Fox Listens poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday!  Be sure to visit watermelon-juicy Jan at bookseedstudio for Roundup.

Paul and I were talking about how it feels like we are in a new chapter, and it might be called the "Two Dips a Day" chapter, because lately we have been taking a morning dip and an evening dip in the lake! 

Unfortunately, the reason for the double-dips is I have the hives...oh, the itching is like being on fire. Awful.

 So maybe this is the universe telling me I NEED a new chapter. It can be really hard for me to slow down and relax. I have to make time to DO NOTHING. And to do nothing in the water with all the lake-joy lizards, frogs, flowers, breeze, laughter, splashes, etc... glorious respite from the itching...AND with my best friend beside me...ahhh.

Also, I posted over at Smack Dab in the Middle on the topic of mystery, as in the mysterious source of our power, writing, and creativity. You can read the post here. 

That brings us to this week's reading life, which has been lovely! I'm still thinking about Joyful: The Surprising Power of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness by Ingrid Fetell Lee. The book examines the aesthetics of joy, things like abundance and harmony and surprise. It gave me some new ideas for ways to further infuse my daily life and living space with joy.

And how about Black Girl You Are Atlas by Renee Watson? It's a short collection of poems beautifully illustrated by Ekua Holmes, and I found a lot ot love!

The poem "Love Shows Up" is basically a list of all the ways love shows up in the speaker's Black girl life. My favorite stanza:

"Love shows up in spring when the leaves return to trees,

keeping their promise that they'd be back."

The poem “Penny Fountain,” which is full of wishes, ends with this:

"Wish for healing the invisible, aching places.

Wish for someone to love you the way you need it.

Wish for no need

for wishes, for no prayer to go

unanswered."

“Lessons on Being a Sky Walker” opens with these lines:

"When they tell you

the sky is the limit, vow to go past that."

The poem "Underbelly" is a list of ways to think about one's body. I especially love this line:

"Black girl body be lighthouse."

"Turning Sweet Sixteen” opens with a challenge:

'But what if I want to be sour? What if when you ask me, How are you?

I tell you the truth. I am not fine all the time."

Here's a favorite line from the poem "What I Know About Rain":

"Sometimes rain is just rain."

The book ends with the poem with a marvelous message for girls of all ages and ethnicities:

"Love It All"

All your body parts, all your imperfections, everything. Lovely!

It's been a week of listening -- listening to summer, listening to my loved ones, listening to my body. No wonder for my ArtSpeak: FOLK ART poem I was drawn to this rendering of a little fox listening by Oregon artist Jennifer Lommers. I wanted the ending to go against what one might expect! Thanks so much for reading (listening). :)

Fox Listens

Fox listens as light stirs

the forest floor

Fox listens to the deer

vanish

Fox listens as stones

call across centuries

Fox listens to beetle and owl,

to lichen-sheathed log

all of them singing

the same refrain

forget me when I'm gone

- Irene Latham