Irene Latham's Blog, page 2

European Goldfinch poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Molly at Nix the Comfort Zone for Roundup.

Earlier this week, I shared about my 50-ish years as a writer over at Smack Dab in a post titled Reflection: A Writer's Journey. Spoiler: the 2020 shutdowns had a huge impact on my writing life, and I'm so glad!

This week's ArtSpeak: PICASSO features a bird. I wasn't sure what kind of bird it was, as Picasso didn't title it. But thanks to ye old internet, I soon identified it as a European Goldfinch. 

I know we have birders in our Poetry Friday community...anyone ever seen this one in real life?? Please share in comments!

European Goldfinch by Irene Latham
hello you delicious littlebanana split birdyou perch all chocolatey-vanillawings flashing yellowa sprinkle of nutsa drizzle of carameland that sweet cherry faceyou set my tonguemy heartmy whole body atwitter-trilling

Knocking on Windows by Jeannine Atkins

 

me & Jeannine (2012)Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Jane at Raincity Librarian for Roundup.

Today I'm delighted to welcome Jeannine Atkins to Live Your Poem! Jeannine and I go wayyyy back. We've shared time together in Maine, Georgia, Massachusetts, and most recently, NCTE-Philadelphia. 

The first book of hers I absolutely fell in love with was : Poems About Laura Ingalls Wilder, Madam C.J. Walker, Marie Curie, and Their Daughters (Henry Holt, 2010).

I've learned so much from Jeannine, and not just about writing! She is wise and kind and funny, and she never forgets that poetry is meant to be beautiful. (Also: Jeannine taught be you can add joy to a hotel room with FLOWERS. Who cares if they're in a paper cup?!) Every time I read one of her books, I fill my inspiration journal with beautiful words and ideas that carry me. 

So, when Jeannine told me her verse memoir was coming, I asked her to send me an ARC as soon as possible! And y'all, it's powerful.

Knocking on Windows by Jeannine Atkins (Atheneum, Aug. 5, 2025)

Publisher's description:

Acclaimed author Jeannine Atkins revisits her past in this “brave, searing” (Publishers Weekly, starred review) memoir-in-verse about memory, healing, and finding her voice as a writer, perfect for fans of Amber Smith and Speak.

Night darkens the window to mirror.
I’m back in my old bedroom.

Six weeks after the start of her freshman year of college, Jeannine Atkins finds herself back in her childhood bedroom after an unimaginable trauma. Now home in Massachusetts, she’s struggling to reclaim her life and her voice. Seeking comfort in the words of women, she turns to the lives and stories of Sylvia Plath, Maya Angelou, and Emily Dickinson. Through raw and poignant letter-poems addressed to these literary giants, Jeannine finds that the process of writing and reflecting has become not only a means of survival but the catalyst for a burgeoning writing career.

Inspired and ready to move forward, she enrolls in her state university, where she feeds her growing passion for writing in fiction seminars. But she finds that she’s unable to escape the pervasive misogyny of her classmates and professors, who challenge her to assert her own voice against a backdrop of disbelief and minimalization. This time, though, Jeannine is not willing to go down without a fight.

A searingly honest memoir told through gorgeous verse, Knocking on Windows stands as a beacon of hope and a celebration of the enduring spirit of survivors of sexual assault—and of writers.

---
To give you a taste, here are a few passages I recorded in my journal:
True, death would change little.Still, something bristles inside me, waking, alive.It isn't murder or gallantry I want,but the gift that there are more ways to end my story.
--But snowstorms keep me from classes.And a yellow caution light that seemsto blink through my belly and breath.
-- 
History won't stay silent and still.History twists out of hiding from unraveling bindings,forgotten letters, delicate spills across margins,a change in light making visible what was there all along.
--
Anger is a half-hidden safety pin.
--
Memory isn't enough. Art wants transformation.
--
Like ghosts, poems don't have true ends.
Beautiful, yes?!
And now please welcome Jeannine, as she responds to a few prompts as they relate to her experience writing Knocking on Windows.



