W3 Prompt #42; Puente

Wea’ve Written Weekly

I’m squeaking in late with a response to the most recent W³ prompt. This week’s Poet of the Week is Tanmay Philip and Tanmay would have us write a “Puente” poem (Go to The Skeptic’s Kaddish to find out more) with the middle stanza containing the title of a song— (oh-oh; I was working with a line from a song, not a title) Okay, so my puente does not contain a song title, but a line from Patti Smith’s “Dancing Barefoot“; actually, it includes more of Patti Smith’s words from that song (italicized) Further, it is more than three stanzas long, so may not in fact be a puente, though I really like the idea of a puente. This is what the prompt garnered.

We Sing by D. Avery

Running, flying, dancing barefoot with our sisters
over the sun warmed Earth 
clouds, blue-skied imagination, our wings
In love with the Earth, with each other 
safe with our mothers, we sing that
she is benediction
she is the root connection

~We shut our eyes, we stretch out our arms~

Spring is now summer
and we now the mothers
growing and gathering 
with our daughters marveling 
under a moon washed sky we sing that
she is benediction
she is the root connection

~We shut our eyes, we stretch out our arms~

It is an autumn gathering 
our daughters now mothers pulled in their own directions
and we tend the fire with our sisters 
where we roar and laugh under a moon waning 
we dance and sing that
she is benediction
she is the root connection

~We shut our eyes, we stretch out our arms~

welcome winter unafraid as a tree
We know that we are benediction
and we are the root connection
We see with our hearts
our hearts are open
We are re-creation and we
are blessed among women

Here is a link to the song, one of many covers of “Dancing Barefoot”. Patti Smith is in the audience watching First-Aid Kit sing this Rolling Stone top 500 song of all time. While I prefer the artist’s recording of the song on her album Wave, it seems fitting to show these young women’s rendition of the song written by a rock-n-roll pioneer who has long been a role model for girls and women in many arenas.