I love starting the week with gratitude.  Plus it’s NaPoWriMo (National Poetry Writing Month.)  Yay!  A challenge wrapped in blessings.  Umm…hmm.

The challenge:

write a poem that begins with a line from a another poem (not necessarily the first one), but then goes elsewhere with it.

The poem I  picked is The Chambered Nautilus.  It’s the poem that my novel keeps circling back to, so it’s dear to me.  Still, I never had the patience to memorize it..

This is the ship of pearl, which, poets feign, 
Two lips and cheek recline at table,
A child's repose. 
As lovers' ardor shaken; bend to regain anew.
Glances linger, hope flames and departs
Green blades push through prickly death
Protecting young tenderlings from the hunter
Under aging feet as 
warmth expands the dying tulips.
Memory fades, phantoms linger, clear.
Uncle and son sojourn miles together,
Deliver a last word, connect with new,
Before traveling different paths toward home.
Birthdays, death days, slow days become faster,
Spring fades winter, speeds toward summer solstice.
Vanity of vanity or Grace
In all things birth the divine.

Here are a few photos that spurred my gratitude and poetry.