Saturday, August 31, 2019

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: PICTURES

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.

PICTURES
"Bluebirds" by Lynn Baker


I was born into a family of photographers, so there has often been talk about “pictures.” My father loved taking pictures. Thanks to him, we have many, many slides from our life in Saudi Arabia and travels around the world.
by MicaJon Dykes (leaf close-up)
by Ken Dykes, Sr. (flowers at Glacier NP)
While I have only ever used a point-n-shoot automatic camera, two of my siblings are quite accomplished photographers. Several of our family's next generation, including our son Eric, also have mad photography skills. I confess I am quite attached to these images, and pictures in general!
"Birmingham at Night" by Eric Latham
I know that there are many things that cannot be caught in in a photograph, but oh how I value the photographs I have! What secrets they share... I guess it's one way we can stop time, one way to remember everything, which has long been a goal of mine, judging from the thousands of scrapbook pages I've created over the years!
And here's the thing: scrapbooks, pictures – they tell as much about the scrapbooker and photographer as they do about the subject... I love that!

Friday, August 30, 2019

INK KNOWS NO BORDERS for Poetry Friday


Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Kat at Kathryn Apel for Roundup. 


In this collections of 64 poems for the YA audience, we read poems that move from leaving a homeland to finding/creating home in a new land  -- with all sorts of LIFE in between, including moments of culture loss illuminated like in “Tater Tot Hot-Dish” by Hieu Minh Nguyen; about not fitting into either one's original culture or the new one, as in “Adrift” by Alice Tao; and challenges in a new country where one feels like “other” like in “Talks About Race” by Mahtem Shiferraw:

“I don't know what to say to these people
who notice the shape of the eye before its depth
the sound of the tongue before its wisdom
the openness of a palm before its reach.”

A poem entitled “The Border: A Double Sonnet” by Alberto Rios begins “The border is a line that birds cannot see.”

The poem from early in the book,“Immigrant” by Lena Khalaf Tuffaha, begins:

“I am not buckled safely into my seat
I am watching the road unravel
behind us like a ribbon of dust."

The book ends with the powerful poem “self-portrait with no flag” by Safia Elhillo, which includes these lines:

“i pledge allegiance to the
group text I pledge allegiance
to laughter & to all the boys
I have a crush on I pledge”

You can read the poem in its entirety here. Meet Safia herself in this video "An Evening with Safia Elhillo." (psa: video contains profanity and may not be suitable for some students.)

What do YOU pledge allegiance to? This could be a powerful "identity poem" prompt for students of all ages and backgrounds! And the book is not to be missed. I hope you will check it out!

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: PHOTOGRAPH

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.

PHOTOGRAPH


Somewhere, some time I was prompted to select a photograph of myself that showed me as I want to be. (The Artist's Way, maybe?) I instantly thought of this one, which I keep on my website with the caption “little Irene living a life worth writing about.”
Because I want to always be this little girl, eager to experience the unexpected river flowing in the back yard after a sudden rainstorm. Willing to get dirty. Fearless. Trusting the world. Immersed in nature, in touch with wonder. Playing, creating, living a simple, rich life – and yes, willing, too, to share the joy: to stand still a moment so someone (Mama?) can capture a photograph.

Sunday, August 25, 2019

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: PHONE BOOK


For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.

PHONE BOOK

I remember phone books stacked on the kitchen counter – one white pages, one yellow pages – beneath the corded telephone. Phone books as booster seat for wee visitors joining us for a meal, phone books as lift chair for home haircuts. Phone books dangling inside pay phone booths. How thin the pages were -- like tissue wrapping paper -- and how tiny the print. Let your fingers do the walking. Searching the white pages to find a name, and finding twenty, thirty, a hundred names. How we'd go through looking at addresses, making educated guesses, and then we'd start calling. You had to pay extra to get your number “unlisted.” Some families had two phone lines – one for the adults, one for the kids.

Later, when Paul and I ran a small business, the largest share of our advertising budget went to yellow page ads. Now businesses must have a strong online presence, and those advertising dollars go for site optimization and Google ad words. How things have changed!

Friday, August 23, 2019

"Once More" by #DearOneLBH

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Amy at The Poem Farm for Roundup, where you will find a bevy of posts about and inspired by Lee Bennett Hopkins, whose recent death has sent a white-hot jolt through our community.

