baie, Jessica Bigi, Margaret Simon, Laura Shovan, Matt Forrest Esenwine, Catherine Flynn, Jone Rush MacCulloch.Tuesday, February 2FOUND OBJECT: Fancy peppers and producePoems by: Mary Lee Hahn, Jessica Bigi, Diane Mayr, Molly Hogan, Laura Shovan, Linda Baie, Matt Forrest Esenwine, Margaret Simon, Jennifer Lewis.More about the moth:It took me about fifteen minutes of internet searching to identify Mama Moth. She is a Virginian Tiger Moth, Spilosoma virginica. You can read more about her at Buglifecycle. There is a photograph of this moth's eggs at the top of the page. They are a perfect match for our Day 3 FOUND OBJECT.