Irene Latham's Blog, page 10

Florida poem

 

sunset at Sunset Point, Key Colony, FLHello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Susan at Chicken Spaghetti for Roundup.

So many congratulations to this year's ALA YMA winners! I was glad to see poetry represented: Mascot by Charles Waters and Traci Sorell was named an American Indian Library Association Honor book; Kin: Rooted in Hope by Carole Bostone Weatherford was named a Coretta Scott King Honor book; Nearer My Freedom by Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge was included on the shortlist for Excellence in Nonfiction for Young Adults Award. (I haven't read this one yet, but soon!)

There may be other poetry titles that got awards...please add any others in comments!

Meanwhile, we're just back from a lovely time in the Florida Keys. No wonder I decided to write a Florida poem for this week's ArtSpeak: FOLK ART series. 

The folk artist I've chosen this week is Harold Newton,  a founding member of the Florida Highwaymen, a group of mostly male, mostly African American Florida landscape artists who sold paintings from the trunks of their cars during the late 1950s and early '60s. The sole female Florida Highwaymen was Mary Ann Carroll. I will likely feature her later in the year!

A few years ago during a visit to Ft. Pierce, FL, we were lucky enough to visit the A.E. Backus Museum, which features a beautiful collection of Florida Highwaymen art, mostly by A.E. Backus. (Museums like the Backus are my favorite kind of gallery...small, intimate, with knowledgeable, passionate docents!)

I chose to write this poem as a shadorma, a Spanish 6-line syllabic poem of 3/5/3/3/7/5 syllable lines respectively. ("Florida" is a Spanish word, so of course a shadorma!) 

I hope this poem brings some sunshine to those who have been brutalized by recent winter storms. Thanks so much for reading!

Florida

morning sky a ripe

cantaloupe

cracked open—

herons wade in the juicy

sweet shallows

- Irene Latham

Heaven Poem (with Mule!)

 

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit radiant Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge for Roundup.

I don't know what's going on with me...last week I wrote a Funeral Poem...and this week I've written a poem about Heaven! 

I do believe we can continue to be in relationship with our loved ones, even after they are dead. And I often call up on my loved ones (my father in particular)...but why these poems, right now? 

Perhaps it's the ArtSpeak: FOLK ART theme? Folk art isn't afraid of things like death and funerals and heaven. I love that!

The art for today's poem is by Buddy Snipes. Buddy was born 1943 in Macon County, Alabama, and he was known for fixing things. It's no wonder he began creating art assemblage pieces out of spare parts! I love this little blurb about him here. The piece featured is available for purchase at Main Street Gallery in Clayton, GA.

Another thing about this week's poem: it's written in a new-to-me form, called an Abracadabra. Basically it uses the spelling of the word Abracadabra, but takes out the "r"s in order to create a rhyme scheme for a 9-line poem. So the rhyme scheme here is abacadaba. (Perhaps you know from my book NINE: A Book of Nonets, I kind of have a thing for 9-line poems!)

I struggled a bit with this one...but I often struggle with rhyme! I wrote about ten last lines, but couldn't decide! So I asked son Eric to pick, and this is where we landed. Now that it's done, I feel rather pleased with the experience. Maybe I'll write another one sometime...maybe you'd like to write one, too?? I hope so! Meanwhile, thanks so much for reading!

Mule Ringing the Doorbell in Heaven

Hello, Hello, Mule brays.
We're hungry. We're beat.
Are we in the right place?
Gate swings wide,
sets sky ablaze.
Welcome, the angels sing,
to a world full of sunny days!
So Mule and his friend rest, eat—
no worries now; nothing but praise.
- Irene Latham

A Funeral Poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit terrific Tracey at Tangles and Tails for Roundup.

Will a poetry title win the Newbery this year? Here's a post that evaluates MY HEAD HAS A BELLYACHE by Chris Harris as a contender. (We'll find out at ALA Youth Media Awards on Monday, January 22, 8 am est!)

