Yesterday on Ethical ELA, host Kim Johnson invited poets to write mirror poems: “Find a poet whose work inspires you and write a mirror poem of your own by taking a root from a poet’s work and allowing it to breathe life into your own inspired creation. This may be in the form of a borrowed line, a repeating line, a section or stanza, or an entire poem…”
There are a couple of breathtaking lines I love at the end of Billy Collins’ poem, “Tuesday, June 4th, 1991” – he is writing about dawn coming and “offering a handful of birdsong and a small cup of light.”
For Day Eight of National Poetry Month, here’s my mirror of those last five words, in the form of a pantoum:
To My Granddaughter, Age 5
(with love from Franna)
a small cup of light
scooped from ocean waves
my sparkling little love
dancing through my days
scooped from ocean waves
my giggling water sprite
dancing though my days
now such a sleepy sight
my giggling water sprite
goodnight, goodnight
now such a sleepy sight
to me you are, you are
goodnight, goodnight
my sparkling little love
to me you are, you are
a small cup of light
*******
Special thanks to Kim for sharing my poem “Listen,” which she mirrored so beautifully. See both poems and the process here: Ethical ELA VerseLove 7/30: Mirror Poems.
lit bits and pieces 
Fran, thank you for a delightful pantoum that captures the joys of a 5-year-old coastal kiddo so perfectly! Collins’ poem seems to be popping up in so many different places lately, and I enjoy re-reading it every time it does. I look forward to future poems about your “giggling water sprite!”
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Thanks so much for these gracious words, Tim; I imagine my little water sprite will be surfacing quite often. 🙂
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I hope so!
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I can’t love this poem more. How each line twists around again like curls or ribbon! Scooped from ocean waves!
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Thank you, Margaret – in my mind was the image of light playing on those waves; my little grandgirl is made of that.
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I have one, too. A ballet water sprite. I adore this poem and wish I could have written it. Perfection, Fran.
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Thanks so much, Janet ❤
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There is such joy here. And the simplicity of your language is deceiving. I’m guessing it took WORK to craft this poem just so – I mean, to apply BOTH the pantoum AND the mirror poem forms is already a challenge. But to bring it forth with such a clear, vivid eye? THAT is art.
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Well, I have learned to work the pantoum a little more… as in, maybe play with the ending first…this one in particular I wanted to be light. It’s the metaphor, and also needed to be childlike. That was my thinking, anyway. Thank you, Friend!
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