The Last Poem for 2019

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday on this, the last Poetry Friday of 2019! Be sure to visit Michelle Kogan for Roundup.

I offer you this poem by Marge Piercy:

The birthday of the world

On the birthday of the world

I begin to contemplate

what I have done and left

undone, but this year

not so much rebuilding

of my perennially damaged

psyche, shoring up eroding

friendships, digging out

stumps of old resentments

that refuse to rot on their own.

No, this year I want to call

myself to task for what

I have done and not done

for peace. How much have

I dared in opposition?

How much have I put

on the line for freedom?

read the rest here

... and this poem, from ARTSPEAK:

The Last Poem

is all knees
and flat feet

it keeps forgetting
the routine

yet it wears a hat:
see me?

it lifts its arms:
love me!

it squinches its eyes,
looks past lens,
   mirror
               stage

dances us
across the page.

- Irene Latham

Happy New Year!!! Here's to lots of love and adventure in 2020. :)

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project FINAL POST: WINDOW poem

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Buffy's Blog for Roundup.

This is the final entry in my 180-post series! You can check out all the entries here. It's been a bit brutal, and some weeks I wasn't sure I wanted to go on... but I did, and here we are. Hooray!!!

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 (final!) month's prompts are train, trophy, typewriter, umbrella, Vietnam, war, washing machine, widow, window.

WINDOW

Window

A poem is a sheet of glass

Tucked between wood frames.

Your world will be transformed

When you peek through the panes.

Lift the sash just a crack,

Catch the scented words.

Breathe deep the new syllables

This moment has stirred.

Now find yourself in the glass,

trace reflection with a finger –

These lines are made to shift and turn,

Embrace the ones that linger.

Work it till it sparkles --

Even clouded glass can shine.

Discover the beauty that happens

When streak and light entwine.

Take it line by line,

Be transparent with your heart.

A poem isn’t choosy –

sunlight or moonbeam: start.

- Irene Latham

Happy Holidays, and thank you so much for reading.

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: WIDOW

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. Hooray, we are coming to the close, which means I have written nearly 180 entries in this project -- proof that "little by little" is how to do this whole writing thing. :)

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 (final!) month's prompts are train, trophy, typewriter, umbrella, Vietnam, war, washing machine, widow, window.

-->

WIDOW

My experience with widows has been as an adult. The one who provided the first and biggest impact on me was my mother-in-law. When her husband died suddenly at age 59, she was thrust into the widow role instantly and completely. She lived another 25 years, alone, and it seemed to suit her. She loved Dan, and missed him, but she also loved being on her own, making choices just for herself, not having to answer to or consider anyone else. I get it! So she was the first person to show me that even after a spouse dies, life carries on. One can experience a joyful, fulfilling life, even without a partner. These days I meet regularly with a group in which all are widows – except me. In this group I have discovered how differently different people handle widowhood. Regardless of how they experience it, the overwhelming reality is that life goes on, and it can be whatever you want it to be – which is a lesson for all of us, at any time in our lives. I'm grateful to these women for sharing their (rich, full, tender, funny, sometimes-dating) lives with me!

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: WASHING MACHINE

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 (final!) month's prompts are train, trophy, typewriter, umbrella, Vietnam, war, washing machine, widow, window.

WASHING MACHINE

our family -- with Ken II holding Goldie

The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear “washing machine” is “dryer.” That's because the first tragedy in my life involved a clothes dryer. We were living in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and we had a yellow/orange tabby kitty we named Goldie. We all adored Goldie's playfulness and adorable antics. But one day when my mother went to pull the clothes out of the dryer, she realized instantly that something awful had happened. Goldie must have climbed into the dryer, and no one knew. That loss impacted my life in multiple ways, not the least of which is how obsessively I have and always will check the contents of the dryer before turning in on.

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: VIETNAM

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 (final!) month's prompts are train, trophy, typewriter, umbrella, Vietnam, war, washing machine, widow, window.

VIETNAM

This is a prompt (like “typewriter”) that indicates Patty Dann is in the generation just before me. It's not a word that brings up a lot of personal history for me. My grandfather was a WWII vet. My father was born during the years included in the draft, but was not called up. He was an only child, so I've no uncles or any relatives from his side of the family who served. I do know my mother's one brother was career Navy, but I'm not sure where he was during the Vietnam war. Anyhow, my ideas about Vietnam have been largely influenced by the movies and Broadway. Movies like PLATOON and RAMBO (which my father LOVED, and which I remember seeing with him in the theater) introduced me to the brutality of war. 

