Irene Latham's Blog, page 19

Butterfly Poem

 

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Rose at Imagine the Possibilities for Roundup. 

I'm on the road today, heading for Murfreesboro, TN, where tomorrow I'll be part of the Southern Kid Literary Festival. I can't wait to share D-39 and The Cat Man of Aleppo with 3rd-5th graders! And...I get to hang out with my mom and the Tennessee contingent of my family. YAY!

I'll leave you with an ArtSpeak: Animals spring-y butterfly poem. Since the collective noun for sharks (shiver) was so well received last week, I decided to include one of the collective nouns for butterflies. Thank you so much for reading.

Meadow Kaleidoscope

A hundred butterflies
arrive

find flower-dish
after delicious flower-
dish—
O sippety-slurp!—
enough for you and you
and you!

What is spring,
but a smorgasbord

of wishes
come         true?

Shark Poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Indulge in ALL the deliciousness over at Jama's Alphabet Soup! 

I've got sharks on my mind. And when I found Utagawa Kuniyoshi's gorgeous piece of art, I knew I needed to write a shark poem this week. 

But before we get to that... have you had a chance to read ZOOBILATIONS! by Douglas Florian? It's full of animals and puns and art kids will be able to relate to. There's humor, of course, and some lovely surprises, like "The Dove," which is two lines of wonderment. Get the book and tell me you agree. :)

As for my ArtSpeak: ANIMALS poem, you'll notice the formatting looks different on the graphic than in the body of this post. I wanted to shape this poem like a tornado, but there wasn't room for it on the graphic! So...I tried an alternate formatting for the graphic. (Isn't poetry fun??) Thank you so much for reading!

When a shiver of sharks rise from the deep

you forget for a moment

fins tail teeth—

so graceful

so sleek!

They are one

gray tornado

aswirl

in a world

deeper

than blue.

- Irene Latham

Why Grasshopper Wants to Meet the Moon (poem)

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Jone Rush MacCulloch for our last Roundup of National Poetry Month. (It flew by, didn't it??)

Today's ArtSpeak: Animals poem features a grasshopper! I wrote quite a few drafts for this one, with different angles and ideas... and along the way, I did a little research. One thing I learned is that grasshoppers have existed longer than the dinosaurs! Here are the particulars:

" Modern-day grasshoppers descend from ancient ancestors that lived long before dinosaurs roamed the Earth. The fossil record shows that primitive grasshoppers first appeared during the Carboniferous period, more than 300 million years ago. Most ancient grasshoppers are preserved as fossils, although grasshopper nymphs (the second stage in the grasshopper lifestyle after the initial egg phase) are occasionally found in amber."

 You can read the whole article at Thought Co.

And here's my poem! (Sadly, their dino-history didn't make it into this version of the poem.) Thanks so much for reading.

Why Grasshopper Wants to Meet the Moon

Sunhopper knows

afternoon

will be over soon—

one must leap,

reach

h a n g  on—

for sky is where

dreams bloom.

- Irene Latham

I followed a little cat one day (poem)

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Margaret at Reflections on the Teche for Roundup.

Spring has most certainly sprung in these parts! I love this time of year for many reasons, not the least of which is arts & craft fairs. This weekend I'm daytripping to three such occasions...yay!

Earlier this week I presented with Karim Shamsi-Basha at University of Montevallo about The Cat Man of Aleppo. Huge thanks to all you fabulous folks at Montevallo!!

(l-r) Carey Heatherly, Irene Latham,
Karim Shamsi-Basha, Sheila Brandt

Which may explain why this week's ArtSpeak: Animals features a cat poem. Our beloved Maggie is 12 years old now. What a sweet friend she is! In fact, she helped me with this poem. Thank you so much for reading.

I followed a little cat one day

I crouched
          pounced
yowled and scatted.
I chased my own tail.
Later, I puddled
in a circle of sunshine.
I bathed with July eyes
and an August tongue.
I   s tr e t c h e d—
all the way to next year.
I learned claws
are for sharpening,
string for tangling.
A box is a beginning,
and a purr?
Now this little cat
knows a purr
is the cure
for just about anything.

