Irene Latham's Blog, page 161

BREAKFAST OF THE BIRDS

The holiday season can be a tough time. All that family togetherness brings its own brand of stress, and then there's the painfulness of not being with the ones you love.

And then there's the introvert who finds parties and caroling and the go-go-go nature of the season exhausting. This poem is for those people:






Breakfast of the Birds
- after the painting by Gabriele Minter

Curtain opens,
day after Christmas:

birds perch
like ornaments

on snowy branches,
feast on given

seed. She holds
her applause,

recalls yesterday's
fury of paper

and ribbon,
all the scripted

squabbles.
Would take her

leave, if not for
this intermission.

- Irene Latham, from THE COLOR OF LOST ROOMS

For last year's offering, see my post that includes "Love Poem with Christmas Lights" in print and video. And don't forget to visit the gracious, talented, lovely Doraine for Poetry Friday!

Merry Christmas, everyone!

GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS PAST

These photos (found at my mother's house) remind me of the little girl who, with her little sister beside her, peeked out the window on Christmas Eve until they saw Rudolph's red nose blinking across the sky. Then those girls scrambled into bed and squeezed their eyes tight so Santa would guide those reindeer to the roof of their house and leave the long-wished-for presents (like matching dolls! Mama knew what little girls liked long before American Girl or My Twinn).

What magic this season is!

p.s. I still have the doll -- in the same gown, though her hair is a matted mess and her eyes don't work right. Her name is Pamela Jane.

WRITERS' ENEMY #1

 Of all the writerly struggles, I think perhaps this one tops many a writer's list:

PERFECTIONISM
It's certainly been a struggle for me. Which is why this quote in our Book Club's current read THE THORN BIRDS by Colleen McCullough is an inspiration:
"Perfection in anything," she said, "is unbearably dull. Myself, I prefer a touch of imperfection."
What's your Enemy #1?
  image courtesy of http://cameronsong.blogspot.com/

ONE LITTLE WORD, REVISITED

Now that it's nearly the middle of December, I've been reflecting on my One Little Word for 2011, which was:

DEEPER
(What's a One Little Word? Click here for my January 2011 post).

After the frenzy of 2010, 2011 has definitely been a year of quiet and retreat. I feel like I have returned to my center, or have discovered a new center, after the broadening experience of delivering a book to the world in such a public way.

I've made some important decisions this year about how I want to spend my time and energy. My dreams have shape-shifted the way June clouds tend to do. I have a clear-er idea of what I want and what I'm willing to do to get it.

Mostly this involves learning what I'm NOT willing to do. I've learned a lot about the word "no" this year. I've learned its power and its grace. "No" can be every bit as deep as "yes."

I've written thousands of words this year, many of them in poetic form, and some of them in memoir form. (I even wrote a manuscript of poems entitled DEEPER THAN BLUE!) I have never gone as deep before, never felt as connected emotionally. I'm learning so much about myself and life.

And love. Always, always love.

And now I'm looking ahead to 2012. I'm thinking about where I want to go and what word will serve as my guide. There are two words competing for my attention at this moment -- I'll announce my decision January 1.

More to come before then!

NOT THE GRINCH AT ALL

There are a few things that must happen for it to really be Christmas:

1. I must see my sister.
2. I must see my mama.
3. I must go to Pat's house.

1. and 2. haven't happened yet this year, but I do want to share the following pics so you can get an idea of the Wonderland Pat creates inside her home:

What starts out like this.......





Turns into this:

 The magical part is that it really does feel like magic, although I know that, in fact, Pat spends HOURS disassembling, dragging out, and reassembling.

It's one of her passions.

And then she shares that passion in an annual Open House. Which is TONIGHT for those of you lucky enough to know her.

I will be decking other halls tonight, but I did experience the magic of Pat's house last weekend. I also shot some video of Pat telling the stories behind some of these decorations that I will share as soon as I get around to editing it!

POETRY FRIDAY GIVEAWAY: EVERY THING ON IT by Shel Silverstein

I can't think of  better gift than poetry, so I decided to give away a copy of EVERY THING ON IT by Shel Silverstein.
This is a Twitter contest, so to enter, you can cope and paste this tweet:

RT @irene_latham #poetry #giveaway: EVERY THING ON IT by Shel Silverstein. Surefire smiles! Simply RT by midnite Friday to enter

And if you don't tweet you can leave me a comment here with your email address.

For more poetic goodness, be sure to visit the Haiku Goddess herself, Robyn at Read. Write. Howl.

And if you're interested in some adult poetry, my poet-friend Kory has a giveaway going on at her blog: CAMEO by Melissa Dickson Blackburn. Good stuff!

GET SPOOKED AT SWEETWATER PLANTATION

 If ever you find yourself in the northwest corner of Alabama, take a turn off Florence Blvd. and discover Sweetwater Plantation, a house that's home to spooks and ghosts and a whole lot of history.

Turns out, preservation of such a place is quite a costly affair. I was overwhelmed just hearing about the struggles so far. And something that makes me SO MAD: vandalism! I mean, who digs up graves and graffitis interior walls?! For what purpose?

Once again, my thanks to Pat for showing me a bit of history I hadn't heard of before. I feel some poems brewing.....

WHICH COMES FIRST, THE SINGER OR THE SONG?

As you know I have been creating quilts all year. I know just what it takes to choose and cut and arrange and sit and stitch.

Which is part of why this Christmas quilt means so much to me.




 The other part is because of who made it for me.

Yet another part is the special touches she included:

a Grinch, to make me smile and think of her always. (She's really the opposite of the Grinch... or only the version of the Grinch that exists at the end of the book.)


...and this lovely quote that whispers and shouts to me.



Thank you, Pat! You are both singer and song. I love it and will probably keep it out all year long.

THE WAITING PRAYER

Today I posted over at Smack Dab in the Middle about my writing-related Christmas wish list.

There are gadgets and books and so forth, and I've also included more ambiguous things.

In the spirit of the Serenity Prayer, for one of the items on my wish list I wrote a little Waiting Prayer:








Grant me the patience     to wait with grace,     the impatience to ACT     when it's called for,     and the wisdom to know the difference.       23 days until Christmas. Sometimes waiting really is the hardest part.

TRUTH IN POETRY

Someone asked me recently about a love poem I wrote, "Is it true?"

Not exactly, I thought and paused a moment before responding. "It depends on what you mean by 'true.'"

There is something about poetry that makes it feel personal, confessional, and the reader often assumes poems are autobiographical. And sometimes they are.

But nonfiction they are NOT.

We invent details to orient the reader, we embellish to add texture. The poem is a living, breathing thing that grows as we are writing it, as we discover our own truths. That ability to root in two worlds -- Real and Imagined -- is one of the most precious things about the experience of poetry.


Matthew J. Kirby addresses the issue of truth in his book ICEFALL:

"My tale last night. Did it comfort you?"


"Yes."


"And was the comfort real? Was it true?"


"I thought it was."


"Then the story was true. And that is what is most important in the telling, whether Thor's chariot is really pulled by two bucks or not."

Don't forget to visit Carol at Carol's Corner for Poetry Friday Roundup! (Image found at Free Motion Quilting.)