Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Heidi at my juicy little universe for Roundup.
Today I've got book news! And not one, but TWO poems!
1. The Mistakes That Made Us: Confessions from Twenty Poets edited by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illus. by Mercè López (Carolrhoda/ Lerner Publishing) will release Oct. 1. Publisher's Weekly gave it a STARRED review. Woohoo!
2. Earlier this week, we shared the cover of our March 2025 anthology If I Could Choose a Best Day: Poems of Possibility, poems selected by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illus. by Olivia Sua (Candlewick). So many Poetry Friday friends have poems in this book! YAY! So much gratitude to these poets. Something cool about this collection is that all the poems in the book start with the word "if." Here's the list of contributors:
Lacresha Berry, Robyn Hood Black, JaNay Brown-Wood, Joseph Bruchac, Sy Cedering, Emily Dickinson, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Nikki Grimes, Jolene Gutiérrez, Georgia Heard, Anna Grossnickle Hines, Irene Latham, Renée M. LaTulippe, Nancy Tupper Ling, Sylvia Liu, Rebekah Lowell, Vikram Madan, Guadalupe Garcia McCall, Lilian Moore, Eric Ode, Bob Raczka, Lisa Rogers, Sydell Rosenberg, Laura Purdie Salas, Janice Scully, Teresa Owens Smith, Gabi Snyder, Sarah Grace Tuttle, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Charles Waters, Janet Wong
3. Today's ArtSpeak: FOLK ART poemS (it's a 2-fer Friday the 13th!) feature a Harvest Moon (coming September 17!) and children roasting marshmallows. The artist is Jessie LaVon. Thanks so much for reading!
harvest moon
children dip sticks into flame
marshmallows sing
- Irene Latham
How to Roast a Marshmallow
build a fire
a cozy, crackly fire
find a stick
a long, tapered stick
skewer a marshmallow
a plump, pillowy marshmallow
turn it slowly—
like a rotisserie—slowly
till the outside is crispy
golden and crispy
and the inside is gooey
fingertip sticky and ooey-gooey
pop it in your mouth
your wide-awake mouth
mmm
mmm
- Irene Latham
Congrats on the new anthologies and the starred review! You and Charles are on a roll!! Enjoyed your marshmallow poems and LaVon's art. :)
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, Irene for all this latest news! And, the marshmallow celebrations in the poems. I love the happy painting, and can "almost" hear those marshmallows singing! Happy weekend!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations!! I've missed roasted marshmallows - alas every year the campfire ban seems to start earlier and end later in the summer, so we've missed out on many, many evenings of smores.
ReplyDeleteSo. much. goodness! The second poem rolls along just beautifully, but my favorite line is the surprising "wide-awake mouth"! I had trouble with the first, I must confess--I could only hear the marshmallows screaming😲😉.
ReplyDeleteWhat wonderful poems! I must go get a marshmallow right now! I'm so excited about these books coming out. I have asked my public library to get the 'Mistakes that Made Us' and as soon as it's Jan 1st will ask for Best Day. I love when new teachers or students ask me for poetry and I can put a brand new book of living poets in their hands. YOU & CHARLES are doing good work!
ReplyDeleteMouth-watering, Irene! I love "fingertip sticky and ooey-gooey" --but really the meter and repetition/echo of this whole poem! Looking forward to the two anthologies!
ReplyDeleteThose fun-spooky brisk nights are calling through your poems.... my favorite season.
ReplyDeleteCONGRATS to you and Charles on all this exciting news! "The Mistakes That Made Us: Confessions from Twenty Poets" has sounded so intriguing; pub date is almost HERE! Wonderful about the PW starred review.
(& Since you all turned us loose to share the cover of "If I Could Choose a Best Day," I did! Can't wait to see it in 3D.) :0)
Irene, congratulations to you and Charles. I love the visual that you created in the how to roast a marshmallow poem:
ReplyDeleteand the inside is gooey/fingertip sticky and ooey-gooey/pop it in your mouth/your wide-awake mouth
Friday the 13th turned out to be a lucky day for you.
I'm looking forward to both of these new anthologies, Irene! In the second poem I was struck by how well you captured the voice - I can absolutely hear a child explaining how to roast a marshmallow. Your poems are such good teachers.
ReplyDeleteHooray for these beautiful anthologies making their way into the world! Can't wait. I love that repetition in that second poem. So lovely!
ReplyDeleteHooray for the new anthologies, but WAH for all the marshmallows that won't get roasted here this late summer/fall -- it is now so dry in central Ohio that we are under a total burn ban. Can't even cook our chicken on the grill tonight. Dry, dry, dry.
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on all the new and wonderful stuff! :D And now I'm so hungry for a perfectly roasted marshmallow.
ReplyDelete