I have my own LBH favorites and memories, and I'm so grateful to have known Lee, at least a little. We shared a love for beautiful language and a trust that children can handle (and need!) poems of beauty, wonder, and emotion. Our last email correspondence dated May 31, 2019 was about a quote from Daemon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling by Philip Pullman:

"There's fast-food language and there's caviar language; one of the things we adults need to do for children is to introduce them to the pleasures of the subtle and the complex." - Philip Pullman

Yes! Lee and I could certainly agree on that. Lee helped me know that my natural poetic voice does have a place in children's literature. (Not all poetry for kids needs to be light verse/funny!)

Lee's impact on children's literature is profound and inspiring. No doubt he is watching us all from some unseen purple palace (on a cruise ship, maybe? from a box seat at a Broadway show?), scrolling through our posts, eyes sparking with glee over our efforts to help keep his memory and his words warm and breathing.

 One of my favorite LBH anthologies is AMERICA AT WAR: Poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Stephen Alcorn. War is a tough topic for anyone, and here there are fifty poems that give voice to the wide array of experiences and emotions associated with war. I've loved this book for a long time.

Here's Lee's poem, about a feeling everyone who's ever lost someone or something knows deeply:

Once More
for C.J.E.

Outside the church
I wait.
Wait for someone
anyone
to invite me
for a longing
Christmas dinner.

No one does.

The cheap hotel room
I'm in
on leave
is dank
dark
grim --
not a trace
of angels
snow
a star-lit tree
a manager
a nativity.

Just a lamp
a bed
a phone
a lonely me.

I slowly open
the small Christmas package
from Mom and Dad
feeling the hands of Mom
deep in my heart
knowing
she wrapped this box.

A pair of socks
a new set of white underwear
a tin of homemade cookies
a surprise comic book
from my treasured collection.

I find the courage
to pick up the phone --
call home.
An awaited conversations begins
continues
ends
with rivers of tears.

The last good-bye
the hardest.

I sit alone
on the edge of the bed
wondering
what
a family
Christmas dinner
must be like.

If only once more.

If
only
once
more.

- Lee Bennett Hopkins

There are many "If only once more"s in my mind when I think of Lee... one of them:

If only once more LBH would tell me I use too many "and"s in my poetry. :)

And now, a little self-promotion, of which I am sure Lee would approve: In case you missed it, earlier this week Penguin Random House coordinated the cover reveal for THE CAT MAN OF ALEPPO, my new (true!) book with Karim Shamsi-Basha, illustrations by Yuko Shimizu coming spring 2020. Please take a look!

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

THE CAT MAN OF ALEPPO Cover Reveal!


Today Alaa, aka The Cat Man of Aleppo, revealed the cover for the picture book illustrated by Yuko Shimizu and written by me and Karim Shamsi-Basha, soon-to-be published by Penguin Random House.

We are so excited for more people to learn about Alaa's amazing work! So many stories are written about refugees leaving war-torn lands... but what about ones who stay? What about the animals left behind? This true story will touch your heart and renew your faith in humanity. Plus, did I mention CATS? :)

The book is now available for pre-order and will be released in the U.S. (and some other countries!) April 14, 2020. You can donate to the cat sanctuary here.

Sunday, August 18, 2019

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: PERFUME

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.

PERFUME

Once when my sister and I were big-enough little girls to take a bath partly unattended, I had the idea of adding perfume to the water to make it smell good. (This was before stores like Bath & Body Works existed.) Ever the big sister, I was the one to lift from the warm water and dash naked and dripping across the bathroom linoleum to the counter where my mom's things were displayed.
We didn't add just one bottle, of course. We added perfume from ALL the bottles! My mom was not too happy when she discovered us! What smelled divine to us didn't rest so well on my mother's olfactory senses... and there was the waste, of course. A drop might have been fine, but we'd used far more than a drop!
What's extra interesting to me is that there were any perfume bottles at all, as my memories/ideas about my mom do not include such frivolities. She's always experienced sinus issues and is particularly sensitive to smells. But apparently, at one point in time, at least, my mother had not just one bottle of perfume, but several.

Friday, August 16, 2019

Pencil Poem for Poetry Friday


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Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit for Christie and Wondering and Wandering for Roundup, where there just might be a theme of trees!

Hmmm... does a pencil fit with the theme? Maybe? A little? :) Sorry I missed that memo, because I do love writing about trees! I look forward to reading everyone's offerings.

It's been HOT down here in the southlands... and I have been in a revision bubble, trying to get these novel edits accomplished and back to the editor... slow going. But good! Yes, I am feeling happy about my progress. And I've also got a new idea rattling around in my head, so that's kind of exhilarating... and I wrote a new poem, about a pencil! Read on!

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.

