A Trio of Poems to Get you: Voting / Dreaming / Listening to Owls

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Linda at TeacherDance for Roundup. I've got a trio of poems for you today:

1. Election Day / Go Vote poem (first published in Scholastic's Storyworks magazine):

 Election Day

Sift through promises,

replay interviews;

step inside the booth.

Forget scripted speeches

and candy-wrapped slogans.

Weigh again each pro

and con. Remember

the teeming world,

its people who dream

of freedom —

so many denied

the right to decide.

Read the names,

imagine a future;

make the best choice.

In the space between breaths

your voice is heard

without a word.

- Irene Latham

2. A Halloween Poem (a revision of a poem I posted in August last year... time and distance helps!)

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

of joined hands

Inside a hand

rests a spoon

to scoop a pumpkin

Inside a pumpkin

lives a lifetime

of Octobers

Inside October

sleeps a child

with orange dreams.

- Irene Latham

3. The latest ArtSpeak: RED poem, after a (dapper) owl by Richard Jones. This is my second Richard Jones offering... the first was last week's "Night Swimming," about writing. Today's poem a pure fun, because that's what this little owl inspires in me! Thank you so much for reading. xo

When Dapper Owl Dons a Hat

he wants you to say,
look at that!
He wants you
to point, giggle,
perhaps even clap.

And if indeed
you point, giggle, clap,
that owl might even
croon for you.
Listen —

               thank-youuuuu
               thank-youuuuu

- Irene Latham