Purrrrrrr.
- Irene Latham

On Parrots and Friendship (poem)

 

Hello and Happy National Poetry Month! Be sure to visit Matt at Radio, Rhythm, & Rhyme for Roundup.

Happy almost Easter! On this Good Friday I'm out gallivanting with my Garden Girls, but I do have a poem...and a pic of me and the sweetest, fluffiest Angora rabbit you ever did see. Holding it, I felt like I was 8 years old again. :)

Today's ArtSpeak: Animals poem features parrots. Don't you love those across-the-decades friendships where you can instantly dive in with honesty and vulnerability? Today's poem is about that.

Two Parrots Take a Walk Together in Spring


While songbirds patter about sky and rain,
parrots promenade like twin kings.

Old friends, they chatter about the beauty
the season brings—

Bees, wide-awake petals;
heat, and tender new wings.

Never enough time, so they're quick
to say the important things—

You are the cure for winter.
When we're together, my spirit sings.
- Irene Latham

On Indecision (and Zebras!)

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

Our community is simply bursting with poetic goodness this month, isn't it? So lovely.

My ArtSpeak: Animals poem today features a zebra. 

I have attempted to write on this particular piece of art several times so far this year, and it just wasn't working!  

Today's effort has an emotional focus—about something I struggle with in real life! I'm a fence-stradler, a Pisces (fish swimming in opposite directions)...I can most often see both sides of a situation. Do I have to choose? Can't I have BOTH? Sigh. And so...this poem. Thank you so much for reading.

Indecision

Sometimes

my zebra heart

doesn't know

when to

         Giddyup!

and when to

             Whoa.

- Irene Latham

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Long-time readers may remember I had another zebra poem in my debut poetry book for kids (way back in 2014!) DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST: And Other Poems From the Water Hole.
It features that quality among zebra herds in which the zebras work as a team. The whole herd starts moving about so that predators can't tell where one zebra begins and the other ends! 

 If you're one of those writing a poem a day this month, what a gift you're giving yourself and the world. KEEP GOING!!! xo

National Poetry Month Begins!

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Heidi at my juicy little universe for Roundup. Yay for the start of National Poetry Month, too.

In case you missed it, Tuesday 2-Minute Writing Tip #20 is about "How to Live Your Poem." What better time than National Poetry Month to share the wisdom and guidance poetry can provide? To hear some of the lines that inspire me, check out the (short!) video on youtube.

AND... I am away from my desk today, but I do have the first line of our Progressive Poem for you!

It's not an original-by-me line. Instead I lifted a line from one of my most favorite books ever: THE IMAGINARIES: Little Scraps of Larger Stories by Emily Winfield Martin. All the lines (and art) in this book were meant to inspire new projects... so, voila!

2022 Progressive Poem

Where they were going, there were no maps.

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I can't wait to see what happens next! You can follow along with this schedule. Thanks so much to Margaret for organizing and creating the beautiful graphic!

1 April 1 Irene at Live Your Poem

2 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
3 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
4 Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading
5 Buffy at Buffy Silverman
6 Molly at Nix the Comfort Zone
7 Kim Johnson at Common Threads
8 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
9 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
10 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
11 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
12 Jone at Jone Rush MacCulloch
13 Karin Fisher-Golton at Still in Awe
14 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
15 Carol Labuzzetta @ The Apples in my Orchard
16 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
17 Ruth at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken Town
18 Patricia at Reverie
19 Christie at Wondering and Wandering
20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
21 Kevin at Dog Trax
22 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
23 Leigh Anne at A Day in the Life
24 Marcie Atkins
25 Marilyn Garcia
26 JoAnn Early Macken
27 Janice at Salt City Verse
28 Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference
29 Karen Eastlund at Karen’s Got a Blog
30 Michelle Kogan Painting, Illustration, & Writing

and now, the latest poem in my Artspeak: Animals adventure! Today I have a(nother) tiger for you. Thank you so much for reading.

Tiger Talk Triolet

When a tiger's tail begins to flick
she's roaring with her muscles:
Go away, quick!
When a tiger's tail begins to flick,
giving her space is the trick.
Notice how your heart rustles
when a tiger's tail begins to flick?
Tiger's not the only one roaring with her muscles.
- Irene Latham

Empathy Has Long Ears (poem)

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Amy at The Poem Farm for Roundup. Amy has a new book If This Bird Had Pockets that I haven't read yet, but am very much looking forward to!

