Poetic Cards

First of all, let me say that I'm aware this post looks like doo-doo! I don't know why it's publishing all the paragraphs in one huge mass . . . I've been working on it forever and I can't figure it out. So deal with it. 'Kay?

Last week, I made two cards based on poems. The first one was for Nicole's bridal shower (which I missed because I had to take the hub to the airport for a business trip, grrr!).

Again, I used an image from my beloved copyright-free image book. I also got the quote from there (I layered it on the image in Photoshop). I liked the quote, and was shocked by the author. William Carlos Williams is one of my favorite poets but his stuff isn't as simple and sentimental as this quote is. I had to look it up to see what poem it came from. It come from a poem called "The Rose" which is much more complex and metaphysical than this quote would lead you to believe. I was relieved! A sentimental quote is great for a greeting card . . . but I prefer my poetry to be challenging. Geez, I'm such a snob!

The other card is interesting. As a lot of you know, Lindsey Gruwell is going through her third fight with leukemia. I wanted to make her a card and I was struggling for what to put on it. Thanks to her sister Melanie, I found out she loves the color purple. That's a problem. I don't know if I had some traumatic run-in with Grimace at McDonald's as a child, but I've always had a problem with that color. I have a hard time matching it with other colors and it doesn't help that I look horrible in that color, too! I had to go to Michael's to get purple paper because I didn't own any. Luckily, I found some paper by American Crafts (I think they're my fav company right now) that I could deal with.

Anyway, I was thinking about hope for this card. The phrase, "Hope is the thing with feathers" popped into my mind. It's the first line from an Emily Dickinson poem. Again, problem. I've always disliked Emily Dickinson's poetry. Maybe it's the dashes . . . or the fact that the chick wrote all this depressing stuff because she was cooped up all the time. It's like, hey. Why don't you step outside, get some fresh air, and you won't obsess about flies and hearses. Okay, I'll shut up. I'm being boring with all this poetry stuff.

So I looked up the poem, and for the first time, it really touched me. It just seemed to fit with what Lindsey's going through. It also made me think about my own situation. I'm a natural born pessimist. I always have been. It drives John crazy and I've really been trying to be better. But I'd rather expect the worst and be pleasantly surprised than hope and be disappointed. But this poem just reminded me that hope isn't a bad thing. Just as the poem says, it doesn't ask anything of us. (By the way, this is some of Dickinson's earlier stuff . . . before the weird, depressing stuff all the critics love. Hmmm . . . )

After all the "drama" of using the color purple and Emily Dickinson, I made a card that I'm really proud of. The card simply says, "Hope is the thing with feathers . . ." (and I really wish I had put quotes around it so it makes more sense . . . grr!).

Then, I made Lindsey a bookmark with the entire poem on it so she could keep it with her.

I hope she likes it and doesn't think I'm a total weirdo . . . though it wouldn't be far from the truth. I'm just a weirdo, not a total weirdo.

Here's the poem . . . I hope it inspires you like it inspired me:

Hope is the thing with feathers

That perches in the soul,

And sings the tune--without the words,

And never stops at all,

And sweetest in the gale is heard;

And sore must be the storm

That could abash the little bird

That kept so many warm.

I've heard it in the chillest land,

And on the strangest sea;

Yet, never, in extremity,

It asked a crumb of me.