Today's ArtSpeak: FOLK ART poem features work by Louisiana folk artist Clementine Hunter (1886-1988).  

I love Clementine's story...she didn't start painting until she was in her 50s! Before there was such a thing as a "pop up," she was doing just that kind of business by posting a sign by her front door advertising her art for sale (for 25 cents!). Now her art hangs in famous museums.

You can read more about Clementine in a picture book Art from Her Heart: Folk Artist Clementine Hunter by Kathy Whitehead, illus. by Shane W. Evans.

The poem is a variation on a triolet (one of my go-to forms...but I often like to switch up those repeating lines, at least a little bit!).

We Bring Flowers: A Funeral Song

We bring flowers to say goodbye—
Goodbye, dear one, why did you have to go?
For their beauty, for the way they perfume the sky—
we bring flowers to say goodbye.
Lilies sing when we can do nothing but cry,
roses soften the tidal wave of woe.
We bring flowers to say, Goodbye,
goodbye—O dear one, why did you have to go?
- Irene Latham
Two books on my nightstand that may have influenced this poem:
Take Back the Magic: Conversations with the Unseen World by Perdita Finn
The Collected Regrets of Clover by Mikki Bramer

2024 One Little Word: BEAUTY

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit marvelous Marcie Flinchum Atkins for Roundup. Lucky me: I was the winner of Marcie's gorgeous haiku/poetry calendar! Here it is, happy in its new home. I love it so much!
Earlier this week I posted a quote from Joyce Sidman over at Smack Dab in the Middle about poetry's power to bring us epiphanies. Don't miss it...it's a good one!

This is my 17th year to choose One Little Word to guide and inspire my year. It's a spiritual practice I'm quite devoted to. 
My One Little Word list (so far):

2008 joy
2009 listen
2010 celebrate
2011 deeper
2012 fierce
2013 sky
2014 mystery
2015 wild
2016 delight
2017 abundance
2018 behold
2019 happy
2020 red
2021 bewilderment
2022 whimsy
2023 space
Last year I created a quilt out of blocks I made for each of the first fifteen years. Now I've got a new project going: DIY garden word bricks!



I'm excited about this year's word. "Beauty" has been on my shortlist many years. It was reading the passage on beauty from Consolations: the Solace, Nourishment and Underlying meaning of Everyday Words by David Whyte that pushed it from bridesmaid to bride status. Here are some excerpts:
"Beauty is the harvest of presence"
"Beauty is an achieved state of both deep attention and self-forgetting"
"Beauty especially occurs in the meeting of time with the timeless"
"Beauty invites us, through entrancement, to that fearful frontier between what we think makes us; and what we think makes the world."
*So many thanks to joyous and wise poet-friend Jan Annino for recommending this book!
For this year's ArtSpeak theme, I've selected another many-times-contender: FOLK ART. 
I love folk art, outsider art, primitive art. Art created from everyday objects. Art created by those who create not from formal training, but from life. Art made for the sake of art, for fulfillment (not for money or fame).
And, a few years back, when my Poetic Forever Friend Charles Waters was living in New York City, he gifted me a postcard book from the American Folk Art Museum. It contains 30 postcards, so voila!, right away I've got a nice selection of art to choose from. 
Thank you, Charles!
I'll also be showcasing some southern folk artists, especially from my home state of Alabama...starting with Lois Wilson. Lois pulled items from the trash and turned them into art. I love that! (I have written a picture book manuscript about Lois. I hope to find a publisher for it someday!)
Here's a tricube for you after one of her joyous pieces created on a piece of wood. Many of her pieces are on wood...you can view her (2500!) pieces at the Fayette Museum of Art in Fayette, Alabama.

When I Ride my Bike in Spring

World spins by—
a happy
tide of green.

Wind blows me
open. I
smile so wide.

