Irene Latham's Blog, page 104

12 Days of Christmas: Day Five

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Diane at Random Noodling for Roundup! I do have a poem for you, but first:

For Christmas this year I am celebrating kindness! Each day I'll be posting some wise words about kindness. Enjoy!

Day One
Day Two
Day Three
Day Four

...and on the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me...



Now for a poem! I've been reading and loving FLUTTER & HUM: Animal Poems by Julie Paschkis. Lots of wonderful poems... and the art! Also, each poem is displayed in Spanish as well as English. I found it fascinating that the author actually composed the poems in Spanish first -- even though she is not Spanish speaking. Now that is the power of poetry, my friends!

One of my favorite poems in the book is this one:




Crow

on this gray day
on this gray street
the black crow caws.

He hops,
     stops,
       and stares
at a yellow umbrella -
the only sun shining
today.

El Cuervo

En estea dia gris
en esta calle gris
el cuervo negro grazna.

El brinca
     para,
       y mira
a un paraguas amarillo --
el solo sol que brilla
hoy.

12 Days of Kindness: Day Four

For Christmas this year I am celebrating kindness! Each day I'll be posting some wise words about kindness. Enjoy!

Day One
Day Two
Day Three

...and on the 4th day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

12 Days of Kindness: Day Three

For Christmas this year I am celebrating kindness! Each day I'll be posting some wise words about kindness. Enjoy!

Day One
Day Two

...and on the 3rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

12 Days of Kindness: Day Two

For Christmas this year I am celebrating kindness! Each day I'll be posting some wise words about kindness. Enjoy!

Day One

...and on the 2nd day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

12 Days of Kindness: Day One

I've been thinking a lot lately about kindness -- kindness as a lifestyle. And lo and behold, words and passages and quips about kindness have begun to follow me around.

So, as a way to celebrate all that is good and wonderful and light about the Christmas season, I've decided to share those quotes here, one a day, until Christmas.

Enjoy!

And may the spirit of kindness fill you and spill into all the darkest places leaving behind only light.


P.S. Youngest son has a new (beautiful!) song! Yes, I am one proud mama. Here is the video:

A Library Story

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit the ever-inspiring Tara at A Teaching Life for Roundup.

I've been reading JUMPING OFF LIBRARY SHELVES: A Book of Poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Jane Manning. So many wonderful poems in there, from some of my favorite poets -- the whole book is like an Ode to Libraries. 
Today one poem in particular really speaks to me... and just like last week, it's by Nikki Grimes! 
Before I share the poem, I'd like to share a library story of my own, which I shared at Alabama Library Association's awards ceremony in 2011 when LEAVING GEE'S BEND was awarded the Children Book Prize.
The 5 of us: Ken, Stan (back)
Lynn, Irene (middle)
MicaJon (front)"When I was about eleven years old my parents went on a week-long trip and divided up the five kids to leave at one grandparents’ house or another.

My parents were strategic in how they determined which kid would go to which grandparents’ house. They always paired one good kid with one bad kid – and honestly I can’t remember how things were decided for the fifth kid (Sorry, MicaJon!).

On this particular occasion, my brother Ken and I got Grandma and Granddaddy Dykes – my father’s parents-- who lived in tiny Port St. Joe, Florida, which is on the coast between Appalachicola and Panama City.

My brother KenMy brother Ken was known to be mischievous. This was a kid who would sneak next door and cut the roses off the neighbor’s bushes.

Me, well, I was supposed to be the good one, the easy one. But on this trip I was completely homesick. I missed my mama, my bedroom with its purple walls, the horses out back. So I was giving Grandma fits – she did not know what to do with a teary-eyed, depressed little girl. Her first efforts were to cook: fluffy buttermilk biscuits, hoe cakes made from Hoover brand cornmeal and fried in an iron skillet, lima beans so tender from the hamhock they disappear in your mouth, chocolate pie with fluffy meringue, sour cream cake crusty on the top but moist in the middle.
Grandma Dykes in the kitchen
When none of that worked, she was distraught. She told me to get in the car, and we started driving. I thought for five minutes that maybe I had won, she was taking me home.

When we pulled into the parking lot of the Gulf County Public Library in Port St. Joe, I knew she was doing the next best thing. Grandma knew personally the power of books, of story, what escape and comfort can be found in a room filled with words.

She introduced me to the librarian – “this is my granddaughter Irene who loves to read” – and I remember the delight with which I was greeted, the warm arm on my shoulder, the pillow-splashed floor I sunk into after the librarian showed me where the horse books were.

So that became our routine for the rest of the week: Grandma would cook scrambled eggs and butter grits for breakfast, I’d eat, then she would drop me off at the library. I completely missed all the excitement of my brother Ken’s go-cart adventures, and only witnessed the results: giant holes in Granddaddy’s tomato patch where my brother had spun the wheels over and over again. I had found a haven, a cure for my sadness, relief from my anxiety.

It was almost as good as being at home. And of all the libraries I’ve ever visited, Gulf County Public Library remains dearest.

As for my brother Ken? He continues to give me great material for future books."
--------------------------------

Wee book-loving me!
And now, the poem:
Refugeby Nikki Grimes
My library comes into view.Almost there!I sprint the last few yards,charge up the stone steps, breathless,and push through the double doors,smiling at the sweet kingdom of storyinviting me into rest, to explore --to dream.

