The Poetry Stash: 18Mar2024

The Shampoo by Elizabeth Bishop

Today’s poem is “The Shampoo” by Elizabeth Bishop from the collection Elizabeth Bishop The Complete Poems 1927 – 1979. The book is available for purchase here.

The Shampoo by Elizabeth Bishop

The still explosions on the rocks,
the lichens, grow
by spreading, gray, concentric shocks.
They have arranged
to meet the rings around the moon, although
within our memories they have not changed.

And since the heavens will attend
as long on us,
you’ve been, dear friend,
precipitate and pragmatical;
and look what happens. For Time is
nothing if not amenable.

The shooting stars in your black hair
in bright formation
are flocking where,
so straight, so soon?
—Come, let me wash it in this big tin basin,
battered and shiny like the moon.

Prompts:

1.	Begin with “you’ve been, dear…”
2.	Begin with “shooting stars…”
3.	Draft a love poem.
4.	Draft a poem describing a familiar activity like bathing, housework, gardening, etc.

5. Photo by cottonbro studio via pexels.com. Use this image as a writing prompt.