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Friday, August 2, 2024

Train Songs

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Laura at Poems for Teachers for Roundup.

I've got a couple more books for you!

In and Out the Window by the incomparable Jane Yolen, illus. by Cathrin Peterslund. This collection features more than a hundred poems, across several sections "At Home," "School," "Animals," "After School"...and each section is divided into "In" poems (inside) and "Out" poems (outside). 


One I really like is "Hook in the Water," which is an invitation... "Come, little fishes..." Another one called "The Poem in Your Heart' starts "The poem in your heart / is beating." Yes!


The Color of Sound by Emily Barth Isler. About a girl who has synesthesia and is struggling to figure out who SHE is, apart from her parents' expectations. I love this quote:

"The library smells like a symphony. Every imaginable word housed in the building's books mingles in my head to create something full and rich. It's not a song I recognize, but it's using every instrument.

The automatic doors whoosh purple..."

Yes! That's a library!


And here's a winning picture book about something I still love to do: swinging! Touch the Sky 
by Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic, illus. by Chris Park. A beautiful read for anyone trying to learn any new skill.


Today's ArtSpeak: FOLK ART poem features a train painted by George Voronovsky (same Florida Highwaymen artist as last week!)

What kid at some point doesn't love a train? I remember fondly the Thomas the Tank Engine days with our oldest son in particular... so sweet! Poetry, too, has been known to host a few trains. Perhaps you know "Song of the Train" by David McCord? Or Clackety Track by Skila Brown, illus. by Jamey Christoph (Candlewick, 2019).

Also, here's a song I am in love with that features a different kind of train: "Land of Hope and Dreams" by Bruce Springsteen. (We saw Bruce in concert last year and all night I waited for him to sing this song, but he didn't. Boo!)

Earlier this summer I wrote a poem playing with a metaphor for summer: "Summer is an Aligator Eating an Ice Cream Cone." That was a lot of fun! So today I decided to try "train" as a metaphor for summer. Thanks so much for reading.


Here comes Summer!


Toot-toot!


Instead of track

this train rides

a sunny satin ribbon


Instead of smoke

this train puffs

a kaleidoscope

of bubbles


instead of graffiti-

stained boxcars,

this train pulls

flower boxes

in blooming colors


instead of chugga

chugga

choo choo

this train sings

la-de-dah!

- Irene Latham

7 comments:

  1. la-de-dah is such a summer sound and feeling. I have loved hearing this train these past weeks. Now, it's time for me to wave at the train from inside a school house window. Hello Summer train...See ya later Summer train.

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  2. "La-de-dah" indeed! This train sounds like a Southern woman to my ears, lolling over those ribbony tracks. Thanks for helping us linger over summer, Friend, and for all the other goodies. xo

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  3. This post is full of light, color and joy--thanks as always for chugging us along with you! It's nice they put out such a large collection of Jane's poems--don't think that happens much anymore!

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  4. Oh, what a great extended metaphor! I especially love the flower boxcars. Glorious. And for train books, I especially love All Aboard, by Rebecca Kai Dotlich. I love trains--hearing them, seeing them (especially when out in more rural areas), riding them--though I only usually get to do that when I travel. Thanks for the little vacay today!

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  5. I love this metaphor! I feel like we are almost to the end of the line for summer. :( (It's my favorite, so I'm sad).

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  6. "A kaleidoscope of bubbles!" Isn't that fun!?
    And this stanza is so full--I can see both trains before and after, as if they are right here:
    "instead of graffiti-
    stained boxcars,
    this train pulls
    flower boxes
    in blooming colors"

    Lovely poem! And thanks for the book suggestions.

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  7. More book recommendations! Yay and Thanks!

    We live a block and a bit from train tracks, so I'll try to imagine the bubbles and flower boxes and I'll listen for the "la-de-dah!"

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Your thoughts?