Irene Latham's Blog, page 5

Winter Writing Miracle

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit mad-cow-cool-Kat at Kat's Whiskers for Roundup.

Rosie, age 6 (one of my
10,000 muses!)Today is a Snow Day in Alabama...and in many other places as well. Beautiful! As if predicting this development, I posted a Snow Day poem a few weeks ago. :)
Now that things are getting cranked up again in this new year, I'm feeling energized! The holidays put so much on hold...it's nice to resume some of my usual habits. Today's ArtSpeak: PICASSO is about that very thing. 

It's also partly inspired by this Abraham Lincoln quote, which was one of my father's favorites:

“If I were to try to read, much less answer, all the attacks made on me, this shop might as well be closed for any other business. I do the very best I know how - the very best I can; and I mean to keep doing so until the end. If the end brings me out all right, what's said against me won't amount to anything. If the end brings me out wrong, ten angels swearing I was right would make no difference.”

― Abraham Lincoln

In my memory, it was ten THOUSAND angels. How like a poet to make such a change, yes? :) So that's what I put in my poem. And I was also inspired by Molly's post about appreciating her skin, which got me thinking about my continued effort to love and appreciate ALL the cells in my body...ALL parts, not just some of them. Thanks so much for reading!

Miracle

each morning
ten thousand muses
roostin my skull  

pluck buttons
ribbon       glitter
from even my most
unloveable cells

spill and build
cathedrals across
winter's bare pages
- Irene Latham

Introducing 2025 ArtSpeak: PICASSO

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit our organizer/poet extraordinaire Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading for Roundup.

First: be sure to check out the Cybils Poetry Finalists. Congratulations to all...and yay for beautiful poetry books for kids!!

I have a new One Little Word: SISU (see-soo). It's a Finnish word I fell in love with last week. It hard to translate into English, but it includes courage, resilience, and an inner something...

Sisu makes me think about these lines from "Go to the Limits of Your Longing," by Rainer Maria Rilke, trs. by Joanna Macy:

"Let everything happen to you. Beauty and terror.

Just keep going. No feeling is final."

Find out more about what sisu is and why I selected it over at Smack Dab in the Middle. 

In related news... it took a long time for me to settle on my 2025 ArtSpeak theme! 

But a couple of days ago, I just knew. 

No, I am not a giant Picasso fan. Some of his (Analytical Cubism) work creeps me out! 

BUT. 

I've never before focused on a single artist. And who better than Picasso, who was such an outlaw-artist and so darn prolific? (According to this article at The Met, he produced more than 20,000 works over his lifetime!)

I love that Picasso was brave. He wasn't a follower. He made art on his own terms. And he kept his creative fire burning for decades. These are traits I aim for in my own creative life!

Check out these Picasso quotes. Here are a couple of quickies:

"Art is the elimination of the unnecessary."  (He totally could have been talking about poetry!)

"I begin with an idea and then it becomes something else."   (Yes! That pretty much sums up my writing process. :)

"The chief enemy of creativity is 'good sense.'"  (YES) 

So I look forward to getting to know Picasso a bit better this year. I have written poems after a few of his works in previous years. . .

Red Skirt

Hello, Neighborhood!

 I did a series of (16) animal haiku after his line drawings that became a limited-edition chapbook last year! A Little Book of Animal Haiku: Across the Seasons by Irene Latham, illus. by Pablo Picasso (SOLD OUT - but we are considering a second print run in advance of 2025 National Poetry Month!)

Here are a few of the poems featured:

cat haiku

pig haiku

owl haiku

And here is today's poem. (Bet you wouldn't see this image and think "Picasso"!) Thank you so much for reading!

Yellow House, Blue House

Look! A yellow
house that's really
a blue house,
a brokendown house,
a where-did-
they-go? house.

Let's pop by
and say hello!
Fix those doors
and windows!
Let's go slow—
maybe later
we'll add a patio?

Already the house
is a little less blue.
All this time, it sighs,
I was waiting for YOU.

- Irene Latham

Hello, New Year! haiku

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Michelle at More Art 4 All for Roundup.

It's that time again. . . Goodbye, Old Year; Hello, New Year!