FRESH:

Jeannine Atkins: I was inspired by memoirs in verse by Nikki Grimes, Jacqueline Woodson, Margarita Engle, Laurie Halse Anderson, Ann Turner, and Marilyn Nelson. These women used lyrical language and narrative in fresh ways to address, often at a slant, past experiences of love or violence. The intimate format made me feel safe as I faced the past, which allowed me to find new versions of old stories. I discovered connections that broke chronology, the way metaphors can, and basked in light that fell between remembered scenes.


DELICIOUS:

Jeannine Atkins: When I tell people that this memoir pays homage to poets and writers who shaped me, some assume the book might be a long love letter. But homage can be complicated. While I loved Sylvia Plath wizardly ways with language, I was uncomfortable with some of her metaphors. Her commitment to poetry made her a role model, but I’ve cringed at descriptions of the boys and men she dated and the poet she married. Reading of suicide can make us feel forsaken, but I tried to reach for understanding. In every life, there’s so much we’ll never know.


DIFFICULT:

Jeannine Atkins: It wasn’t easy to look back at recovery from violence, but returning to the eighteen-year-old who I’d long thought of as troubled, I found more respect for her than shame. We’re all asked to carry pain, and I hope readers can see that while time and places vary, deep down where it matters, none of us are alone.


ANYTHING ELSE:

Jeannine Atkins: In Knocking on Windows I wrote letter-poems to Emily Dickinson, Sylvia Plath, and Maya Angelou, poets who meant a lot to me at eighteen and continue to widen my world with each fresh reading. I hope the poems speak as letters to readers, too, inviting us all to read and write together. As I said in the memoir, “To write is to find the courage to claim that we matter." We can do this.
---
Thank you, Jeannine! And readers, be sure to check out Jeannine's backlist to meet other courageous women...and if you want a new friend for your writing life, don't miss View from a Window Seat: Thoughts on Writing and Life. It's one of my favorites, and I return to it often.
Now, for this week's ArtSpeak: PICASSO. In honor of Jeannine's visit, I selected a piece that features a window...and is about writing.
Turns out Picasso had a thing for windows! Read more about how windows influenced Picasso's art here. Thanks so much for reading!



Viewpoint:
Writing
in Winter

outside,
a winter
lullaby

inside,
a storm
dazzles
the page
awake
- Irene Latham

If I Were to Paint You as a Mountain love poem

 

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Marcie Flinchum Atkins for Roundup.

I'm still cranking away, writing my new middle grade novel, each day getting closer to "the end" of my first draft. Exciting!

Next week I'll be welcoming Jeannine Atkins to Live Your Poem to talk a bit about her new beautiful, powerful verse memoir Knocking On Windows (Simon & Schuster, Aug. 5, 2025). I have learned so much from Jeannine over the years, about life, writing, and possibility—you won't want to miss this!

For this week's ArtSpeak: PICASSO offering, I've been exploring Picasso's landscapes. Whole exhibitions have been mounted featuring Picasso's landscapes! And when I saw this one, painted during his early marriage to Jacqueline (when he was around age 80!), I knew I wanted to write about it. 

Is it Picasso speaking? Maybe, but it could be just me. :) Thanks so much for reading!

If I Were to Paint You as a Mountain
by Irene Latham
You would be blue
and the clouds
would circle
your shoulders,
cypresses whispering
I am yours
and I would blow
through you
scattering wings
and light—
what fences?
what walls?
Just us,
always singing
always new.

The Poetry of Bending Time

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Jan at bookseedstudio for Roundup.

This week's ArtSpeak: PICASSO offering is about a painting he did of lovers in the street. 

I love this painting. It reminds me of that famous 1945 V-J Day Alfred Eisenstaedt photo of Sailor Kissing a Nurse in Times Square. Of course that one is a hello, while Picasso's is a goodbye. Either way, what a moment!