PENCIL

My mind goes instantly to Mrs. Frizzle In the MAGIC TREE HOUSE books and the pencil in her hair! I did not encounter her until I had kids of my own, of course. Another adult memory is watching my mom use colored pencils to color in one of those beautiful adult coloring books while she was in the hospital recovering from knee replacement surgery. I did LOTS of coloring as a kid, and loved using colored pencils, because they are so much more precise than crayons...

Pencils also have been an important part of my musical life through the years... how many times have I watched a music teacher write something in pencil on the pieces I was learning? And now, as a cellist-in-training, I rely heavily on the pencil to help me note fingerings and to circle repeat signs and make conductors' corrections... one must be able to erase, because these things can change as you find new and better ways to make the sound you want (or the sound the conductor wants!).

Once I even wrote a picture book manuscript about a pencil! And here's a poem in the voice of a pencil:
photo by Aizhan Sagu - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46335617


A (Simple) Message from Your Pencil

I am simple,
it's true –
I wear a slim yellow skirt,
one rubber boot
and a number 2 tattoo.

You can doodle with me,
scribble or print –
If you make a mistake,
I can take it . . .
and you can erase it!

I am simple,
it's true –
I am here
                  simply
to help you!
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- Irene Latham

Thank you so much for reading! xo






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Thursday, August 15, 2019

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: PARTY

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.

PARTY
Growing up in a large family meant that we were the party most of the time. But every now and then, we had parties that involved larger groups, like when I turned 6 years old. This was the year we were living in Lakeland, FL, and I've written previously about the doll I got that day. Balloons, homemade cake, presents, singing the birthday song, making a wish and blowing out the candles... these were all part of the festivities. 

The only other party specifically about me that I can remember is one I've written about in my forthcoming book with Charles Waters DICTIONARY FOR BETTER WORLD: Poems, Quotes and Anecdotes from A to Z, with illustrations by Mehrdohkt Amini. (Cover release coming September 20!) So I will save that one. :)

I do have memories of other parties, thought not many – as an introvert, I guess parties just haven't come up a lot in my life! But when I was in 8th grade, I went to a pool part at the home of the boy I loved, and I remember sneaking with him inside the dark pool house, where we giggled and bumped into things and kissed... while outside our friends splashed and whooped, never knowing we were there. Or at least that's the way I imagine it! Maybe they DID know we were there... And isn't that the trouble with memoir writing? What is true for me may not be true for someone else...

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: PAPER

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.

PAPER
During my senior year in high school we were asked to choose a topic for a research paper. I loved all things Renaissance, so I decided to write about what it meant to be a “Renaissance Man.” (An example of a Renaissance Man: Leonardo da Vinci, a person who was talented and knowledgeable in many areas and made contributions as a painter, inventor, engineer, philosopher, and more.) My teacher Mrs. Roby at Hewitt-Trussville high school was not a fan of my topic! Little did she know that I AM a renaissance woman – and that I would continue to develop these many facets of myself over my lifetime.
I've recently learned another word for this: polymath – which isn't nearly so romantic a word! (I'm pretty sure it was the romanticism that Mrs. Roby objected to... sigh. Though wiser now, I will forever be a romantic!) Also, in this age of specialization, it seems polymaths are much less common. Most advice given to young people suggests they find their “thing,” and that they should find it early and stick with it. Well. That may work for some. But for me, the world is far to big and wondrous for me to stay in just one lane! I contain multitudes, and all that... I want to experience it all!
Anyhow, I always got good grades on papers. I shudder now remembering those formulaic assignments... I love taking chances with words and form and content. It's one of the reason I love poetry so much! 

Monday, August 12, 2019

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: PAJAMAS (poem)

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.

PAJAMAS

I'm not finding a lot of pajama memories in the vault. Maybe because I have always worn nightgowns, and I already wrote about that! I don't recall any of my siblings wearing pajamas either – my father and the boys pretty much just wore their underwear... and my mother and sister wore nightgowns, like me :) I do have some vague notion about us all wearing matching pajamas for Christmas morning – but I might be confusing that memory with my sister's family (who, does, in fact, dress in matching pajamas for Christmas morning photos).
As an adult I wear pajamas quite a lot – but not to sleep in. It's one of the perks of being a writer and spending a lot of time at home. So I've decided to write a pajama poem!



P.J. Days

I spend most days
in my p.j.s

not sleeping, no –
tapping away,

my mind ablaze
lost in a story-haze

as I search for words
to delight and amaze –

so cozy in my p.j.s
on these always-writing
days.

- Irene Latham

Friday, August 9, 2019

"If You Bring a Mule to School" poem and Summer Reading Report #1

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Molly at Nix the Comfort Zone for Roundup.