It's always exciting to read books written by those in our community. This week it was my delight to read two: What Snail Knows by Kathryn Apel and Hidden Powers: Lise Meitner's Call to Science by Jeannine Atkins.

Both are verse novels. Both feature girls who are shy and who bust through limitations to achieve important things.

In What Snail Knows, I instantly related to in-her-shell, always-moving Lucy. I also felt like I knew her don't-need-anyone dad. And I LOVED how playful Kat was with language and shape in the poems! (In the very first poem there's text in the shape of a number 2! (There's also a car-shaped poem, and a snail-shaped one... AND then there's wordplay, like this poem, which happens when the class is helping the environment by participating in an organized catch of an invasive toad species:

We Loop

We group.

    We troop.

        We swoop.

              We scoop.

                  We whoop!

We nab a knot

          ( a lot!)

of toads.

- Kathryn Apel

Yes, a group of toads is called a knot! (New to me -- I love learning things in books!)

This book reminded me of what's possible for our young age 6-7 readers. Lovely! Don't miss it!

Turning now to Hidden Powers. As a book collaborator, I was drawn to Lise and her collaboration with Otto...and how they hang out with Einstein and the Curies. The story behind the discovery and development of the atomic bomb is fascinating. And Jeannine is brilliant at painting her characters as real, full-fleshed out individuals. And this book really shows the struggle women experience, particularly in male-dominated fields. I always enjoy Jeannine's fresh, beautiful figurative language, like:

"She runs her hand over her mother's hair,

wrinkled and gray like a lake in a storm."

Jeannine reminds us the power of verbs in poetry, like here:

"Lise crushes the newspaper, tosses it into the hearth.

The paper flares, darkens, and shivers into ash."

and Jeannine shows us the elegance and emotional truth that poetry offers:

"She won't wish that she didn't discover

what she discovered. But she wishes everyone

would try to see as if by the light of two candles:

one calling to witness, one to remember."

Thanks to both for these beautiful books!

Gratitude also to Saemi for including Live Your Poem alongside some other wonderful poetry blogs for children. View the post of recommendations on Twinkl!

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For today's ArtSpeak: Animals poem, I decided to go with a rabbit! (Hoppy Spring!) It took me a while to find the character trait I wanted to use for the metaphor, but when I did, if felt just-right. I love when that happens. :) Thanks so much for reading.

Empathy Has Long Ears

always soft,
mapped

with veins
of understanding

both radar
and weathervane

listening
signaling

I'm here
I hear you

you
are the song
I sing

- Irene Latham

Creativity Is a Chameleon (poem)

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Ruth at There is no such thing as a godforsaken town for Roundup.
I realized this week that my ArtSpeak: Animals project so far has been a bit heavy on mammals. So today I have a reptile for you!
Fun fact: I thought chameleons were amphibians...but no! Because they do not undergo metamorphosis, and they are cold blooded with scaly skin, they are reptiles.
And since I've (pretty much always) got creativity on my mind, here you go! Thank you so much for reading.


Creativity is a Chameleon

quiet
as it absorbs
sun-flood
of new ideas

    tail curling
    each eye circling

still
until sticky tongue
zipzaps a fly

    radiant
as a thousand colors
shift,
        shine

- Irene Latham

Tenderness is a Tiger (poem)

 

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit that oh-so-amazing duo Sylvia & Janet at Poetry for Children for Roundup.

I am teaching today virtually, helping students at Fox Meadow Elementary (Scarsdale, NY) craft anecdotes to go with their poems ala DICTIONARY FOR A BETTER WORLD. Fun!

My latest ArtSpeak: Animals poem started out as a poem about a zebra...and when that wasn't working, I switched to a tiger... and voila! Thank you so much for reading.

Tenderness is a Tiger

Tenderness is a tiger
cleaning its paw

barnacled tongue
creeps between claws

rasping
grasping

gathering dirtand crumbs
before they fall.

Tenderness is a tiger
stretching in the sun

whiskers twitch, breath soon comes undone

wheezing
dreaming

as cubs tackle her tail—
even in sleep,she welcomes their fun.
- Irene Latham