Irene Latham's Blog, page 122

And October Creeps In...

My favorite picture from September...
with my favorite (only. best. amazing!)
sister LynnOctober, oh how you've snuck up on me this year! Happy Poetry Friday, everyone... be sure to visit Jama at Jama's Alphabet Soup for some delicious Roundup!

Thank you to those have written or called to check on me this past month. I've been traveling with the release of DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST and revising a novel and kind of re-evaluating how I spend my time. My father has been seriously ill, and he lives in far North Dakota, so that has been the focus of much of my energy. It's a powerful reminder of how precious time is, and how easily we let the hours and days slip away from us. So, yeah. Heavy stuff!

Meanwhile, I had intended to share a September poem from Lilian Moore's book SOMETHING NEW BEGINS, which, I ordered after Renee's amazing post about Lilian (with the help of Lee Bennett Hopkins!) at No Water River and after Laura Purdie Salas mentioned this book in particular at Teaching Authors. Thank you, ladies! I have a few more poems dog-eared to share with you in the coming weeks.

It may be October, but I am sharing the "September" poem with you today anyhow. Hey, I live in the Deep South, which means the poem is actually more accurate of October (or even November!) for me, so that's my justification. :)

September
by Lilian Moore

Something is bleeding
into the
pond,
the stains are freshly
red.

Look-
beyond
and overhead.
The maple

is crimson spattered.
Summer is fatally
wounded.
Soon, soon
dead.

--------------------------
Kind of macabre, isn't it? Beautiful, though.

And now for something lighter: our October theme over at Smack Dab in the Middle is "creepy," so I wrote creepy poem for all my writer-friends. Click here to read "Creepy Poem" by Irene Latham. Or... you can just listen. :)

At the fabric store, we're just people.

Hello and happy Poetry Friday! Please visit Laura at Writing the World for Kids for Roundup.

I've written here before about the power of quilts, and how some of my favorite childhood memories involve the late-night hum of a sewing machine and day trips to the fabric store with my mother. I love the rainbowed walls, the pattern books that make even the most fancy dress accomplishable, so long as you follow the steps -- and the cutters, who always ask and what you're making and genuinely care about your answer.

I still love all those things, and more and more, I am aware of how sewing is both inspiring and unifying, and is an art form that needs to be preserved. And now, this poem from BROWN GIRL DREAMING by Jacqueline Woodson:

the fabric store
- from BROWN GIRL DREAMING by Jacqueline Woodson

Some Fridays, we walk to downtown Greenville where
there are some clothing stores, some restaurants,
a motel and the five-and-dime store but
my grandmother won't take us
into any of those places anymore.
Even the five-and-dime, which isn't segregated now
but where a woman is paid, my grandmother says,
to follow colored people around in case they try to
steal something. We don't go into the restaurants
because they always seat us near the kitchen.
When we go downtown,
we go to the fabric store, where the white woman
knows my grandmother
from back in Andersons, asks,
How's Gunnar doing and your girls in New York?
she rolls fabric out for my grandmother
to rub between her fingers.
They discuss drape and nap and where to cinch
the waist on a skirt for a child.
At the fabric store, we are not Colored
or Negro. We are not thieves or shameful
or something to be hidden away.
At the fabric store, we're just people.

Bringing the Water Hole to the Shoals

 Last week I returned to Florence, Alabama, one of my favorite places ever, for some school visits and a library workshop. Here's an article about my adventures. The events were funded by Florence-Lauderdale Public Library, with a little help from my friend Pat, who greeted me with roses and gifts, fed me, and gave up her bed so I'd have a place to rest my weary head. Thanks, Pat! And thanks to everyone who made it a great visit, even though I wasn't feeling my best. Until next time...

