During our Sunday Seed this past weekend, Bill Preston reminded us in his tribute to our friend Earl Parsons, by writing a poem in the poetic form that Earl had proposed a while back. Earl call it an “Appreciate” explaining it’s origin from the children chant “Two, four, six, eight, who do we appreciate…” So as such, the stanza of the poem has two words in the first line, four in the second, six in the third line and finishes with eight words in the last line. I believe you can string stanzas together with that configuration.
So write your poem in Earl’s form, Appreciate. Let him know you have him in your thoughts, and I’m sure he would certainly do just that, appreciate your efforts.
SARA’S APPRECIATE:
FLOATING
a mermaid
swishing in the sea
emerald water, coral reefs. Seaweed tickles
my fins. I awaken to same old me
WALT’S APPRECIATE:
EARL’S MESSAGE
Earl messaged
with me on Facebook
telling of his upcoming medical procedure.
I assured him prayers would be raised up.
My thoughts
center on our friend.
His faith will lead him on,
our love will keep him in our hearts!
(C) Walter J. Wojtanik -2016
POETIC BLOOMINGS 
Responses
Unless I am mis-remembering, a Parson’s Poem is syllabic and has five lines, the syllable count being 2-4-6-8-7, in successive lines;the last line having the same number of syllables as “who do we appreciate?”
Walt, thank-you for your poem. SO many suffering, it seems. Earl, I hope you feel our prayers and sense God’s peace. That goes for the rest of my poet-friend’s struggling as well!
First you,
Then me, together ‘we’
And ‘we’ is better than ‘I’
Whether we laugh or whether we cry
I hate
To think of you
Alone, when we should be together
…everyone needs someone with which to weather weather
Don’t you
Agree, my dear, ‘we’
No matter what ‘we’ must weather
It is much more bearable when we’re together
What a wonderfully tender piece
Appreciating the Appreciate
No need
to meter or rhyme.
Just let go the word flow.
Not my normal style, but I’m digging it.
Hah!
Come spring
Celebration
Earl will be strong again
Poeming his heart out with us
What grand blooms will burst forth then
yes, let us hope so.
Amen to that
ROLE MODEL
Hey, Earl,
you’re in good form,
a praise-worthy poet,
a go-to man folks look up to
when learning about courage.
#
Spot on
MOM
Hey mom
You already should know
That you are loved and respected
You are a mother that listens without judgement
Copyright @ TMC 2016
The best kind
Guest
sometime
some day or night
peace might knock on my door
I will put out the welcome mat
Guest -2
sometime
some day or night
peace might knock on my door
I will leave the porch light shining
put out a new welcome mat
~
I reworked this version to go along with Bill’s guidelines
Love this
Thank you 😊
AIN’T NO WORSER THAN THAT
Some dogs,
when they get sick,
look sicker than a dog
who has just gone more than ten rounds
with a lynx and a bobcat.
To Earl
Get well
And remember
that the God who watches
sparrows is watching over you.
You are worth much more than birds.