Later, FORREST GUMP and MISS SAIGON made me feel anger, grief, love for all involved. It's one of those complicated things I'm pretty sure I don't even come close to understanding. And after reading LIES MY TEACHER TOLD ME by James W. Loewen, I realize my confusion is largely related to the (lack of) education I got about Vietnam. Probably the Vietnam-related thing most dear to me THE THINGS THEY CARRIED by Tim O'Brien. I've just found the Bryan Cranston audio version and will be listening to it in the coming days. 

While I do not enjoy violence (and close my eyes during much of PLATOON and RAMBO and any other war movie), I am also utterly fascinated by the emotions of war, how it affects a person. It really brings a person to the heart of what matters most to them, and I think I crave that kind of self-knowledge. Maybe that's why my next middle grade novel is a “war” book – lots there waiting to be discovered...

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: WAR

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 (final!) month's prompts are train, trophy, typewriter, umbrella, Vietnam, war, washing machine, widow, window.

WAR 

For whatever reasons, I love reading about war. It's the EMOTIONS of war that get me... when the stakes are so high, the world so chaotic, it seems to put a person right into the heart of who they are and what's important to them.

My next middle grade novel (coming 2021) is set during a war. And here is a nonet (the first nonet I ever wrote!) about war, originally published 2012 here at Live Your Poem:

Al Tafar, Iraq, 2004

By winter the war feasted on fear:

It chewed through dusty, low-slung hills,

gobbled apricot orchards,

rubbed its ribs against scrub.

Eyes, red and searing,

it was patient,

not picky;

wanted

more.

-Irene Latham

Here is a post about one of my favorite LBH poetry anthologies for children -- also about war. Also, one of my 2020 releases THE CAT MAN OF ALEPPO is set in Aleppo during the Syrian civil war... and I don't think I'm done yet writing about war. We'll see what happens next!

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: UMBRELLA poem for Poetry Friday

book I'd like to give to
each and every one of you!

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit lovely Liz Steinglass for Roundup. December is certainly full of the hustlebustle, isn't it? I love this month's book lists and Twitter haiku and Christmas music and greeting cards and gatherings and year-end wrap-ups...

I myself put out a new edition of Irene's Adventures in Ink e-newsletter (The Happy Report!) which includes 5 Unexpected Things I've Learned in a Decade as a Children's Book Creator... and I've been clearing the nightstand to make way for the Christmas load that sure to come my way from loved ones who know my particular habits and passions... and I've played two holiday concerts (one with a community orchestra, another with a small group of cellists) and will play another concert tomorrow with my cello choir... and I've been working furiously on a new historical fiction project that has so many moving parts that my mind is churning 24/7!
And it's all good -- wonderful, in fact. Because today for my Butterfly Hours project (which is fast coming to an end), I wrote a poem in the voice of an umbrella. 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 (final!) month's prompts are train, trophy, typewriter, umbrella, Vietnam, war, washing machine, widow, window.

Dykes Family in Thailand

I often share during school visits this picture of my family of origin and wee me with the pink pants, purple shirt, and yellow umbrella. Only, we didn't call it an umbrella when we were in Thailand. We called it a parasol.

Umbrella's Complaint

My human calls

me parasol

but I don't like that name

at all –

it's too sunny,

                too sweet.

Give me wind,

give me sleet!

Call me umbrella –

and if you're a storm,

I can't wait for us to meet!

- Irene Latham

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: TYPEWRITER

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 (final!) month's prompts are train, trophy, typewriter, umbrella, Vietnam, war, washing machine, widow, window.

TYPEWRITER

a favorite children's book
that includes a typewriter

My experience with a typewriter is limited to my high school typing class. If there was a typewriter in my house growing up, I don't recall it. So I don't have any romanticized memories about typewriters.

The high school typing class was one of those offering deemed “practical,” so I took it. (Pre-internet, of course!) And you know, I've never been sorry. I got my job at Walt Disney World (Travel Company) because of my typing

my favorite movie
that features
a typewriter

skills. With the onset of word processing programs, others of my generation had to acquire typing skills... but I already had them! I've always been grateful for my typing speed when I'm working on a story, and my brain moves so so fast – far faster than my hand can do and still be legible... but even with errors, I can generally interpret my typing, even when that typing has been achieved with my eyes closed (which is often the way I type when I am drafting!).