Sheffield Public Library
McBride Elementary (Muscle Shoals)
Mrs. Hutcheson and me
readers!
Mrs. Hutcheson's classroom library
Muscle Shoals Public Library

Angela Bailey, me, Pat at Rosie's
Tom Magazzu, editor of Florence Courier-Journal

Waterloo Elementary
Jennifer Butler-Keeton, me, Jerry Anderton, Waterloo librarian
Trowbridge's -fashioned lunch counter! I had tuna salad on wheat,
chicken soup and chocolate chip ice cream. :)
Florence Academy of Fine Arts (formerly Bradshaw HS, where Pat graduated!), after speaking to Darlene Freemon's creative writing classes
Florence Public Library
Getting ready to write poems inspired by photographs at Florence Public Library

Twenty Years Later...

Hello, and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Renee at No Water River for Roundup. I'm delighted to be a guest poster at The Poem Farm, where Amy asked me to talk about revision. Earlier this week, I guest posted at Amy's Sharing Our Notebooks to talk about my life in notebooks... and Amy is generously doing a giveaway of WILDEBEEST! Thank you, Amy!
I've been traveling this week, and I can't wait to share with all of you -- but first, today is a special day:  today my firstborn son turns 20. Happy birthday, Daniel!
Here we are, on that day:

And here is my most favorite Langston Hughes poem ever, which most everyone knows, but it's one to be enjoyed over and over -- and it happens to be on the topic. It's been on my mind ever since I saw in a magazine how someone had painted their "House Rules" on the risers of their staircase. Since then, I discovered a board devoted to creative stair design on Pinterest. I want to do something similar.... with this poem!
Mother to Sonby Langston Hughes
Well, son, I’ll tell you:Life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.It’s had tacks in it,And splinters,And boards torn up,And places with no carpet on the floor—Bare.But all the timeI’se been a-climbin’ on,And reachin’ landin’s,And turnin’ corners,And sometimes goin’ in the darkWhere there ain’t been no light.So boy, don’t you turn back.Don’t you set down on the steps’Cause you finds it’s kinder hard.Don’t you fall now—For I’se still goin’, honey,I’se still climbin’,And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.

Safari Sketchbooks & DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST Launch Pics

 I was so thrilled to tie my Wildebeest book launch to SNAP (Seriously, No Adults Please!) programming at Emmet O'Neal Library in Mountain Brook, AL!

This library is just half a mile from Birmingham Zoo, the inspiration for Don't Feed the Boy!
What did we do? Poetry and Safari Sketchbooks! I introduced kids to poetry using Powerpoint and a "Poetry" acrostic poem I wrote. Then, we became lions! I gave the kids prompts like:
 "What is the best part of your day?"

"What are you scared of?"

"Two lions meet at the water hole. What do they say to one another?"

They wrote their responses on index cards, and I collected them to read aloud our Community Poem. AND THEN...

it was time for Safari Sketchbooks. :) We had a pile of old National Geographic Kids magazines, and kids selected a picture of the animal they wanted to write about. They cut and pasted the picture to the cover of their Sketchbooks, added the filler paper, and used leather cording to bind it. And then they WROTE, using the same prompts, but for their own individual animal.

Funny thing: unicorns came up A LOT. Wonderful boys. :)

 Big thanks to this trio of genius librarians who, with the help of Google,  helped get my slide show running in a loop before the reception portion of the event. Thank you, Meredith, Gloria & Rachel! I need you with me on all my adventures. :)

I'm especially grateful to those who came out for the reception on a stormy weeknight. I have asked so much of my readers and friends this year with launch events for The Sky Between Us and Don't Feed the Boy. I really wasn't sure anyone would show up! Those of us who were there enjoyed lovely conversation about writing and life and what it means to create. Thank you, friends!
Marie, Joan & John, manning the book table!


 Here I am at the end of the night with my still-growing-even-taller youngest son Eric...

.... and with the fella who makes all this possible: sweet husband Paul!

Thanks to everyone who was a part of this one! SO MUCH FUN. xo

Let Them Eat Cake!