I've also been reading about how time doesn't actually exist and is only a human construct. 

Which means, if we want to, we can live outside of time. I am all about mind-bending and time-bending, so why not?! 

Read more about how to bend time here. Thanks so much for reading.

At the Station

If anyone can bend
             time

it’s lovers in the street—

yes, soon
to be parted

but for this moment
melting

              melding—

No words for goodbye

in a world
without clocks.
- Irene Latham

Old Man Fog poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference for Roundup.

After the (fabulous!) 4th of July festivities, it's been lovely to have a week of calm and quiet. I #amwriting, so the white space on the calendar has been especially welcome.

Today's ArtSpeak: PICASSO features another one of his I-can't-believe-that's-a-Picasso paintings, a landscape from 1928. 

I tried several directions before landing here, with a personification of fog. 

The poem is also a nod to Ram Dass and one of his most famous quotes, and I'm grateful to my son Daniel for gifting me the book Be Here Now a few years back. Thanks so much for reading!

Old Man Fog

here he comes
shuffling into town

rambling over trees
and cottages

softening
today's brittle edges

with his easy pace
and lingering smile

he says in his wizened voice
we are all pilgrims,

walking each other
home
- Irene Latham

Summer Triptych poem

 Hello and Happy JULY! It's Poetry Friday, so be sure to visit Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading for a "Poems of Protest" Roundup.

If you'd like to discover what I'm writing this summer, I invite you to check out this post I wrote on companion novels over at Smack Dab in the Middle!

This week's ArtSpeak: PICASSO poem is a "Summer Triptych." I was researching Picasso's art that includes birds, (umm, that Smack Dab post might explain why!) and I kinda fell in love with this piece! 

I decided to go with a triptych because triptychs are surely Picasso-approved, as they are a kind of construction and deconstruction, meant to show something in three parts where each part works individually but also together as a whole. 

This struck me as the thinking Picasso employed in his cubist work...and since this piece represents him making that transition, it seemed a good way to approach the poem.

I've written other triptychs, perhaps the best-known one is "Triptych for a Thirsty Giraffe," which appears in Dear Wandering Wildebeest: Poems From the Water Hole.  

Have you written a triptych?? Or encountered a triptych you enjoy? I'd love to read it!

Summer Triptych

1

black bird black bird
unbroken moonlight

2
green leaves green leaves
a shatter of faith

3
blue sky blue sky
tiger stalks a bed of daisies
- Irene Latham

Claude Picasso and his Toy Horse poem

writing art poems! Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Tanita at {fiction, instead of lies} for Roundup.

Wow, summer is HERE! I'm super-grateful for time spent this week with readers and writers of all ages at Clay Public Library and Oneonta Public Library. Thank you!

This week's ArtSpeak: PICASSO features Pablo's son Claude at age two, playing with his hobby horse. I immediately wondered: what was it like to grow up with Picasso as a father? 

Lucky for us, Claude shares about this experience here. The "lessons" Claude learned from Picasso can totally be applied to the writing life as well: take risks! play! don't delay! 

I struggled a bit with the poem and finally landed at a 5-7-5 syllable count that got me experimenting with using the haiku 5-7-5 structure to write a narrative about Picasso and his life...fun! Thanks so much for reading.

While Picasso paints

they trot, gallop, nicker, neigh!

Claude and his toy horse

- Irene Latham

Chaos Theory poem

 

photo by Laura Purdie SalasHello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Carol at The Apples in My Orchard for Roundup.

Happy Summer Solstice! I have written so many poems about summer...and no wonder. What a wonderful season. Even though I do NOT love heat or sweating or mosquitoes or poison ivy.

Charles and I had a great time at NCTE-NCTM conference in Chicago! So many thanks to all the passionate educators (Ann Marie!) and poets (Laura!) and staff who made our visit a joy. Our keynote was titled "Mistakes Are Bridges," and indeed they are. Yay!

