Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Marcie Flinchum Atkins for Roundup.
First a reminder about next Tuesday's #HFGather event in celebration of National Poetry Month! Hope you can join us.
Today's ArtSpeak: PICASSO features a goat! Goats have been on my mind since last week's Alabama Master Naturalist field day to Red Mountain Park in Birmingham, Alabama. Turns out goats have been park residents at one time or another. They're brought on to help control the privet, kudzu, and honeysuckle, which are invasive species. If you need this service, call Goat Busters! :)
Also: I learned on Clarkson's Farm that it takes a couple of years for goats' mouths to harden. In other words, you can't expect young goats to be able to clear brambles! (Just in case anyone out there is considering bringing goats into their lives.)
Paul and I had a couple of goats early in our marriage...Beth and Billy. They were adorable! And also pests. They ate up my azaleas!
When I was a child in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, there were LOTS of goats. I loved them. Especially when we'd go to get in our car, and a couple of them would be sleeping on top. They could be REALLY stubborn about (not) getting down!
And then there's the Goat Trees in Dauphin Island, Alabama. Legend has it that goats would "roost" in the trees to ride out hurricanes...and also to escape roaming alligators. I believe it!
I decided to write today's poem as a pantoum, because that's the page I flipped to in Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z. (I often use Dictionary to hunt for forms to jumpstart poems!) I also found this great step-by-step guide to writing a pantoum. (Just in case anyone out there is considering writing one!) Thank so much for reading.
Goat Pantoum
If you want to meet a goat
let it be spring.
Climb a hill,
look for tender green leaves.
that nest of sun and song.
Dream beneath a tree.
O, nest of sun and song!
What joy to climb a hill!
Dream beneath a tree
if you want to meet a goat.
I love pantoums and have written a few. Your goat pantoum is a beautiful one!
ReplyDeleteI love "nest of sun and song" and the joyful tone of your pantoum! My post today was inspired by If I Could Choose a Best Day. Thank you for the nudge!
ReplyDeleteLOVE LOVE LOVE. We had goats for several years and I miss them. And, they could SO get up in those live oak trees, I'm sure. Thank you for this beautiful pantoum (I too, want to curl up in a "nest of sun and song") and for all the links. Bramble on!
ReplyDeleteWonderful pantoum. Love all the goat info too -- I've been under appreciating them all this time!
ReplyDeleteI really like the way you slightly alter the repeated lines in your pantoum, Irene. I hope to "see" you on Tuesday night.
ReplyDeleteI love your goat-y pantoum, and thanks for the website with tips about how to write one successfully!
ReplyDeleteAll hail the goats! Enjoyed your pantoum Irene. I vividly recall seeing goats resting on the lower branches of a tree when visiting Julio the cheese maker in the Madonie Ranges of Sicily. My dad kept a goat called Lionel for several years to keep blackberries at bay. It worked. Thanks for taking us in that direction with your poem and background story.
ReplyDeleteA goat pantoum! Does it get better? :) I love goats (not that I have any, I just think they're cute.) And you keep introducing me to pieces I had no idea Picasso had done!
ReplyDeleteI loved all the goat stories you shared and your pantoum poem. We have people here in NE that rent out their goats too for poison ivy to be cleared and I've see ads for goat yoga too. Although I cannot imagine that a goat climbing on your back leads to peace and namaste! Going to get out my copy of Dictionary and use it for inspiration! Thank you.
ReplyDeleteI love all your stories about goats, Irene. I grew up with grandparents who had goats, often grumbling at their antics, but they were fun for me. And your pantoum feels like a praise poem, for the art and certainly, for goats! Sorry I'll miss the wonderful gather, sure it will be special!
ReplyDeleteI can't stop laughing at Goat Busters. :) I'm a fan of goat cheese but not really smelly goats. LOL
ReplyDeleteYour goat poem is so fun Irene! Thank you for the smile.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed thinking of the legend of those goats climbing trees to escape hurricanes and wondering how they got up there. I loved the pantoum review and how so succinct and quite perfect your goat pantoum is! xo
ReplyDeleteMy dad had a pet goat as a child, and there's a legendary family story of it escaping the yard and eating clothes off the neighbour's laundry line! They are quite the characters!
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