Someday You Will Become a Swan poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Amy at The Poem Farm for Roundup.

This has been a big week! After weeks of reading and discussing and poem-shuffling, Charles and I made our final selections for our forthcoming anthology The Periodic Table of Poetry! It's a bittersweet thing, because while the YES emails are so happy and celebratory, it's hard to say NO to so many wonderful poems written by wonderful poets! Whatever email you got from us, we hope you know how much we appreciate you sharing your poetry with us. 💗

Congratulations to all the ALAYMA winners! I always love watching the live-stream, and this year was no exception. I keep my library request window open during the broadcast so I can order the books I missed right away.

If you write or read historical fiction, please check out the Tuesday 2-Minute Writing Tip 24: The Art of Informed Imagination. I talk about gaps in research, and how to fill them in!

This week's ArtSpeak: WOMEN features a piece by the third artist on the Harper's Bazaar list: Swedish artist and mystic Hilma af Klint. I love this piece. And I've been reading A LOT of Barbara Crooker poems lately, so no wonder this one has veered into the adult space. Thanks so much for reading!

Someday You Will Become a Swan

Didn’t I tell you?
No, because no one can
fathom the pond: peaceful,
yes. But all that endless
circling!

And feathers? You can't keep
them clean. It takes at least five
lifetimes to learn how to be
                 content
and another to understand
you're not beautiful
because everyone looks at you—

You only become beautiful
when you look at yourself
in waters muddy or sparkling,
rippled or still
and decide you love all of it:

the beauty and the mess,
the light and the dark,
               the now
and everything
that brought you here.

- Irene Latham