Photo by: Cameren Harper
How to Be a Malacologist
Remember when
your child’s heart led your head
like a garden snail’s head leads its footed belly…
My Day 9 Poem for the May 30/30 Challenge is up at Tupelo Press!
SLHARPERPOETRY
Reinventing the Tagline One Existential Crisis at a Time
SLHARPERPOETRY 
Oh, how I would have welcomed that inverted, empty sock so many times in my adolescence!
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Snails have got it made…
Cam and I rescued the one in the picture from getting trampled on the sidewalk the other day. I put a stick in front of him, so when he climbed over it, it would release his suction to the ground, and we could move him without causing damage. All along, he seemed to know he wasn’t under any threat from us, because he never once sucked in his tentacles. The encounter brought back that memory of Kiddo from 2nd grade, and the rest is history…
🐌
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It’s an incredibly good poem.
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🙂
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It is potentially abnormal to write a poem this good in 24 hours. i may have to do this 30/30 as it seems to inspire some good poetry in folk. Love the turn, poetic & actual, in the middle, where Kiddo redefines the race by beating them in the wrong direction foreshadowing you envoi of inverting ourselves like a sock if we could. i’ll re-blog this one as it has astounded me.
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Daniel, I’m stunned by your reaction to this poem! I knew I’d be putting myself out there this month in unprecedented ways, but couldn’t really have imagined the extent to which letting myself be vulnerable might be received. Thank you for honoring me with such precious feedback! ❤
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This poem is really my sort of poem Stephanie. You write quite dark poems sometimes & they are good, with an allure, but this sort of humour is really very much my own & this really is a very well structured poem. If i had money i’d invest in the challenge but i don’t. So maybe a few re-blogs may bring them some attention. Such a good poem. More like this would definitely mean more re-blogs, haha.
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Reblogged this on Daniel Paul Marshall and commented:
Stephanie is doing the 30/30 marathon for Tupelo Press, support her with encouragement, donation, likes, comments, i am sure she’ll welcome anything.
Stephanie is a fine poet, with an attention to form we share.
& this is just another example, though we shouldn’t have favorites, i have to say this one made me laugh & really grabbed my inner love of humour in poetry; but is also a skillfully executed poem with a lovely use of foreshadowing, to set up her final point, by placing Kiddo’s redefining of a school snail race as the counterpoint or rather, turn.
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Just so you know, there’s no charge for participating in this challenge. You just submit a proposal for doing some fundraising along with a sample of 3 poems and a bio, and then they respond when there’s an opening. You should definitely do it!
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Bob has swayed me to the idea & i am considering it. He too has told me to go for it. Watch this space…
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