Quandry, Quarry, Quarrel (poem)

This post brought to you by the letter Q!

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday on this day after Thanksgiving! Be sure to visit Ruth at There is No Such Thing as a Godforsaken Town for Roundup.

This week I've got some hunting dogs for you! I, myself, have zero experience hunting irl, so for this poem, I decided to "hunt" for language, images, and meaning that would make hunting relatable for non-hunting folks like me. 

What did I find? Some great "Q" words! Thanks so much for reading.

Quandry, Quarry, Quarrel

Who could have predicted
the boat would mosey
this far from shore?

Not clutch of dogs
tense from morning's hunt

not ducks alert
amid thick nest of reeds.

Someone—
perhaps distracted
by blazing maples—

let the knot slip, or
never tied it at all.

How easily we break—

all of us waiting
for the next whistle.

- Irene Latham

Whenever You're Feeling Weathered (poem)

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Jama's Alphabet Soup for a feast of a Roundup.

I've been crafting! When I saw some "Alabama" shaped ornaments cut from old quilts, I thought, hmm, I can do that....and I did! :)

This week's ArtSpeak: Animals poem is for anyone (like me!) who's feeling a bit worn and weary here at the end of the year. Thank you for reading!

At Sea

whenever you're
feeling weathered

remember: waves
can rise feathered

and crane's
whitecapped wings

can unravel sky,
stir a hundred dreams

- Irene Latham

Squirrel and Cherries poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Buffy Silverman for Roundup. 

For today's ArtSpeak: Animals, I've abandoned Picasso but still going miniature with the poems. (Haiku? Small poem? I'm not sure!)

What I do know: I've got a squirrel for you. We have so many (destructive!) squirrel friends here at the lake that we regularly run a Squirrel Relocation Service—We use traps baited with bird seed and then transport our twitchy little friends to release them a few miles down the road.

However, I did not know (until viewing this piece of art and the research it prompted) that squirrels love cherries! Qi Baishi knew. Did you? Thanks so much for reading.

so much we'll never

know—was it squall or squirrel

that plucked these cherries?

- Irene Latham

Dove + Vote = Happy First Poetry Friday of November!

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

First, an Election Day poem (first published by Scholastic's Storyworks magazine in 2012) I like to share every voting cycle:

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

....and now, my latest—and final!—Picasso poem as part of my ArtSpeak: Animals project. (I'll be back next week with non-Picasso animal art-poetry. :) 

Friends, I had a hard time with this one. Doves, peace, olive branches are all so cliche! How to make fresh? 

I wrote a bunch of versions, and decided to share a yin/yang duo, as I did last week with Picasso's sweet, prancing pig. 

This first (darker?) one makes me think of the fortunes we unfold from fortune cookies that are more like truisms than fortunes? See what you think. 

Look, an olive branch!

For dove's wings are not enough

to sway the faithless

- Irene Latham

...and now, take 27! It too can be read quite darkly...hmmm.... 

Thanks so much for reading.

sun tattoos dove's wings

with a thousand words for peace

only sky can taste

- Irene Latham