I Dream of Roosters poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Jan at Bookseedstudio for Roundup.

I am yet again away from my desk! But all good things...

How 'bout those awards? I love livestreaming the alayma announcements! BIG congratulations to Carole Boston Weatherford, who received the Children's Literature Legacy Award (formerly the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal or Wilder Award). Carole's body of work is rich and deep, and her work ethic and generous spirit continue to inspire!! Count me proud and happy!

Some of my favorite 2024 books got awards:

One Big Open Sky by Lesa Cline Ransome - CSK Honor & Newbery Honor. I blogged about the book here!

Joyful Song by Lesléa Newman, illus. by Susan Gal - Sydney Taylor Honor

Up, Up, Ever UP! by Anita Yasuda, illus. by Yuko Shimuzu - Caldecott Honor (Yuko's second! Her first was for The Cat Man of Aleppo!) Anita and Yuko both visited the blog a few months back.

24 Seconds from Now by Jason Reynolds - CSK Award! This book made my 2024 Favorite YA Book List!

Home by Isabelle Simler- Batchelder Honor (for translations!). I blogged about these beautiful nonfiction poems here.

Wild Dreamers by Margarita Engle - Pura Belpré Honor!

The big winner, The First State of Being by Erin Entrada Kelly, is one I haven't read yet! Which is surprising, because EEK is one of my all-time favorite MG authors. I mean all her books are just so beautiful and moving and inspiring. But isn't that the fabulous thing about books? They'll wait for you as long as you need them to. (Good news: I was requesting titles through my library as the awards were announced, and I've got a digital copy in queue on my e-reader!)

Many of my other favorites were not recognized. And that's okay! I've served on quite a few book awards committees and I have seen behind the curtain...decisions are TOUGH. There are SO MANY WONDERFUL BOOKS in the world...and only a very few slots for award recognition. 

I think of awards as whipped cream or a cherry on top. So so fun and festive and lovely! But not the reason to write. Not even a goal to keep, because one has no control over such things. They're just...extra. And if they happen to your book, great! Have fun with it! And if they don't? Remember a book's purpose isn't to win awards; it's to connect with a reader, to share between author-reader a bit of this experience we call life...let's have fun with that!

I had so much fun with today's ArtSpeak: PICASSO poem! Actually, it was a rough start. The art features a rooster, and I just couldn't think of an original thing to write about a rooster! So I set it aside for a day and decided to DREAM about a rooster instead. That dream brought me to another great red thing: Jupiter! And THEN I had so much fun. :) Thank you so much for reading.

I Dream of Roosters

I dream

I am a great red

space explorer

I discover

the great red

spot on Jupiter

is actually a flock

of Jupiter-roosters

their great red

wings shimmering

against that great red

star we call sun

the roosters are singing

but only I can hear it

their great red

song such a tiny flicker

in that great red

symphony of stars

- Irene Latham