ARTSPEAK! Portraits poem "Boy Blowing Bubbles"

Hello and Happy National Poetry Month! Here it is day 17 of ARTSPEAK!: Portraits, my National Poetry Month poem-a-day project, during which I am looking, listening with my spirit ear, and asking these subject to share with me their secrets.

But first: Be sure to check in with Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect to see how our Progressive Poem is progressing!

Here are the ARTSPEAK! Portraits poems so far:

16. "Morning" after Buki Rinsen by Tsuchida Bakusen
15. "When Papa Paints" after Portrait of Anne by George Wesley Bellows
14. "Whistler's Mother" after Arrangement in Grey and Black, No. 1 by James McNeill Whistler
13. "In the Company of Kittens" after Contentment 1900 by Henriette Ronner-Knip
12. "Sixteen" after Jeanne Hubuturne-1919 by Amedeo Modigliani
11. "Promise" after Portrait of a Little Italian Girl by Maria Kroyer
10. "Portrait of a Writer" after Oskar Maria Graf by Georg Schrimpf
9. "Speaking of the Weather" after Profile of a Woman by Fujishima Takeji
8. "Happiness" after Self-Portrait with Straw Hat by Elisabeth Vigee le Brun

7. "Virginia, Sitting for a Portrait" after Portrait of Virginia (Little Girl) by Frida Kahlo

6. "Paint-by-Number" after Portrait of a Woman by Alexei von Jawlensky

4. "I Am" after The White Cloud, Head Chief of the Iowas by George Catlin

3. "What If?" after Portrait of Camille Roulin by Vincent van Gogh

2. "The Lady Confesses" after Portrait of a Lady with Mask and Cherries by Benjamin Wilson

1. "Mona Lisa in Love" after Mona Lisa by Leonardo da Vinci

Today I have a little boy for you! He's such a busy fellow, it's a miracle I got any words out of him at all! Here's what he'd like for you to know:

Boy Blowing Bubbles

- after “The Bubble Boy” by Paul Peel

Is there anything

   more hopeful

than a fat

   soap-bubble

rainbowing its way

   across a July sky?

- Irene Latham

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Readers, someone asked me how I plan this series -- do I randomly select a new portrait each day, or do I plan the whole thing out before April? 

Well, I'll tell you! Because time is so precious during April, I gather my group of 30-35 images BEFORE the month. And then each morning during April, I go to that file on my computer and choose whichever artwork speaks to me that day. 

This year I selected exactly 30 portraits, which doesn't allow any wiggle room, say, if for instance, I'm not able to get one of these subjects to speak to me. I am trusting that they will all speak! It helps knowing that this is a challenge of "progress not perfection." I write these poems because I love art, and I love words, and it's a way for me to celebrate that. Thanks so much or reading!