My feet pump,
my wheels whirr—
I'm alive!
- Irene Latham

One More Moon Poem as 2023 Comes to a Close

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Michelle Kogan for the last Roundup of 2023.
Wow, I can't believe we are on the cusp of a brand new year! I've got black-eyed peas and greens ready to go. :)
I've enjoyed my ArtSpeak: LIGHT year so much... and my One Little Word "Space"...and the release of my MOON book...so it's no wonder this week's poem led me to this particular piece of art and these bittersweet words. 
Thanks so much for reading...see you in 2024!




When Moon Sweeps Sky Clean of Clouds

just past the trees
mountains fade to shadowed heaps
sky is streaked with stars so bright, so deep
you want to weep for all you cannot keep:
for light, for peace
                               for nights like these
- Irene Latham

Winter Solstice poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Jone Rush MacCulloch for Roundup.

Exciting news: the STEM issue of Tyger Tyger magazine is out, and it includes my poem "Math Lesson (from the Garden)." You can download a poster of the poem as well as teaching resources. So many thanks to editor Rachel Piercey and the whole Tyger Tyger team!

Today's ArtSpeak: LIGHT poem was inspired by the winter solstice (obviously!) and a couple of other cool things:

1. Father Arthur Poulin, the artist-monk-priest from California whose work graces many a greeting card (and I want them ALL!!). His work speaks to my soul, so what a pleasure to write a poem after this piece.

2. David Harrison's most recent "Poetry in Daily Life" column on writing couplets. The article makes it seem so easy, especially during this time-challenged season, so...here's a couplet for you! Thanks for reading.

Winter Prayer

In this season of trees trimmed with frosty air,
thank you for star-flicker and sky-flare.
- Irene Latham

Winter Garden poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Janice at Salt City Verse for Roundup.

It's been quite a busy season round these parts, so I especially loved getting in the mail my Winter Poem Swap gift from Michelle Kogan. I am a huge fan of Michelle's art and poetry, so I knew the package would be full of delights...and it was! 

Michelle gifted me some watercolor pencils, which I have already been experimenting with (while on hold during a phone call! :) along with forest-y bookmarks and the most marvelous Moon gift:

Y'all, it's an accordion notebook! With a gorgeous moon! And the poem is one Michelle wrote by finding words in my book THE MUSEUM ON THE MOON. Isn't that so so special? I just want to hug it...and I have! So many thanks to Tabatha, our Poetry Swap Mama, and of course to my moon sister Michelle. 
Here's the poem:
Moon's Dreamfor Irene
Rekindle Moon'solive branch of Peace...A wee sparkling giftfrom a wee blue planetA Moon wish for humanity.
—Michelle Kogan
--

This week's ArtSpeak: LIGHT poem features the garden! And a triolet—which, as it turns out, is kind of my go-to form whenever I'm stuck. Only 8 lines to start with, and really, once you've written just two lines, you've written most of the poem! 

Here are links to some other triolets I've written:

Triolet for Planting Day

Tiger Talk Triolet

"Humility" from DICTIONARY FOR A BETTER WORLD

"Welcome, Earthlings!" (triolet that opens THE MUSEUM ON THE MOON)

I do, often, take liberties with the form. So I'd call today's poem a "variation on a triolet."

Here's why: The triolet calls for a repeat of the second line as the final line of the poem. That doesn't always suit my poetic aesthetic, because I often want the poem to go somewhere, not just back around. So...here I took the second line (all about winter root growth) and wrote a "parallel" final line all about spring growth.

*Let this be your reminder that forms are great, but if your poetic sensibilities lead you AWAY from the form, that's okay! Just call it a variation, and you're good to go!

Winter Garden
There's a garden under that snow.
Deep in cozy soil, roots stretch, unfurl.
Plants need privacy, did you know?
Yes, there's a garden under that snow.
Plants carry the light required to grow
while winter sky is all storm and swirl.
There a garden under that snow!
Come spring, watch green shoots pop, uncurl.

- Irene Latham
Thanks so much for reading! If you are in the Birmingham area, Charles Waters and I would love to see you Tuesday night, Dec. 19, 6 pm at Hoover Library where we are closing out the "Stories of Exile" series with a presentation about AFRICAN TOWN. See you there!

