Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference for a "Brave" Roundup!
In case you want some community learning and inspiration with poets this year, please consider joining us at Highlights Nov. 1-4 for Poetry Palooza! (We're filling up fast...if you are interested, please don't delay!)
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I talked last week about how this ArtSpeak: PICASSO series is challenging me. This week's poem went in TWO surprising directions!
1. The first poem is for kids. Picasso plays a lot with shapes. So I decided to play with shapes, too! (A previous poem I've posted that plays with shapes: "Geometry of Summer")
- Irene Latham
2. This one is for adult readers. Remember Dick & Jane? Here's a great article highlighting the series's ups and downs.
I don't remember these books playing any part in my reading education, but then I'm a child of the '70s. By then Dr. Seuss and the Weekly Reader series were all the rage. So imagine my surprise when Dick & Jane popped into my brain...and my poem became about their parents!
You'll also see me playing with punctuation in this poem. That's likely because punctuation is on my mind, since I'll be teaching a webinar this spring on Punctuation in Poetry over at Inked Voices. Registration information coming soon!
Dick & Jane's Parents Go to the Beach
they walk bare-
foot in sand
life is a knife
slicing them a/part
wind stitches
them backtogether
- Irene Latham
I do think many of us go to the beach for rejuvenation. And I remember how challenging those busy parenting years were...as much as kids bring a couple together, they can also create great divides. I loved being a mom to young ones, but I'm also happy to be in the season of friendship with our adult children. Thanks so much for reading!
Dick and Jane had parents?!?! Who knew?! :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the mini lesson on playing with punctuation. That webinar sounds like a must-take!
Hi beach gurl! I always harken to a coastal cure & these twin poems are crafted spritely for the youngsters & yet with wisdom, for those older.
ReplyDeleteMuch to relax with & create, with here, especially the November Highlights reunion of such talent-full creators.
Yay!
Irene, Poetry Palooza sounds like a hoot! I wish I could attend, but I don’t think I will be able to make it this year. Love: the box of birds flirting with the surf and the family triangle!
ReplyDeleteBoth of your poems are fascinating, Irene! I like the rectangular sky, so active, and the triangle of family and waves. Both poems connect people and nature this way and that. Picasso is turning out to have startling layers and fun twists! xo
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