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: TROPHY

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 (final!) month's prompts are train, trophy, typewriter, umbrella, Vietnam, war, washing machine, widow, window.

TROPHY

My sister was a pageant queen and collected LOTS of trophies. I wasn't, and didn't, although a few did come into my life. I received a few for school performance, and once, when I joined my sister for a pageant, I brought home a runner-up trophy along with a tiara. I don't really remember getting the trophy, but I do remember the pageant. We were required to compete in 3 different sections, so my mom created 3 different outfits for me. One was a royal blue pant suit. Another was a lavender church dress to wear while I played a piece on the piano (Homecoming by Hagood Hardy, which I got caught in the middle of, and couldn't find my way out for a minute! I don't think the audience noticed, but I sure did!). And of course there was a pageant dress. Mine was a soft pink with a hoop skirt – more like an antebellum costume than a glitzy pageant dress. But then I've always been a bit more homespun than glitz...

The Butterfly Hours Memoir Project: TRAIN

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 (final!) month's prompts are train, trophy, typewriter, umbrella, Vietnam, war, washing machine, widow, window.

TRAIN

I was 13 years old when we moved from Folsom, LA to Birmingham, AL. I did NOT want to move. After five years in one place, I finally felt “at home.” I had friends I could count on. I was enjoying school and piano lessons and church choir. There was a boy I adored, horses in the pasture, oak trees for climbing, and a gurgling creek where we could catch crawdads.

I tried to convince my parents I should move in with one of my friends, but, of course, they did not allow it. Instead, they sent me back for a visit just a couple of months after we moved. I boarded an Amtrak train all by myself, and for 7 hours I watched the world pass by my window, my stomach churning butterflies the whole time. I couldn't wait to see my friends! I was even going to be able to attend a day at my old school. I was so excited that I don't remember much about the train ride, except that it got me where I wanted to go.

Only, it wasn't anything like I expected it to be. Everyone had changed. They'd moved on without me. The school day was miserable... I didn't fit there anymore, and I didn't fit in my new place either. It was a brutal lesson in how you can't backwards in life. Only forward. Perhaps my parents knew this, that I would need a dose of reality. I have always been highly imaginative, and have often idealized times, places, relationships. Yet, here it was, here I was, and it wasn't the way I remembered it AT ALL. It was sad, but it was also easier to move on after that trip.

Someday I am going to write a poem in two parts: the first half about riding the train TO New Orleans, and the second part about riding it back to Birmingham. I kind of grew up in that few-days'-space between. Sigh.

Reflecting on Our 2019 One Little Words

Welcome to the final installment of Spiritual Journey Thursday for 2019! Per our tradition, today's posts will focus on our experiences with whatever was our 2019 One Little Word.

When I selected the word "Happy," I didn't know where it would lead our how it would impact my life. I guess we never do know at the start of the year! Choosing the word resulted in one of my favorite ARTSPEAK! projects ever: ARTSPEAK! Happy. I loved writing happy, joyful poems inspired by art featuring sunny oranges and yellows. It was definitely a highlight of my year. And it has indeed been a happy year, at least for the most part. One of the things I'm learning in my spiritual life is to not be so attached to my feelings. I've adopted the habit of acknowledging a feeling, and then allowing myself 90

seconds to feel it - and then letting it go. This has brought me a lot of relief from some painful feelings, and allows me to exist in a more contented (happy) place most of the time. Also, I've been reading this book: THE HAPPINESS PASSPORT: A World Tour of Joyful Living in 50 Words by Megan C. Hayes. Good stuff!

Usually by this time of year, I have an inkling as to what my next year's One Little Word might be. But this year I haven't a clue! So I am giving it to the universe -- I look forward to discovering the word in coming weeks.

For now I look forward to hearing about your experience this year with your One Little Word. Please leave your links in comments, and I will add them to the post. Happy day to all, and thanks for reading!

Ruth at no such thing as a godforsaken town talks about (im)possibility.

Margaret at Reflections on the Teche talks about grace.

Karen at Karen's Got a Blog takes us on an alphabet journey.

Carol at Beyond LiteracyLink shares about what she's learned from her word "embrace."