*First a moment of silence for one Lee Bennett Hopkins. I prepared this post before I heard the news of his death, as I am traveling. One of the great honors of my poetic life has been being included in some of Lee's anthologies and receiving awards in Lee's name. Lee has done so much to promote poetry and to nurture poets. What a gift to the world! I'm grateful for every word and interaction. My thoughts are with all whose lives were touched by him. 

This year as my summer reading project, I decided to revisit Marguerite Henry's body of work. I'm on book #7 of the 16 volume boxed set, and today I'd like to share something from each book... and also a fresh poem inspired by one of the books. Here goes:


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BENJAMIN WEST AND HIS CAT GRIMALKIN - based on the true life of Benjamin West, known as "the father of American painting."

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"The hours flew. Often he caught himself humming like a teakettle. Happiness seemed to bubble up inside him whenever he painted."

BLACK GOLD – based on the heartbreaking true story about 1924 Kentucky Derby winner whose trainer later decided not to do surgery to correct quarter crack in hoof, and Black Gold never won another race and then broke leg in final race and had to be put down. You can visit his memorial at centerfield of Fair Ground Park.

“'Patience is the trick, Jaydee,' Griffin would explain. 'Time is like a rubber band. It stretches some, but if you pull it to the breaking point, it snaps back and hits you in the face. Never rush a colt. Long, slow workouts are the ticket. Colts are just like youngsters, Jaydee. Rush 'em and they get so excited they're too tired to rest at night; they want to bite and kick and play until they're clean tuckered out. You try it slow and patience, my boy, and you'll get results.'”

BORN TO TROT - about the beginnings of America's "Trotter" breed and sport.

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"He had no oats to offer, no sugar. He wanted no cupboard love from Rosalind. She was no pet, no plaything. She was a magnificent creature of bone and brawn and satin, with years of trotting music bred in her. He wanted her only to accept him as part of the sights and sounds and smells of her life, to go on about her business aware of him but not wary."


BRIGHTY OF THE GRAND CANYON - a burro's adventures with man and nature in the place he makes his home. There's also a film by the same name... anyone seen it? It's on my to-watch list!

"With tired feet Brighty tested the welcoming green carpet. His hoofs sank deep. He doubled his legs like a jackknife and fell into its softness. A great peace came over him. For along time he lay still, as if bedding down for the night. Then wanting to feel more of it, he began rolling blissfully, this way and that, enjoying the springiness of the grass after his rocky canyon beds. At last he rose to crop the juicy blades. A doe and her spotted twins came to share his retreat, but they gazed wet-nosed at him from a little distance.
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The sun dipped low and purpled the shadows across the meadow. Brighty heaved a sigh. The meadow as just where it should be. He had rolled in it. He had eaten his fill of it. Now to find his secret cave and then to give himself to sleep."



CINNABAR, THE ONE O'CLOCK FOX - this one could be my favorite, and it's not even about a horse. :)

"Cinnabar was, in truth, afraid of nothing. Neither of dark, nor of storm; nor of hunters nor hounds. He was free and unfearing, the very spirit of the wilds."

"Though why they called it Honey Hill, he would never know. Not once had he seen or heard a single honeybee. Oh, well, man's ways were wondrous strange and he was not one to other his head trying to change things that were. They just were, and that was an end to it."

"By now the pot was boiling. 'The water has stopped smiling; it's laughing out loud!' Mischief announced as she looked into the steaming pot."

“'Life is nice and round,' he continued reflectively. 'No beginning. No ending. I am now arrived at an age when you, my children, will carry on for me.'”
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BROWN SUNSHINE OF SAWDUST VALLEY - about a horse-loving girl who doesn't get the horse she wants at an auction... but gets a big surprise when the horse she does bring home foals a mule colt! I learned about Mule Day and mule parades, as Brown Sunshine was asked to be Mule King. Next year I'd like to go to Columbia TN for their Mule Day, which has a 100 year history http://muleday.org/

And now.... a poem! Because there are a lot of stereotypes about mules. But what if we decided to learn from them instead of thinking we have them all figured out? Enjoy!



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If You Bring a Mule to School

Don't be surprised
if your teacher learns a thing or two:

what one calls stubborn
is sometimes patience in disguise

mischievous can be code
for intensely curious

and nothing is silkier
more miraculous
more rousing

than a long pair
of (teacherly) ears
listening, simply
                              listening.

- Irene Latham

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Wednesday, August 7, 2019

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: OFFICE


For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.

