Hello and welcome to Poetry Friday! Roundup is HERE! Please leave your links below.
Before I get to my post, here's an event invitation for you!
And some good news from the ALA Youth Media Awards... D-39:A Robodog's Journey was named to the Sci-Fi Notables List, more officially, The Eleanor Cameron Notable Middle Grade Books List. Hooray for Klynt & D-39! So many thanks to the committee for this recognition. 💜
I've been thinking about patience—and how hard it is! Also about how yes, we need patience... but we also need a bit of impatience to accomplish our dreams.
Sometimes we need to wait less, think less—and DO more.
Other times we need to hard-stop DOing and simply rest—BE.
Sorry, I have no answers for when to do which! But doesn't it help to know this is something we ALL struggle with?
Poems help, too. Here's a few patience poems for you.
1.
Teach me your mood, O patient stars!
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Teach me your mood, O patient stars!
Who climb each night the ancient sky,
Leaving no space no shade, no scars,
No trace of age, no fear to die.
2.
by Ralph Waldo Emerson
Teach me your mood, O patient stars!
Who climb each night the ancient sky,
Leaving no space no shade, no scars,
No trace of age, no fear to die.
2.
Ode to a Maintenance Man and His Family
by Kay Boyle
Renato O. Jones, you maintain my beliefs
by Kay Boyle
Renato O. Jones, you maintain my beliefs
And service my thoughts when they cease to function.
You repair the ailing equipage of the present, transform
The past into flowers around the shuffle-board court
Where there were none before. You speak
The melodious languages of countries that bask
In the sun, employ vacuum respirator as though
It were rod or staff from the garden of Paradise.
You anoint windowpanes with Windex and kneel
In concern for stains on the carpeting,
As men knelt in ancient cathedrals where their voices
Murmured in prayer. You restore me with dance-steps
From harbors you knew: Shanghai, Marseilles, Trinidad,
And how many others. The songs that you sing
(As you unclog drains or retrieve lights when bulbs
flicker and fail or weave copper patches into the webs
Of damaged screen doors) are magical with the music
Of names of your family: Carmelita, Christopher, Dissere,
Alex and Mark, and Keven and Kenneth and Kerwin.
Each day you say to me - not in words but in the eloquence
Of your presence - that infinite patience with mankind is everything.
---
I found this poem in my (1996) copy of THE GIFT OF TONGUES, a beautiful anthology from Copper Canyon Press. More about Kay Boyle here.
Patience Has a Soft Voice
it hums across
dusty summer
serenades
long, searing season
with a whisper-gentle song
turr-turr-turr
drowsy clouds
listen
I found this poem in my (1996) copy of THE GIFT OF TONGUES, a beautiful anthology from Copper Canyon Press. More about Kay Boyle here.
3.
"Patience" by Marilyn Singer —posted here at Live Your Poem a few years ago! It expresses so well one of the reasons I love mountain (lake) life!
...and finally, my latest ArtSpeak: ANIMALS poem continues the theme set forth in "Courage Has Four Feet" and "Wisdom Has Wide Eyes."
Today's piece features a turtle dove as depicted by Chinese Ming Dynasty artist Shen Zhou.
Words that come up a lot about Shen Zhou's landscapes, flowers, and other works are "reverent" and "gentle." I find his work both those things and would add: "warm" and "calming." His work definitely inspires patience in me. Thank you so much for reading!
it hums across
dusty summer
serenades
long, searing season
with a whisper-gentle song
turr-turr-turr
drowsy clouds
listen
sky-door opens—
siss-siss-siss
rain
siss-siss-siss
rain
- Irene Latham
What a lovely post, Irene! I appreciate your focus on patience--something I've been finding in short supply lately. I especially love your poem with all those s's and the magnificent word choice throughout. Thank you so much for hosting today and for all the shared riches!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your award, Irene! Oh, that balance between patience and impatience. I know it well. Thanks for hosting PF today. --Laura Shovan
ReplyDeleteLove "Patience Has a Soft Voice" and the other poems you shared on this theme. Congrats on your award and thanks for hosting this week!
ReplyDeleteLovely post, Irene - I'd say we all need more Patience, but that's the name of my ex-wife! I actually share some history about her in today's post, which is why it's so coincidental that we're both talking about patience, yet talking about totally different things!