One of my joys during 2024 has been Marcie Atkins' haiku-photo calendar. December's offering is a beauty: 

the old year

lifts away on the mist

of fog

-Marcie Atkins

I instantly latched onto the phrase "old year lifts away," and lo, when I was writing this year's final (!) ArtSpeak: FOLK ART poem, I found those words on the page! So many thanks to Marcie for the inspiration and beauty!

As I was responding to the art by Maggie Blanchett, I was cozied in my fluffiest robe peering out at the frosty morning. Oh, to be in a tropical location like the one depicted in the art! Alas, travel is not always possible or even desirable. But we can always go to those places in our imaginations, yes? And voila! There was a poem. Thanks so much for reading. See you in 2025!

December daydream

whirl of wings and hibiscus

old year lifts away

- Irene Latham

Jingle Dog, Christmas Eve poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Jone Rush Maculloch for Roundup.

Before we get to that "Jingle Dog" in the title, I'd like to share a little of my own jingling!

In my music life I've recently hit a few milestones:

I finished book 10 of the cello Suzuki books! There are exactly 10 books. I have been taking lessons 10 years in January. 10 books in 10 years. I've learned SO MUCH! (Still taking lessons. Maybe forever taking lessons. I love my teacher Laura Usiskin!)

I had a cello string emergency which forced me to re-string my own cello.  I can't believe it took me 10 years to do this confidently on my own. (I put my own strings on during covid lockdowns and did not do it properly! Afterwards I was like, let the experts do it!... But now? I can do this! Eventually I will BE one of the experts. :)

I provided music for a Christmas party with my violinist-friend Mike Bentley. We call ourselves "Late Bloomers" because we both came to our instruments as adults. It was a lot of fun.

In poetry book news: don't miss Betsy Bird's 31 Lists in 31 Days 2024 "Poetry Books" edition! Some of my favorites from 2024 are mentioned...including The Mistakes That Made Us. Woohoo!

Also: If I Could Choose a Best Day: Poems of Possibility, edited by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrations by Olivia Sua, coming from Candlewick March 4, 2025 has garnered two lovely reviews:

Kirkus review of If I Could Choose a Best Day

Publisher's Weekly review of If I Could Choose a Best Day

It's such a lovely book, y'all. Can't wait for you to see it.  :)

And now: This week's ArtSpeak: FOLK ART poem is inspired by Mary Flach's "Jingle Dog." Get your own piece of Mary's art here! 

This poem makes a nice addition to my "dog" mini-series:

Brown Dog

Yellow Dog Explains

Thanks so much for reading!

Jingle Dog, Christmas Eve
Jingle Dog can't sleep—
Santa is coming!

Jingle Dog untangles tree's
twinkly strings of light.

Jingle Dog cocks her head—
Yes! It's Santa's song!
Jingle Dog squeezes up chimney
to greet the reindeer and sleigh.

Jingle Dog covers Santa
in Merry-Christmas kisses!
- Irene Latham

Snow Day poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Linda at A Word Edgewise for Roundup.

First a nod to Nikki Giovanni who died earlier this week. What a bright light! I'm so glad so many of her words are still available to us. Her poem "Knoxville, Tennessee" is one I often share with students. Joy!

Today's ArtSpeak: FOLK ART features a winter scene by George Voronvsky. Just two more poems to go in this series!! Earlier this year I was inspired to write after two other George Voronvsky pieces:

Here Comes Summer

In the Season of Singing

For this poem I was thinking about writing. I was thinking about the book Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times by Katherine May and the poem "Wintering" by Sylvia Plath.  

And I was thinking about pie. . . because we've been watching the latest season of The Great British Baking Show. :) 

I wrote quite a few pages and versions, just playing, and I don't know that any of them all the way stick together, but I do like how this one ends with an unexpected (essential!) ingredient. Thanks so much for reading.

Snow Day

today

a slice of snow-pie
latticed by bare birch
and pink sky

bees asleep
wolves resting
in a lazy heap

let the rabbits frolic!
invite the deer to dance!

inside you
daffodils roar toward
the surface

finally you are free
- Irene Latham

Cat / Lady / Snow poem + NCTE Report

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Carol at The Apples in My Orchard for Roundup.