Butterfly Fireworks

 

when I think of the desert,
this experience comes to mind!
(my sons, circa 2004)Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit desert-poetry-goddess Patricia at Reverie for Roundup. 

Don't miss my post earlier this week at Smack Dab in the Middle where I catalog my Top 10 Highlights of 2023. So much goodness!

Also, Charles Water and I issued an invitation to poets to fill out this Getting to Know You questionnaire, which will help us better match poets to projects as we create new anthologies. So many have responded...thank you! We're so grateful to be part of such a joyful community. 

This week I also sent out my latest Adventures in Ink e-newsletter. Click here to access the "'Tis the Season for Peace" issue. (If you're not yet a subscriber, you can join the fun by clicking here.)

Today's ArtSpeak: LIGHT poem features butterflies! Who doesn't love butterflies? As a Master Gardener and Alabama Master Naturalist in training, I am committed to providing safe havens for these lovelies by planting pollinator plants...which are beautiful in and of themselves, but when you think about all the GOOD they can do, it's kind of stunning. 

A few process-y things about writing this poem:

1. The title came first! (I do love a great metaphor.)

2. The butterflies depicted in the art are not colored like painted lady butterflies. But the yellow and orange background brought them to mind, so... (Just a reminder that you CAN use your imagination when writing ekphrastic poems. It needn't be a literal recreation of the art piece...and I would argue it shouldn't be.)

3. I wanted a lot of space and movement in these lines to mimic the butterflies' action among the goldenrod (in my imagination/memory). 

4. For the same reason, I wanted to use as little punctuation as possible.

5. A Google search of "words to describe fireworks" helped me replace first-drafty words with more vivid ones!

6. I'm still on the fence about whether I need to include "of light" after "dazzle." 

This has happened so many times this year... I talked about it in this post...and in the earlier poem, I chose to cut "of light." Here it feels more necessary. (?)

Thanks so much for reading.

Butterfly Fireworks

two painted ladies
are late summer               sparklers

as they sip,
              swoop,
   spin

a living dazzle of light
happy to set the whole goldenrod                   world
     a-sizzle

- Irene Latham

Ode to the Sun (poem)

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit amazing Anastasia at Small Poems for Roundup.
You guys: just 4 more Poetry Fridays in 2023! 
I've done something I don't usually do: I've mapped out the final 4 ArtSpeak: Light pieces. Maybe this will free up my mind to decide on what my 2024 theme will be?? We shall see. 
Meanwhile, here is my poem. It actually started out much longer, but I realized there wasn't much fresh about the first few lines, so I performed that sometimes-painful but often-refreshing revision strategy of "cut the front porch." 
So often our first lines are just us writing the things that will get us to the really juicy stuff...and the poem immediately benefits when you forgo the porch and swing open the door.
Thanks so much for reading.


Ode to the Sun

You do not shout
when clouds invade sky's valley,
you are steady
as they unsheathe their silver arrows.
Afterwards you are first
to fold us unto your arms,
your voice a choir of birdsong
and solace,
your fingers erasing every tear.

- Irene Latham

If the Sun Had Shoes

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit radiant Ruth at no such thing as a godforsaken town for Roundup. She's invited us to share something GOOD. I'm all about that. So let me tell you: this week I've had so much fun! 

Early in the week I made my first-ever chocolate angel food cake....for my sister. Delish!

I did A LOT more cooking...and then our fellas came...and we feasted! 

We also played some family games, which always generates lots of laughter.

I crafted (Christmas ornaments!)

and gardened (33 wintercreeper plants)

and wrote (a new experimental YA!)

and revised (my adult novel).

So. Much. GOOD. 

And that got me thinking about shoes. I mean, all this going and doing requires a good pair of shoes. So, with a little help from Vincent van Gogh, I wrote this poem. Thanks so much for reading!

If the Sun Had Shoes

those shoes

would hold

a glow 

in their soles

make tracks

across each

radiant day

and illuminate

every midnight

hallway.

- Irene Latham