ReplyDeleteLovely post Irene, and poem with all its beautiful sounds, and which slows us down and glides us through each line–turtle doves are so eloquent too! Congrats on D-39's new recognition!!! Thanks for hosting, sharing the link to the verse conference, and all poems here–especially Marilyn Singer's.
ReplyDeleteYou are a rock star, my friend - CONGRATULATIONS on all this good news and all the good work you're doing in the world! Thanks for hosting this week. And thanks for the poems and links... that DO/BE ratio is one I struggle with, for sure. Love that soft, quenching voice of patience in your poem. XO
ReplyDeleteWheeeeeee! I knew D-39 was going to pick up recognition. And, it has! So happy for that book. And, I really like Robyn's comment above mine. It's something that's been on my mind lately. Don't worry about the work you want or wish to do -- you're already doing it. This is something I'm telling myself. Congratulations for doing the work that gains this kind of recognition. You know I've got to have that star poem in my notebook. Thanks for that and for hosting this week's round up. I'm going walk through that sky door.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on this most recent recognition, Irene. Most gratifying, no doubt. Thank you for the thought-provoking poems on patience. Patience is the art of hoping, they say. I have found it to be somewhat mercurial in nature. We must consciously practice if we wish to improve. A timely reminder of our respective challenges. Thank you also for hsoting.
ReplyDeletePatience. Persistence. Publishing. The three go hand-in-hand. And yet... Even after all these year, I'm still learning patience! I have my own patience poem, inspired by my 19-years-in-the-making picture book that released last year. https://katswhiskers.wordpress.com/2021/03/05/poetry-friday-muster
ReplyDeleteYou inspire me to be patient, Irene. Look at you, earning accolades through your patient persistence - and your poetic way with words. You deserve every success! x
Irene, your post is filled with welcome and wisdom.You graciously host PF and invite us to balance patience and impatience."Stop DOing and simply rest—BE." Like others, I, too, struggle with how to just be. I enjoyed all of the poems you shared. Thank you for the invitation to the free online presentation. I registered.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the award, Irene! The call of the doves here where I live are always calming, a reminder of the need for patience. You captured it so well in your poem with the words "hums" and "whisper-gentle." Thank you for sharing and for hosting today.
ReplyDeleteI'm so excited for D-39. And that event on the 15th is a must see for me! I read Athena as part of CYBILS and loved it. Patience is a hard thing to master. I wish for the cold to go away and then hate the heat. Will we ever get it right?
ReplyDeleteHappy Poetry Friday, Irene! Thank you for hosting and for this beautiful buffet of goodness. Many congratulations on D-39's new recognition, and thank you for these patience poems, I have been in a long BE phase...just rising to DO more again. Much love. xx
ReplyDeleteThere are so many great things in this post: your good news, wonderful poems from others (I LOVE the one about the maintenance man), and your lovely turtledove poem. Here we have several kinds of doves and I am learning to tell them apart. They are just as you describe, heralding rain. We had some here at the end of the week, and our searing summer suddenly became much more pleasant. <3 Thank you for hosting!
ReplyDeleteHooray for D-39! (And YOU!!) I'll be back to dig into patience, but until then, thanks for hosting us with such a richly rewarding post!
ReplyDeleteI love speculative fiction, so I'm excited to read D-39---big congrats! And thank you for this basket of patience poems; it's mildly funny that we need SO MANY, yes? But we do. We need reminding, in as many ways as possible, over and over....
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on your award! I saw that cover and immediately was intrigued. I love the Shen Zhou print - and the sounds in your poetry. Much needed, is that patience today...
ReplyDeleteYay for Notability! Awesome!
ReplyDeleteThat is a beautiful poem for a maintenance man and his family. Thank goodness for people who help our thoughts to function.
Thank you for hosting! 💜
Your patience (and amazing talent!) is paying off in spades, Irene! Congrats on the recognition your work deserves. Thanks for hosting, sharing, and being a mentor to many. :)
ReplyDeleteA beautiful post, Irene! I am late to the party, I know! My apologies but I figured I would post because I finally feel like I'm getting over my jet lag (patience) and I'm not that late with my poetry. I am so happy you are experiencing continued success with your work! Thank you for the inspiration you share (and for hosting Poetry Friday this week). Carol from The Apples in My Orchard on Wordpress.
ReplyDeleteI'm so glad for the good news about D-39! It deserves attention. As for patience, there is no being a writer without it and it comes from deep inside and requires a bit of faith, that something is worth waiting for. Loved the poems you shared.
ReplyDelete