Hello, and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Laura at Author Amok for Roundup! I'm thrilled and grateful to be featured over at Today's Little Ditty... I would love to see what all my Poetry Friday friends come up with for the poetry challenge at the end of the post! Thank you, Michelle!!

Today is the last day for Lerner's Free Book Friday giveaway for DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST. Good luck!

So yesterday I went to pick up the cake for last night's launch party (more on this soon!). It was to be a photo cake with an image of the book cover.


Well, when I went to order the cake, they said, GOTTA HAVE A PRINTED PICTURE.

I've got digital, I said. More accurate.

NOPE, they said.

So I went home, took a picture of the book, had it printed, picked it up, and went back to the bakery.

This time they said, NOPE, No Can Do. Because of copyright laws!

But it's my book, I said. I wrote it! And I know Millbrook Press and illustrator Anna Wadham won't mind!

We'll see, they said. We'll call you.

WELL. They didn't call, which I took to be a good sign! And yesterday, when I went to pick the cake up, this is the sadness I found:


Seriously?? SO SAD. The colors: flat, dark, ick. And what's with the brown strips?? (Sweet husband said it wasn't that bad, but I didn't believe him.)

I NEEDED A CAKE. So I bought it and brought it home, plotting the whole time about how I might fix it. Something fast. Something festive. Off to Walmart I went!

A tub of safari animals, a tube of blue frosting, and some sprinkles later... and this is where we landed:

Better, don't you think?

So that's my adventures in cake. Surely there's a poem in there -- I just haven't had time to write it. Wishing everyone a happy day... and... Did you know Emily Dickinson liked to bake cakes? Poetry & Cake. Yum!!

Movie Monday: BOYHOOD

So this is kind of the perfect movie for the mom of three boys. :) It's kind of a perfect movie, whatever your gender or circumstance. The main character ages during the same years as our oldest son, and he loved the movie, especially all the context clues related to politics and pop culture. It's really just about regular people dealing with regular things... all of them growing up. And how much do I love Ethan Hawke? Don't miss!





Also, today the day: Happy Birthday to DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST AND OTHER POEMS FROM THE WATER HOLE!! I am pleased to share the day with Lee Bennett Hopkins' latest, MANGER which includes poems by wonderful poet-friends. Love! It's the Christmas story, from the perspective of the animals. And it's been awarded a STARRED review by Kirkus. Congratulations, all! More on this very soon. :)

The Beginning of the Beginning of DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST

Hello, and happy Poetry Friday! Your host for Roundup is Jone at Check it Out. Also, I'm thrilled and honored to read lovely Jama post about DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST at Jama's Alphabet Soup. Thank you, Jama!

We writers are often asked about beginnings: where did you get the idea? what inspired this book? where do ideas come from?

I'm sure there are gazillions of answers, and all of them exactly right. Even though in my experience it's impossible to really pinpoint a beginning... so much of the creative life exists in our subconscious, and it's developing our whole lives long. Which means I could say, DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST was inspired by my childhood love of animals or the time our family lived and traveled overseas. (The closest we got to the Serengeti was Egypt.) Maybe there were books I read or movies I saw -- I'm certain their were. But THE thing that pushed me headlong into the water hole was this photograph (and others) by Greg du Toit:



Only it wasn't just the image: it was the amazing story behind the image. I wrote about this a few weeks ago at Poetry for Children and just now saw the lovely comments many of you left. A belated THANK YOU!

I find I am often inspired by other art, whether it be written works or visual art or music or history or science or nature... no shortage of inspiration in this beautiful world, that's for sure! And I am continually inspired by the offering here on Poetry Friday.

Beginnings, essentially, are about listening. Listening to the world. Listening to your response to the world, that soft inner voice that begs you to coax it from the darkness.

