August Blog Bash, Day 11 - Elizabeth Howard @smallstate

Welcome to the Debut
of the August Blog Bash 2012!

I am very much excited and honored to be hosting this new feature series... and it is a great way to end the summer!  This Blog Bash is an impressive talent showcase of poets, artists, and writers/authors from all walks of life.  For each day of this month, one individual will be featured here on this blog, at Origami Lotus Stones, my Twitter (hashtag will be #augblogbash), my Facebook community page, and on my blog page on Writing Our Way Home.  Please be patient while I post on all platforms. 

**Please note that all authors/artists have given me permission to post their work on the following platforms/sites I have just mentioned.  Please do not plagiarize, modify, reproduce, or distribute any work without permission from the original authors/artists.  Thank you!**

If you are interested in participating in this Blog Bash, feel free to check out the details here.

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Today's Feature:  Elizabeth Howard

The extended personification used in this poem is succinct, yet brilliantly descriptive.  Each word is chosen carefully, creating a distinctly memorable and familiar character of the element of water that is not only known on a personal level but also a universal level.  This poem is also visual art in its own way.  Look at the wavy curve the lines within the poem create vertically going down the "page."  Each "peak" of the curve contrasts the two personalities of the water element:  one that is gentle ("Supple shoulders and meditative / Curves") and one that is fierce and powerful ("Picking incessantly at / Granite canyons and / Sucking at the eye of / Hurricanes.").  This poem presents the many faces of Mother Nature at its finest.

"Water Weekly" is another short poem with lots of depth.  The relationship as described in the poem is typical of all relationships (e.g., familial, friendships, etc.):  We all cycle through ups and downs.  Likewise, the poem itself is also visual art.  When a relationship makes "Progress," everything climbs to the peak, and both individuals are happy.  However, when the relationship isn't working, things snowball downhill.  Hence, the poem is in the shape of a bell curve vertically.  I love how Howard uses the Lucky Bamboo as a metaphor for the relationship "Drying / Up," and ironically, the relationship isn't so "Lucky" after all.  Once again, there is conciseness within this poem, yet leaves room for the reader's imagination and interpretation.  Interestingly, this poem too has the element of water.  For a plant to grow ("Lucky Bamboo"), there must be water; likewise, so do all relationships.

Beautiful work, Elizabeth!  Thank you so much for sharing and being one of the contributors! 

(NB:  Text arrangement on MS PowerPoint by Kathy Uyen Nguyen.  Please note that text/graphics will be in this format.)

To check out more of Elizabeth's work, you can click on the following link(s):

Elizabeth G. Howard: Writer, Blogger, Poet (website/blog)
@smallstate (Twitter)


Please do promote this new feature on Facebook, Twitter, etc.!  Thanks so much for all the support!  And look, my blog now has buttons (see below) to make your life easier!  Come back tomorrow for a new artist/author feature!