Poems Inspired by THE LOST WORDS

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect for Roundup. A few weeks ago Mary Lee was gushing about THE LOST WORDS by Robert Macfarlane, art by Jackie Morris -- a book I also love! (You can read my blog post here.) Mary Lee also shared that Spell Songs, a (magical, gorgeous!) musical companion to THE LOST WORDS will be released soon. I can't wait! And it inspired me to share with all of you a few LOST WORDS -inspired poems I wrote last summer -- a couple of them for others, as part of Tabatha's Summer Poem Swap. Enjoy!


Skunk

Stealthy as moonlight (and as predictable),
you saunter past blackberry brambles,
all regal swagger and peaceful gaze

Keeper of night,
you wear your stripe like a scar –
just part of who you are

Unfazed by fox, you rough your fluff,
release a warning scent
before lifting your tail in a blaze of battle –

No need to spray when wily fox turns tail,
leaps to safety (anything to avoid being musked)
while you forage for frogs and mushrooms

Kingdom of kudzu awaits your return,
soon welcomes you back to greentree hollow
where you curl into a furrow to nap away daylight hours
- Irene Latham


OWL
– for Tabatha


O heart-keeper, night sweeper,
sing to me of forestmoon
and joystruck mice --
Wing me to a world of leaves and summerlight,
     where words are starstorms dappled by sweet breezes.

Love me with your abiding SwapMama magic,
     swaddle me forever in your poem-feathered nest.
- Irene Latham

MONARCH
- for Michelle

Mother of summer, you belong
in a Grimm museum:
Only you carry both
fireball sun and inky

Night in the gossamer stitch
of your wings. Only you

Arc dizzily from milkweed to
milkweed, across three thousand

Roiling green oceans, your feet
coated in sweetdust to power you

Home to Mexico – before frost turns
you tipsy, transforms you to stone.

- Irene Latham