Question for the Poetry Friday Hive: Brooke at Inked Voices has invited me to teach another Poetry webinar. Yay!! 

What poetry craft topic would you most like to learn about? Beginning, Endings, and the Magical Middle? 8 Ways to Play with Poetry - structure, form, titles, setting, literary devices, white space? Revision strategies? 8 Ways to Amp Up Your Poem Fast? Crafting the Unexpected Inevitable? Or ??? I welcome your reply in comments or email: irene (at) irenelatham (dot) com. Thank you!! (and yes, I realize the number 8 came up twice there. Ha!)

This week's ArtSpeak: PICASSO is titled "Chaos Theory." It's after Las Meninas, a series of 58 paintings that Picasso painted in 1957 in an exploration of Las Meninas by Diego Velazquez. (Y'all. 58 paintings in an exploration of a single existing artwork. I LOVE that!)

Chaos theory, as I understand it, has to do with randomness and unpredictability. The example I like is the pinball machine. How there are all sort of laws about how a ball will behave, but it doesn't always do what you'd expect. 

How does this apply to my life, to poetry? 

I think it has to do with growing up not always feeling safe, and consequently developing a habit of looking to/inviting chaos as a means of distracting/protecting oneself from painful emotions. This poem documents a recovery of sorts. 

It's also a variation of a poem I wrote in celebration of creative chaos during my "red" year called "A Dream of Red."  

Essentially, I think both poems are about freedom.

Don't you love how in poetry something similar (here, red walls with randomness!) can yield such different poetic experiences? Thanks so much for reading!

Chaos Theory

once I courted
chaos

dipped my fingers
in red paint,
made a canvas
of every wall

these days
when chaos calls
I may marvel—
rapt, breathless

but soon
I label the itch
an itch

and gently
shut the door
- Irene Latham

Self-Portrait as Don Quixote

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Ruth at there is no such thing as a  godforsaken town for Roundup.

Charles and I are excited to be traveling to Chicago to deliver the keynote (Monday!) at the NCTE-NCTM Joint Conference! Educators, we look forward to sharing this time with you!

This week's ArtSpeak: PICASSO features Don Quixote. I've always felt a certain kinship with Don Quixote, and perhaps Picasso did, too! Yes, I've read the book...and one of my favorite musicals from childhood was Man of La Mancha. 

And—fitting for the Poetry Friday before Father's Day AND this month's 9 year anniversary of my father's death—I shall never think of Don Quixote without thinking of my father. He was a DQ fan for sure! Papa was a dreamer, an adventurer, a lover of freedom, and a firm believer in helping those in need. He gave all those things to me, and I remain deeply grateful.

Self-Portrait as Don Quixote

by Irene Latham

Days bleed
into dream—
I cannot discern
what is real,
   what is not.
I charge forward
alone
    and not alone.
What you call
madness,
I call
    freedom!
Never before
have I kissed
such winds.

Picasso Speaks of Poetry

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Buffy Silverman for Roundup.

It was my honor to contribute again to David Harrison's "Poetry From Daily Life" column. This time I wrote about things I've learned about life from reading poems. Maybe you will recognize some of the lines I selected to share!

Today's ArtSpeak: PICASSO is (again!) in Picasso's voice. For some reason, he started talking about math...and poetry! 

Does it make sense? Do the metaphors hold up? Does it have anything to do with the art? 

Maybe, maybe not! And that's okay. So often I write what I most need to hear, so perhaps my subconscious is encouraging me to loosen up, follow the wild threads, let the poem be what it wants to be. Thanks so much for reading!

Picasso Speaks of Poetry

A poem is at least half geometry,
the rest is quantum physics.

If we are made of starstuff,
then a poem is a black hole.

For every flower I paint,
a galaxy crashes into a windowpane,
lost.

What kills a poem?
Algebra, calculus.

So stop counting.
Stop thinking.

Hurl yourself into a summer sky.
A poem is nothing
if not infinity.
- Irene Latham