Things to Do If You Are an Orb Spider: An Original Poem & A Poetry Tale

In the past, I’ve posted a number of my “things to do” poems at Wild Rose Reader. Recently, I began reworking my Things to Do poetry collection at the suggestion of my good friend Grace Lin. Grace gave me a wonderful idea for making it a more cohesive collection—an idea for connecting the poems so they are pieces of a “unified” poetry project . She suggested I eliminate certain poems—and write some news one. I got to work right away. Her help spurred me on and gave me renewed energy to work on the collection again. I refined the idea Grace gave me. Now my Things to Do collection takes a young child through a day—from dawn to bedtime.

Here is a picture of me with my literary advisers.

L to R: Me, Janet, and Grace

I emailed my revamped Things to Do manuscript to my poetry adviser Janet Wong for her critique. Janet and I stayed together at ALA. While at our hotel, Janet sat down with me and went through the collection—telling me to eliminate a few more poems, providing me we topics for a couple of “new” ones, and suggesting ways to make a few poems stronger. When I returned home on Monday evening, I got to work on the project once more.

So far, I have now removed eleven poems from the original collection—and added about a dozen new ones. That’s the way it goes with writing a poetry collection sometimes.

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Today, I thought I’d post one of the “things to do” poems that is no longer part of the collection. It’s dedicated to Charlotte A. Cavatica—one of my favorite literary characters.


THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE AN ORB SPIDER

Weave a web of silken strands

With spinnerets

(YOU don’t need hands.)…

A silver net…a sticky snare…

A clever trap that’s light as air.



Weave a web…

Then watch and wait

Upon your woven dinner plate.

No need to hunt to catch your prey.

A meal will soon be on its way.

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At Blue Rose Girls, I have a book spine poem about friendship that I dedicated to Grace Lin and Janet Wong.

Amy Ludwig VanDerwater has the Poetry Friday Roundup at The Poem Farm.