There's something about writing with a pencil. When I find the perfect one... the "right" one... my hand fairly flies across the page. The lead should be soft enough to make a satisfying mark, and the ease of erasure removes the anxiety of putting words on the page. A pencil mark is easy to change, and the pencil feels good in my hand. Confident. Easy. Ready to go.
Some time back I wrote this pencil poem, and I don't think I've shared it here, so here goes:
Hug it!
© Karen Eastlund
Thanks for joining me today, and a huge thanks to Ruth who is hosting today from Uganda! Click HERE to find her post and links to the rest of the gang in the Poetry Friday community.
Special Alert:
Check back here tomorrow for my penultimate line to the
2023 Progressive Poem.
Pencils feel industrious to me. Anything is possible with a pencil, while pens feel demanding.
ReplyDelete“You’d better get this right the first time,” they say.
I’ll take a pencil over a pen any day!
Your poem made me laugh, especially the part about pencils making a point.
I like your use of double meanings in your poem: Pencils make faces for instance. I like pencils, too, mostly because of its eraser.
ReplyDeleteKaren, wonderful. There is also the perfect pencil sharpener. I was at an estate sale recently, and I found an electric pencil sharpener I used to have, which was perfect. It was in my classroom, so it was usually too full and sometimes jamming, but now in retirement it's all mine! I like a good pencil too.
ReplyDeleteI love "It doodles, erases
It even makes faces!" Masterful!
I love "wiggles your words/into print" Karen. I do have a favorite pencil & I like using it in my journals but it's an automatic Pentel Twist-Erase. I have to keep a few on hand because a granddaughter steals them from me! You are brave to take that next-to-end line - looking forward to it! : )
ReplyDeleteYay for pencils! I love your "good point" line. And erasing is so amazing.
ReplyDeleteI eagerly await your line of the Progressive Poem tomorrow! I like that the hand off is Karin to Karen.
Ha! Your playful poem is so true. I love a good pencil...and will keep it near me so that I don't have to choose another one. Love that word, 'wiggle.' That's exactly what writing feels like. Bravo!
ReplyDeleteHi Karen, Ode to those pencils. As a teacher there is a lot of variation on a theme and oh they wre so useful as your sweet poem describes. I love the when it "woggle your words into print." And the rest. The perfect pencil in a classroom definitely does wonders and NEEDS the perfect sharpener. Oh the stories the ones from my room could tell. Looking forward to you Progressive Poem line today. Wish I could make each day be 72 hours. I am a slow composer so I have 2 poems to create/finish/perfect for a reading and am behind. (Middle name these days.) Janet Clare F.
ReplyDeleteKaren, your pencil poem is full of chuckles, "makes a point-wiggles your words". While I am more of an ink pen person, I love color pens for the fun it brings to a printed page. I can't wait for your next to the end PP line.
ReplyDeleteI found my favorite pencils for sale in a bookstore recently, and was thrilled and bought a dozen. So your poem speaks to me, and I will indeed go hug my pencils. Ha!
ReplyDeleteThis is fun, Karen! Unlike you and most of the commenters, I love a pen. A nice liquidy one. Pencils feel too faint and require too much pressure--they always feel like more work to me. :>D
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on writing with pencil! I have a favorite mechanical pencil that has been my writing partner for years now. We make a good team. I'll go hug it right now!
ReplyDelete