Just wanted to give a shout out to
Perk and Pleasantry, an absolutely lovely poetry blog out of the
BrookfieldNOW online community, a division of
MyCommunityNOW, an online extension of the metro Milwaukee print weeklies and shoppers under the broader
Journal Communications umbrella...
The author is Ronda Larkin, whose byline is "a common mom with uncommon poetic perspectives." I should scarcely impose any other description, except to say that
Perk and Pleasantry is also
persistent. Every couple of days or so I get a new P&P in my blogger reader. Just check it out for yourself--you'll see how productive Ms. Larkin is, week in and week out.
I checked out her facebook page and was interested to read this comment:
"I view the world as being filled with too many unhappy overachievers and am creating balance by enjoying underachievement."
I can certainly relate to that sentiment.
If I were in charge of the levers, this lady would be in every Sunday paper. Of course, I'm told papers
as such are on the way out. Guess it's a good thing Ms. Larkin's on a community web log like
BrookfieldNOW. Here's a traditional media company,
Journal Communications, leveraging its community/free paper press expertise in the digital realm. You might call it textbook, pretty fairly.
Anyway, what I'm getting at is that this lady would go over supremely well in my hometown's local shopper, or pennysaver, or parade, or leisure section, or what have you...
Each poem is a quaint, stuccoed lawn monument to modern breeze. Take this one, for instance, from
3/4/10:
"Flighty Enough"
Driven by innate desire,
We all dream
Of rising higher;
Some to heights as eagles soar.
But such great flights
I don't wish for.
Just...
Ample air beneath each wing:
Sufficient joy
Such flight would bring;
By lifting my feet off the ground,
And raising up
My body, round.
One turkey skimming over land;
That kind of flying
Would be grand!
And this one, from today:
A pain in the neck, I would say;
These slipping bones
In disarray,
Are sparking throbbing inflammation;
Causing jolts
And irritation.
Troublesome, these changing curves,
Of vertebrae
Now pinch my nerves.
But...
Lower spine is yet aligned,
And not a pain
In my behind.
Hehe, tight, right? Read a few of these and it's like you've fallen back into a deep wicker pillow chair.
Unhappy with the path well-travelled,
Dirty, and
In spots, unraveled:
Sadly now, it must be faced.
Years of wear
Need be erased.
Our patterned ways must come apart,
Giving us
A fresh new start.
So...
With a sigh and calm demeanor,
I haul out
The carpet cleaner,
To remove our trodden path.
(It's worst from kitchen
To the bath)
And this one, which is just delicious, and which makes me want to hook Ronda Larkin up with Rachael Ray:
If history, I could revise,
I'd grant the man
A Nobel Prize:
Whose foregone labors calm our ways,
Bringing comfort
To our days;
Providing us with peace, worldwide.
(His valued work
Can't be denied)
The nominee I find appropriate:
He who mastered
Creamy chocolate.
She has a great one about muffins too. The topics range from air fresheners to zoolatry. Her tone is often inspirational, or comical, or both, and usually very self-deprecating. There is almost always a turn--a refocusing, or a breakthrough--often a monosyllable that signals the imminent conclusion of the poem, which usually reveals the lesson or other piece of information (sometimes deliberately hidden) that serves to crystalize the theme of the piece. The voice is humble tongue-in-cheek. A middle-aged everywoman out of the Midwest, a mother, a common-sense curmudgeon, a collector of coo-pahns and colloquialisms... And her attention to detail--rhyme, meter, friendly structural techniques--makes Perk and Pleasantry well worth repeated visits. A+