Y'all. The year is disappearing! 

Earlier this week at Smack Dab in the Middle I blogged about How to Define Writing Success. I hope you'll give it a read...and maybe even tell me how YOU define writing success??

This week's ArtSpeak: FOLK ART poem features a cat in the snow after art I love by Barbara Strawser. Earlier this year I wrote after two other of her pieces:

I Have a Garden Angel

Napa Valley Magic

Snowy Morning with Cat & Lady

When Lady arrives
all tall and billowy,
Cat is frozen
in the snow.
He isn't sure:
should he trust her?
      Time to hiss
      or time to purr?

Once so tall,
now Lady's hand swings
low. On her face
a smile: Hello!
      Cold melts.
      Cat thaws.
Slowly slowly
he retracts his claws.
Cat waves his tail,
lifts his brow.

Meow?
- Irene Latham
And now a few words about NCTE Boston: It was everything I wanted it to be! 
Smooth travels view of Alabama hills on my flight home

 sweet times with friends, old & new(as always I wish I'd taken more pictures...but I am grateful for the ones I do have!)
group shot from Poetry Peeps Meet-Up! David L. Harrison,
Vikram Madan, Matt Forrest Esenwine, Allan Wolf, Cindy Greene,
Nancy Tupper Ling, Mark Malcolm, Marcie Atkins, Cathy Steinquist,
Mary E. Cronin, Cedar Pruitt, Carol Hinz, Susan Hood, Jeannine Atkins,
Randi Soneshine, Alison Green Myers, Willeena Booker, Irene Latham,
Laura Purdie Salas, Michelle Schaub, Lisa Rogers, Charles Waters
& others (if your name or someone's name you recognize is missing,
would you please let me know in comments? Thank you!) 
folks pictured: Cedar Pruitt, Michelle Schaub, 
Jeannine Atkins, Irene Latham, Cathy Steinquist, Mary Cronin,
Willeena Booker, Mark Malcolm, Nadine Pinede, Allan Wolf,
Nancy Bo Flood, April Halprin Wayland, Lisa Rogers,
Charles Waters, Ann Marie Corgill, Nancy Tupper Ling,
Georgia Heard, Kathleen Clarke, Vikram Madan
 lots of learning
Nadine Pinede, Susan Hood, Jeannine Atkins,
Carole Boston Weatherford, Irene Latham
"Hope is the Thing with Feathers: How History
Makes Poetry Sing"
 some new-city exploring
places and folks pictured: Irene Latham, Marcie Atkins,
Parker House Hotel, King's Chapel Cemetery, 
Make Way for Ducklings sculpture,
Boston Athenaeum, Beacon Street Books.
inspiration, validation, hope!
folks pictured: Irene Latham, April Halprin Wayland,
Jeannine Atkins, Ellen Hopkins, Dahlia Hamza
Constantine, Mary Lee Hahn, Charles Waters,
Charles R. Smith, Jr., Rebecca Davis, Carol Hinz,
Carter Hasegawa
& (of course!) some just-out/coming-soon books by NCTE attendees I'm excited about 
Green Promises: Girls Who Loved the Earth by Jeannine AtkinsKnocking on Windows: a Memoir by Jeannine AtkinsOne Step Ahead by Marcie Flinchum AtkinsA Universe of Rainbows: Multicolored Poems for a Multicolored World edited by Matt Forrest Esenwine, illus. by Jamey ChristophA Tree is a Community by David L. HarrisonIf I Could Choose a Best Day: Poems of Possibility edited by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illus. by Olivia SuaBeware the Dragon and the Nozzlewock: a Graphic Novel Poetry Collection by Vikram MadanWhen the Mapou Sings by Nadine PinedeFire Flight: A Wildlife Escape by Cedar Pruitt, illus. by Chiara FedeleLine Leads the Way by Laura Purdie Salas, illus by Alice CaldarellaOskar's Voyage by Laura Purdie Salas, illus. by Kayla HarrenThe Doll Test: Choosing Equality by Carole Boston Weatherford, illus. by David Elmo Cooper
Congratulations to Charles R. Smith, Jr. for being honored with the 2025 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry!
And don't miss the NCTE Notable Poetry Books list. Charles and I are so pleased The Mistakes That Made Us is included. Thank you, committee...and thank you, contributors! Congratulations to all the winners!
*Special shout-out to Jeannine Atkins who is calm and balm and all the best things when the rain is blowing sideways! Mwah!

