Friday, July 22, 2022

Camel poem

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit marvelous Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading for Roundup. 

I'm at a doctor's office this morning—bleh! (Just yearly check-up time, so no worries.) Hope all of you are doing well and surviving the heat. (Another 'bleh!')

This week's ArtSpeak: Animals poem features a camel.

For a long time, I thought camels carried water in their humps. Not true! Also, I didn't know that camels are born without a hump. The hump develops as soon as the came begins to eat solid food. Here's a great list of other camel facts.

I'm drawn to camels for a lot of reasons, not the least of which was the camel ride our family enjoyed (when I was a child) in front of the Great Pyramids in Egypt. "Our" camel was named "Florida"... at least until the next tourist-family came along and told the camel handler where THEY were from. :)

If you'd like a great dive into the mind of a camel, check out ONCE UPON A CAMEL by Kathi Appelt. 

And now here's my poem. I wanted to include facts about the purpose of a camel's hump(s), but in a roundabout apply-it-to-humans way. Thanks so much for reading.



Be a camel when you travel

carry inside you
        a suitcase
packed with provisions—

that way you'll weather
any delays with grace

you won't be distracted
by grit of hunger

your teeth won't chitter
no matter how bitter
the sandswept night

wherever you wander,
whatever your adventure

          you will be filled

- Irene Latham

7 comments:

  1. 'Once Upon a Camel' is SUCH a wonderful book. Kathi Appelt has my undying admiration--especially after her advice to writers is..."write two pages at a time." Really? Oh, my goodness. She's a marvel at story-spelling. I love this poem with "chitter" and, "bitter." I'll bet my students love it too!

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  2. Just reserved Once Upon a Camel...and as I type "reserved," I'm wondering about the inner provisions we carry that are provided by books and poetry. Surely as nourishing (for soul, if not body) as a camel's!

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  3. I think I fell in love with Once Upon a Camel as soon as I saw the cover. It is such a great book, as is your poem. "Carry inside you a suitcase packed with provisions" - like Mary Lee I'm thinking provisions for the mind and heart. There is a lot of thinking attached to your poem!

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  4. Your camel poem is a great reminder of how to work with our unique humps to navigate life' 'lumps'. Thanks for the hot tip on Once Upon a Camel, Irene... I'm off to my library website. :)

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  5. What a great idea, to pack a camel hump! Love it xo (haha about "Florida")

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  6. I love the idea that our inner resources will help us "weather/any delays with grace." I have a word game that I play in my head when I have to wait in a long Iine. Sometimes I'm actually startled that my turn comes so quickly! Thank you for sharing!

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  7. Oh this is lovely. Yes, weathering the delays... I had a long delay even on Amtrak recently.

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