When Poems Fall from the Sky by Zaro Weil

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

First: have you heard Matthew Winner's The Children's Podcast Poetry Month series of poems? So many beauties there! Be sure to check it out. I was honored to read my poem "I Followed A Little Cat One Day" from my ArtSpeak: Red year. :)

I'm excited to share with you on this, the final Poetry Friday of National Poetry Month, a visit with French poet and amazing person Zaro Weil!

I first blogged about Zaro in 2020 after I read her lovely CLiPPA award-winning book CHERRY MOON:Little Poems Big Ideas Mindful of Nature. Read poems from the book here.

Now, lucky us, CHERRY MOON is available in the US...and she has a new beautiful book WHEN POEMS FALL FROM THE SKY, published by ZaZaKids Books and Troika Books, which is all about climate change and nature and language and hope. You're going to love it!

Not only has Zaro given me permission to share one of my favorite poems with you, she also popped in to respond to a few simple prompts about her experience writing WHEN POEMS FALL FROM THE SKY.

Here's a favorite poem from the collection, which on the page has this lovely arched indented shape that I can't accurately represent here...all the more reason to get thee a copy straightaway!

If You Can Hear Me

By Zaro Weil

If you can hear me

know that I dream

 big things for you 

  skies of pink

   whenever you wish

     show-dust stories

      whenever you hope

      starry blossoms

     whenever you wake

     but most of all the

   pit-a-pat heartbeat of

  earth still green

 sea still blue

ice still cold

---

Gorgeous, yes? And now please welcome Zaro!

Zaro Weil

IL: DIFFICULT

ZW: How do we address the destruction of the planet with children? 

How do we see the world of nature from the point of view of nature itself when so much is at stake now? 

And when nature is being destroyed every day in every way. 

How do we tell the truth? Gently.

These were the questions that kept rolling wave-like over me again and again as I was writing this book. 

Knowing how important it was to find the hope.

 So children could know there is hope. For it is there. 

In the continual renewal of life...in the sunrise which is is also our story.

IL: DELICIOUS

ZW: Imagine going inside the mind and spirit of a hummingbird. Or a tree? Or a seed? 

How delicious is that! 

And how fulfilling to create different literary forms in the book; little plays, myth, raps, haiku, rhymes and more. 

Because When Poems Fall is an expression -a love letter really- to earth. 

An earth that is informed, nurtured and inspired by both science and poetry. 

And finding the clearest literary and understandable expressions to best illustrate complicated ideas 

was an immeasurably delicious undertaking.

IL: FRESH

ZW: Fresh is always and forever the unexpected. The original. 

Something that can't help but surprise. Even astonish.

For me as an author, it doesn't start with the words I say. 

Or how I choose to say them. It's about the fire-power. 

The energy I must summon to ensure that I am on the scent of a fresh idea. 

On the hunt for the unexpected. 

And for something I hadn't understood, known about 

or thought about ever ever ever before.

---Fire-power. Yes! Thank you, Zaro, for your words and for your life!
As for my ArtSpeak: Light poem...this week took me to the CITY. I kind of fell in love with this little girl in the yellow dress.... Thank you so much for reading!

City Song

We sing in the city
a funny, sunny chorus
across sidewalks
and traffic jams
down garden paths
and up glassy towers

We sing in the city
a blue-sky kind of tune
mothers, fathers
pups and flowers
everyone singing
about the light
that is you
- Irene Latham