It's an Itty Bitty Word (Christmas) Tree

A couple of years ago our son was out-of-state for Christmas, so we acquired a small, portable silver tabletop tree to carry with us for our visit with him. It was perfect, even unadorned!

This year I pulled out and decided to make it special by displaying it on the desk in my newly-renovated (it used to be a computer/workout room) yet-to-be-named art-music-poetry studio. Soon it came to me: make a WORD tree!

First, I used miniature cookie cutters and wrote in each a word from my One Little Word collection. ("Wild" for 2015 was my 8th OLW!)


Here are a few:
2015 OLW
2012 OLW
2010 OLW

Then I added some favorite fortunes saved from fortune cookies (anyone else collect these? I have a stash of my favorites)  -- and a message or two from Dove dark chocolate wrappers. (Yes, I also collect these. I'm a word-hoarder, apparently! :)





... and that's as far as I've gotten! I hope to add more as it comes to me, and over the years. Fun!

It's An Arlington Christmas

I've lived in Birmingham since 1984, and not once before have I visited Arlington, an antebellum home that sits in the West End area of town. I've always wanted to go, but you know how the locals never see the local attractions?

Well, I decided to remedy that this year. So, on Saturday, which happened to be the annual Open House at Arlington, me, my best traveling companion/husband/endless-stream-of-all-the-best-words here, and our youngest son drove across town. The sky was gorgeous blue, the morning air still a bit chilly but warming, and we were all good cheer and merriment.




Upstairs we found "Grandmother's Room," complete with a forest, Red Riding Hood, and a wolf in the bed!



Don't you love the cotton wreath at the foot of the bed?
There was also a children's room upstairs, and this bedroom that I totally would have wanted if Id lived in the house. Love that quilt! And what a cute Christmas tree in the corner.

And here is the hearth decked with stockings in the old kitchen where Santa was there with Mrs. Claus, listening to the oh-so-secret Christmas wishes.


 And finally, here is a little bit of natural Christmas decoration... O Happy Day, sing the thrushes, warblers and jays!

I should have taken more pictures. Next time...

On False Assumptions and the Secret Lives of Trees (and other Species)

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Please visit the amazing Buffy at Buffy's Blog for Roundup.

So, how's your December so far? Mine has been a little bit lovely, a little bit cold, a little bit delicious. I've been crafting... here is the new fabric garland I made for the tree (to replace the falling-apart garland we've used and loved so well for the past 15 years or so):
Pinking shears and fabric stash and twine.... voila!


I've got a few more projects in the queue, too! LOVE this time of year. Instead of crazy, I get quiet. AND I've been reading more Cybils poetry nominees.

Which brings me to the subject line of this post. Today I want to share a poem from the lovely collection AMAZING PLACES, poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins. As some of you know, I am rather fond of travel -- and of persona poems. I love how the tree in this poem views us humans and  how it's quick to set us straight:





Tree Speaks
by Nikki Grimes

Here they come again
those pale, rootless humans
squinting at the far country
where gorge meets sky.
How they gawk at me,
thinking I'm lonely!
Yes, I am one of only
a handful of trees
clinging to these
sun-striped cliffs
branches suspended
over a clear drop
more miles down
than the number of rings
circling my middle.
but lonely?
What do they know?
Daily, I listen to the echo
of the Colorado River rapids
bouncing off red-purple ridges
sculpted by water and time.
Each morning,
I witness the swoop and swirl
of hawks dancing in the air
we share.
Each evening,
I happily offer my limbs
as respite for majestic eagles.
Oh, yes,
this home of mine
stitched to the horizon
is Grand.
I will cling here forever,
waiting to be found
by those lost
in the endless beauty
of the Canyon.

(Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona)

These thoughts on loneliness remind me of a scene in a movie -- of course I can't remember the movie! -- but it was a younger couple watching an older couple in a restaurant. The older couple was sitting there, eating quietly, not talking. The younger man says, I just just don't want to end up like them, with nothing to say to each other anymore. His date says, no, maybe it's that they are so comfortable with one another and know each other so well that they don't need words.

It's all a matter of perspective, isn't it? And who are we, the more observers, to say what's in another person's (or a tree's!) heart? Likely we are wrong about a lot of our assumptions... all the more reason to greet the world with openness and wonder, all eager to learn and imagine.

Today, that's how I want to walk around in the world. Won't you join me?

#EveryBrilliantThing November Roundup

This year I am keeping a virtual gratitude list, inspired by the play Every Brilliant Thing. Here's my post about it. I can't believe the year is nearly over... this has been such a wonderful practice for me.
Here is my list for November:

Rain.Daylight Savings time.Starfish.Nesting dolls.Eric on drumset.Cabin in the woods.Early morning rain in the woods.#wildblogging friends.Taking a mental health day.Trying a new recipe.Peanut butter balls.Colored pencils.Pistachios.Sacredharp music.Sunshine on a cool day.Rainboots.Electricity.Kid art on display. Thanksgiving 2015Fresh paint.Fiestaware.Almond butter.Hot chocolate.Friday night football.Mashed potatoes.Leaf quilt.Self-timer setting on camera.Movies that are also books.Time with my sister.70 degrees in November.How you can reinvent yourself with a new haircut.