So, today, I'd like to share a beautiful poem about beginnings:

BeginningThe moon drops one or two feathers into the field.   The dark wheat listens.Be still.Now.There they are, the moon's young, tryingTheir wings.Between trees, a slender woman lifts up the lovely shadowOf her face, and now she steps into the air, now she is goneWholly, into the air.I stand alone by an elder tree, I do not dare breatheOr move.I listen.The wheat leans back toward its own darkness,And I lean toward mine.
- James Wright-------------------------------------------

Don't you love that?? I like thinking of ideas as "the moon's young, trying/ Their wings." Wishing all of you wonderful beginnings today! xo

My Secret Weapon for Writing Kids' Poetry

I picked this baby up oh about 5 years ago at a Scholastic Book Fair when my youngest son was in still in elementary school. (How much do I love Scholastic Book Fairs? Even more now that they've picked up DON'T FEED THE BOY. Look for it!)
I didn't know at the time that I would be writing poems for kids -- I just thought it was a fun thing to have around the house. :)
Now, it's my go-to source when I'm working on a poem for kids, even though I'm not really into writing rhymed-n-metered verse. Oh, the joys of internal rhyme! And sure, you can find rhyming dictionaries online. But this one is so easy to use. 
What's your secret weapon?

Poetry Friday Roundup is..... Missing!

Hello! Poetry Friday Roundup is HERE! Dear sweet Robyn had some unexpectedness this week, so I am your substitute Roundup-er... which means you should lower your expectations. You know how it is with substitutes... and holy impossible, I can't possibly match Robyn.

The theme for today is MISSING. That's because lovely Linda Baie sent me a Summer Poem Swap poem by the same title, which I will share shortly.

But first, I want to share a little Insider Information about a poem missing from my new book DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST And Other Poems from the Water Hole, coming September 1. Thanks to the amazing Poetry Friday community for your enthusiasm for the book... I am excited to be visiting a number of blogs (with giveaways!) in the coming weeks.

When Millbrook Press acquired the manuscript, there were two elephant poems... the keeper, "Dust Bath at Dusk" appears in the book and illustrator Anna Wadham beautifully used the spread to move the book from the daylight hours to the nighttime ones.


Which leaves the missing elephant poem: "Elephant Digs for Salt."

There were some problems with the poem, not the least of which was the fact that it featured the animal as a worker... and I'd already done that in "Dung Beetle at Work." Also, there was a little problem of the introduction of humans in the poem -- when none of the other poems included humans. AND, some other problems you'll probably spot right away.

So....since we already had an elephant poem anyway, we decided that instead of revising, it was probably best to simply eliminate. Here it is:
Elephant Digs for Salt
Tusks are picksax shovel
at thisexcavation site—Elephant carves tunnelsto get the nutrients right.

Elephant pokesdigsrubs
with such expensive tools –poachers still hunt the ivory,even though it’s against the rules.

Elephant loadslickscleans—
no need for dynamite.With such power and diligenceit soon satisfies its appetite.
- Irene Latham

---------------------------------------------------
And now for Linda's poem! I cannot tell you how this poem made my day. Both the topic, the text, and the presentation. LOVE. Thank you again and again, Linda. Here it is:

All That's Missingby Linda Baie
Missing: hydrogen molecules two:without them there wouldn't bea wishy-washy, splishy-splashywater world for you and me.
Missing: a hen with no clutch of eggs;without them, she'd only scratch,clucking around the chicken pento find chicks that didn't hatch.
Missing: the sun that will not set;all would work, still thinking it's day.Without our evenings, we'd have no restand miss lovely time to play.
Missing: the yeast that chemically boosts;without it, there would be an outcryfor soft rolls or slices, bagels and buns.T'would be such a sad goodbye.
Missing: those words that make poetry hum;without them, our lives would be less.We'd live with just prose on our pages,no rhymes for us to possess.
Please go find those molecules two;I'll bring eggs and yeast that we lack.Call back the sun and create the worlds.sigh, relief, we have our world back!
---------------------------------Thank you, Linda! My favorite is still the hen with the missing eggs. Poor hen! :)
And now for Roundup!! Please leave your link below!


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