THE STATE WITH THE PRETTIEST NAME

Hello, and happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit amazing, delightful Amy at the Poem Farm for lots of great Roundup links.

This weekend I'm heading to central Florida on a research mission for my work-in-progress.

Florida. Which, according to Elizabeth Bishop is the state with the prettiest name. See the poem below.

But first, here's few of my childhood memories from the years we lived in Florida:

walking to school
Ft. Meade, FL was the only place I ever lived where I was close enough to the school to walk there. My sister and I took the same route every day. Some days on the way home, we would knock on a stranger's door and ask to use the bathroom. :) I remember how sweet the people always were, how we were never frightened, not once. Some folks even fed us milk and cookies! 


playing in my grandparents' orange grove
I have such magical memories of this place -- and this weekend I'm going back! My siblings and I invented all sorts of games... we climbed and ran and cavorted. But the memory that is most vivid in my mind is stretching out on my back and looking up through the branches. I remember the sweet citrus smell combined with the earthy smell of leftover fruit rotting on the ground. It was such a delicious combination.

finding out the truth about Santa Claus
Many times in my life I've been a little too curious for my own good. This story involves a stealthy tour of our off-limits garage one late December night. If I could re-do that experience, I totally would.

Mrs. Fattig, my third grade teacher at Padgett Elementary in Lakeland, FL, whose husband was a plumber, so she had a reading bathtub in her classroom
I remember we had to learn the fifty states, and we got to sit in the bathtub to recite them. I memorized them geographically, starting with Florida and working my way across the country.

Note to students: this is NOT the best way to learn states, apparently. Everyone else in my class learned them alphabetically and didn't miss Alaska and Hawaii the way I did. (Curse my left-handness/right-brainedness)

So that's it for now. I'm sure this trip will unlock even more memories, especially as I am traveling with my mother, who grew up there and has all sorts of stories to tell!

And now for the poem by Elizabeth Bishop:

Florida

The state with the prettiest name,
the state that floats in brackish water,
held together by mangrave roots
that bear while living oysters in clusters,
and when dead strew white swamps with skeletons,
dotted as if bombarded, with green hummocks
like ancient cannon-balls sprouting grass.
The state full of long S-shaped birds, blue and white,
and unseen hysterical birds who rush up the scale
every time in a tantrum.
Tanagers embarrassed by their flashiness,
and pelicans whose delight it is to clown;
who coast for fun on the strong tidal currents
in and out among the mangrove islands

rest of poem here