OFFICE

I was generally a good student, so it came as a surprise to me and everyone else when I found myself in the principal's office – getting a paddling! Yep. It happened when I was in 9th Grade, the first year I moved to Birmingham. This was a tough, tough year for me, but I was not a trouble maker! So how did I end up in the principal's office? There was an incident on riding home on the bus in which the vinyl covering on the back of one of the seats had a tear in it. With a little help from some eager hands, the tear got larger, and some of the stuffing started to spill out. Mine was not one of the hands doing this damage, but because I was at the scene of the crime, I got paddled for it.

I should also note that I was paddled (3 licks, if I recall correctly) before my parents were ever contacted. I was alone in my (male) principal's office and asked to bend over and put my hands on his desk while he swung the wooden paddle at my rear. I remember feeling embarrassed, vulnerable, angry, misunderstood...

Monday, August 5, 2019

Learning from Elephants

I've just read with great pleasure (and deep sadness, at the end) The Elephant Whisperer: My Life with the Herd in the African Wild by Lawrence Anthony with Graham Spence, adapted for young readers by Thea Feldman.

Here's a quote that resonates:

"The 'eureka' moment with Nana [matriarch elephant] really drove home to me the essence of communicating with any animal. Whether it is a pet dog or a wild elephant, communications is not so much about the reach as it is about the acknowledgment. It's the acknowledgment that does it. In the animal kingdom, communication is a two-way street, just as it is with humans. If you are not letting them know that their communication has reached you, if you don't acknowledge it somehow, there can be no communication. It's as simple as that."

Sunday, August 4, 2019

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: NOTEBOOK

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.

NOTEBOOK


When I first moved to Birmingham, I soon made friends with Michelle, who lived near me and rode the same bus. Because we didn't share many classes, we started a notebook to help us survive the school days – she would write in it, and I would write back. Our letters to each other would go for pages and pages, and they are full of all the angsty stuff you expect from 9th graders... lots of girl drama, like who said “hi” and who didn't, and “how could she do that” incidents, and how we didn't understand, and who we had crushes on, and what we were going to do that weekend, and how we were feeling, etc. 

The notebook that survives is a 3 subject notebook, 120 pages of wide ruled paper with a blue cover. It chronicles just one week in our lives, after a fall-out with two other girls. (This totally sounds like a novel!) The title “Michelle & Irene's book” is emblazoned on the front with red marker in my handwriting, along with black-ink (in Michelle's handwriting) “Shell - - Rie: V/B/F/F/A/A (very best friends forever and always) and “David Lee Roth” and “4 our eyes only!” (the “eyes” are a drawing of actual eyes, not the word) and “me & Ken!” (Michelle dated my brother Ken for a time... I should write a blog post about all my crazy mixed up feelings about that!) and “I hate Shonda & Angie! X-friends forever!” (“forever” is underlined a few times for emphasis).

I kind of don't like the girl with my name writing in this notebook. But I have a lot of compassion for her, too. That was a tough time for me. 13/almost 14 year old me was in a lot of pain. I had just moved and was trying to find a place to fit in. I was confused and unsure about so many things. I didn't know where I belonged or who I wanted to become... so the notebook is pretty painful to read. What strikes me most is how deep the feelings about the tiniest interactions... a good reminder to take great care in speaking with kids in this age (or any age!) bracket. Important to acknowledge their feelings and to remember they may be confused and suffering, as I was. They need lots of smiles and patience and encouragement. Mostly I just want to give 9th grade notebook-writing me a big hug and these words: Hang in there. It will get better.

Friday, August 2, 2019

October Poem... Inside August!

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Heidi at my juicy little universe for Roundup.

Today I've got a collision of two blog series: Poetry Friday and the Butterfly Hours. Read on!

For 2019 I'm running a year-long series on my blog in which I share my responses to the writing assignment prompts found in THE BUTTERLY HOURS by Patty Dann.

I welcome you to join me, if you like! I've divided the prompts by month, and the plan is to respond to 3 (or so) a week. For some of these I may write poems, for others prose. The important thing is to mine my memory. Who knows where this exploration will lead?

For links to the prompts I've written on so far this year, please click on The Butterfly Hours tab above.

This month's prompts are notebook, October, office, pajamas, paper, party, pencil, perfume, phone book, photograph, pictures.

OCTOBER

I have written A LOT about October. It might be my favorite month. So instead of a memoir piece today, I've written a poem.


October Dreams


Inside October
waits a field
of plump pumpkins.

Inside a pumpkin
nests a clutch
of white seeds.

Inside a seed
echoes a breath
of fresh hope.

Inside hope
exists a world
where everyone holds hands.

Inside a hand
rests a knife
to carve a pumpkin.

Inside a pumpkin
lives a lifetime
of Octobers.

Inside October
sleeps a child
with orange dreams.

- Irene Latham

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Wishing you orange dreams! xo