Happy Thanksgiving! (poem)

 Hello and Happy Thanksgiving! When Friday arrives, be sure to visit Tanita at {fiction, instead of lies} for Poetry Friday Roundup. I'm posting a day early because I am so very thankful this year! 

Also, for this week's ArtSpeak: FOLK ART series I have a Thanksgiving-ish poem inspired by art created by Alabama artist Trés Taylor. 

I wrote a poem earlier this year after Trés' gorgeous work: "Casting for Dreams."

Today's poem employs a "4 x 4" form I *think* I learned about on Linda Mitchell's blog A Word Edgewise. It has the following rules:

4 syllables in each line


4 lines in each stanza
4 stanzas


4 times repeating a refrain line – line 1 in the first stanza, line 2 in the second, and so on.

I wanted to try short sentences. And I wanted near-rhymes, not perfect ones. Thanks so much for reading!

The Sharing Table

We gather round.
We feast for days.
We offer thanks.
We dream of rain.

We close our eyes.
We gather round.
We nuzzle up.
We burrow down.

Our bellies fill.
Our hearts expand.
We gather round,
stars in our hands.

Time to warble!
Wear a sky-crown!
Bless this table
we gather round.
- Irene Latham

Poem for a Loved One's Return

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

It's an especially happy Poetry Friday because I'm at NCTE! Yay! More on that later. For now, I offer you a new ArtSpeak: FOLK ART poem. This one is inspired by a piece by 20th Century Florida folk artist Earl Cunningham, whose work can be seen at the Smithsonian.  It took me a while to find my poem. Thanks so much for reading.

Sunset Point

When you returned
I was like a harbor welcoming a fleet of ships
each one flying crisp blue sails against marmalade sky and melting-butter sun
A whole ocean of boats and sails and fisherfolk hauling in their nets and a thousand birds crying you're home

- Irene Latham

Yellow Dog Explains poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Karen Edmisten for Roundup.

I taught a high school poetry workshop this week on writing poems about WATER. I mean, those young poets were flowing with words and ideas and goodness...so much fun!

Today's ArtSpeak: FOLK ART poem features another colored animal...our creative brains are constantly seeking patterns, aren't they? Sometimes they snag on certain topics or ways of expressing...Apparently, I am in a color-animal loop!

Brown Dog

Yellow Chicken

 And as I was writing this one I could feel a William Carlos Williams "This is Just to Say" vibe sneaking in...thanks so much for reading! Be sure to check out more art by Jodi Queenan at her website. Love!

Yellow Dog Explains

I dug

the tulips

because

your voice

was full

 of raindrops

and I couldn't

fetch

the stars.

- Irene Latham

Yellow Chicken poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Cathy at Merely Day by Day for Roundup.

Perhaps, you, like me, would enjoy a bit of whimsy today? Check out my post over at Smack Dab in the Middle, which features the whimsical world of poetry and nature and THIS POEM IS A NEST.

Also, here is a graphic with my NCTE details! I am looking forward to connecting with poetry peeps IN PERSON! (The last NCTE conference I attended in person was Baltimore in 2019.)

Today's ArtSpeak: FOLK ART is a fun one! As soon as I saw Bill Traylor's yellow chicken, I knew I had to write a poem about him! And no surprise, turns out Yellow Chicken has understandable motivation for his antics. Read on!

Yellow Chicken Has Pluck

Whenever Black Duck 

wades out of the muck,

Yellow Chicken struts and clucks—

a showman 

in a yellow tux.

Could it be?

Yes! Yellow Chicken 

is LOVEstruck!

Let's all wish him 

Cockadoodle—Good Luck!

- Irene Latham

In related news, I am currently casting about for my ArtSpeak theme for 2025. So. Much. Art. It's hard to choose!! I welcome your ideas.