Baskets

February's Poetry Adventure Day 1

tea party

Basket

Every evening after dinner
I would direct the tidy-up,
pointing out the toys, one by one
and guiding small hands to put
each it its proper bin or basket. 

Every morning, without fail,
she would overturn them all
and the basket would become
a doll's bed, a ship at sea,

or a seat for her to perch on, 
a proper princess, dressed 
in regal scarves and blankets,
pouring out tea for Pooh and Piglet.

She never could see a basket
as merely a container for toys.
Always they were raw materials
out of which she would create
new and better worlds. 

basket train

Basket-Ark

So much contained 
in so small a basket:

Not a baby hidden in the rushes

but a houseboat holding 
all you need

for life at sea,
tossing in a great storm;

or to be an island 
refuge in a shipwreck;

or, caught fast in ice floes
through the long polar night. 

An ark, the last survivor 
of a great disaster 
self sufficient, well stocked,

sailing far into the dark places
between the stars.

what a harvest of snow
the wicker basket holds

No one stops 
for walnuts heaped in a basket
on a hot summer day

---

Last year I thoroughly enjoyed participating in Petra’s February Poetry Adventure. A prompt a day and a chance to write poems with other poets.

February Poetry Adventure 2026 Prompts

Last night I’d almost forgotten when I saw the prompt, Basket, and I dashed off a little poem about my oldest daughter.

Today after I read it to her, she told me a bit of what it was she saw in the baskets, which led to a second poem.

Then when I was hunting for some photographs to illustrate my poems, I came across two more baskets: one in the snow, taken in 2019, and the other from this past summer’s trip to Italy, taken in Monte Sant’Angelo. They wanted to join the party too. So I let them.