"If You Bring a Mule to School" poem and Summer Reading Report #1

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

*First a moment of silence for one Lee Bennett Hopkins. I prepared this post before I heard the news of his death, as I am traveling. One of the great honors of my poetic life has been being included in some of Lee's anthologies and receiving awards in Lee's name. Lee has done so much to promote poetry and to nurture poets. What a gift to the world! I'm grateful for every word and interaction. My thoughts are with all whose lives were touched by him. 

This year as my summer reading project, I decided to revisit Marguerite Henry's body of work. I'm on book #7 of the 16 volume boxed set, and today I'd like to share something from each book... and also a fresh poem inspired by one of the books. Here goes:

<!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } </style> <br />--> <div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>BENJAMIN WEST AND HIS CAT GRIMALKIN </b>- based on the true life of Benjamin West, known as "the father of American painting."</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } </style> </div>--> <div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">"The hours flew. Often he caught himself humming like a teakettle. Happiness seemed to bubble up inside him whenever he painted."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in; page-break-before: always;"><b>BLACK GOLD</b> – based on the heartbreaking true story about 1924 Kentucky Derby winner whose trainer later decided not to do surgery to correct quarter crack in hoof, and Black Gold never won another race and then broke leg in final race and had to be put down. You can visit his memorial at centerfield of Fair Ground Park.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">“'Patience is the trick, Jaydee,' Griffin would explain. 'Time is like a rubber band. It stretches some, but if you pull it to the breaking point, it snaps back and hits you in the face. Never rush a colt. Long, slow workouts are the ticket. Colts are just like youngsters, Jaydee. Rush '</span><span style="font-size: large;">em and they get so excited they're too tired to rest at night; they want to bite and kick and play until they're clean tuckered out. You try it slow and patience, my boy, and you'll get results.'”</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>BORN TO TROT </b>- about the beginnings of America's "Trotter" breed and sport.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } </style> </div>--> <div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">"He had no oats to offer, no sugar. He wanted no cupboard love from Rosalind. She was no pet, no plaything. She was a magnificent creature of bone and brawn and satin, with years of trotting music bred in her. He wanted her only to accept him as part of the sights and sounds and smells of her life, to go on about her business aware of him but not wary."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>BRIGHTY OF THE GRAND CANYON</b> - a burro's adventures with man and nature in the place he makes his home. There's also a <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061424/... by the same name</a>... anyone seen it? It's on my to-watch list!</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">"With tired feet Brighty tested the welcoming green carpet. His hoofs sank deep. He doubled his legs like a jackknife and fell into its softness. A great peace came over him. For along time he lay still, as if bedding down for the night. Then wanting to feel more of it, he began rolling blissfully, this way and that, enjoying the springiness of the grass after his rocky canyon beds. At last he rose to crop the juicy blades. A doe and her spotted twins came to share his retreat, but they gazed wet-nosed at him from a little distance.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } </style> </div>--> <div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">The sun dipped low and purpled the shadows across the meadow. Brighty heaved a sigh. The meadow as just where it should be. He had rolled in it. He had eaten his fill of it. Now to find his secret cave and then to give himself to sleep."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>CINNABAR, THE ONE O'CLOCK FOX </b>- this one could be my favorite, and it's not even about a horse. :)</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Cinnabar was, in truth, afraid of nothing. Neither of dark, nor of storm; nor of hunters nor hounds. He was free and unfearing, the very spirit of the wilds."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">"Though why they called it Honey Hill, he would never know. Not once had he seen or heard a single honeybee. Oh, well, man's ways were wondrous strange and he was not one to other his head trying to change things that were. They just were, and that was an end to it."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">"By now the pot was boiling. 'The water has stopped smiling; it's laughing out loud!' Mischief announced as she looked into the steaming pot."</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: large;">“'Life is nice and round,' he continued reflectively. 'No beginning. No ending. I am now arrived at an age when you, my children, will carry on for me.'”</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } </style> </div>--> <div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>BROWN SUNSHINE OF SAWDUST VALLEY </b>- about a horse-loving girl who doesn't get the horse she wants at an auction... but gets a big surprise when the horse she does bring home foals a mule colt! I learned about Mule Day and mule parades, as Brown Sunshine was asked to be Mule King. Next year I'd like to go to Columbia TN for their Mule Day, which has a 100 year history <a href="http://muleday.org/">http://m... style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;">And now.... a poem! Because there are a lot of stereotypes about mules. But what if we decided to learn from them instead of thinking we have them all figured out? Enjoy!</div><div style="font-style: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aaSgVMZYPS..." imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="800" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aaSgVMZYPS..." width="400" /></a></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } </style> <br />--> <div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>If You Bring a Mule to School</b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Don't be surprised</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">if your teacher learns a thing or two:</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">what one calls <i>stubborn</i> </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">is sometimes <i>patience</i> in disguise</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><i>mischievous</i> can be code </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">for <i>intensely curious</i></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">and nothing is silkier</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">more miraculous</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">more rousing</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">than a long pair</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">of (teacherly) ears</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">listening, simply </div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;">                              listening.</div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0in;"></div><i>- Irene Latham</i><br /><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } </style> <br />--><style type="text/css"> <!-- @page { margin: 0.79in } P { margin-bottom: 0.08in } A:link { so-language: zxx } </style> -->