Little Goat Pantoum

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Marcie Flinchum Atkins for Roundup.

First a reminder about next Tuesday's #HFGather event in celebration of National Poetry Month! Hope you can join us.

I'm looking forward to all the poetry-love our community will be offering in the coming weeks! Isn't NPM the best?!

Today's ArtSpeak: PICASSO features a goat! Goats have been on my mind since last week's Alabama Master Naturalist field day to Red Mountain Park in Birmingham, Alabama. Turns out goats have been park residents at one time or another. They're brought on to help control the privet, kudzu, and honeysuckle, which are invasive species. If you need this service, call Goat Busters! :)

Also: I learned on Clarkson's Farm  that it takes a couple of years for goats' mouths to harden. In other words, you can't expect young goats to be able to clear brambles! (Just in case anyone out there is considering bringing goats into their lives.)

Paul and I had a couple of goats early in our marriage...Beth and Billy. They were adorable! And also pests. They ate up my azaleas! 

When I was a child in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, there were LOTS of goats. I loved them. Especially when we'd go to get in our car, and a couple of them would be sleeping on top. They could be REALLY stubborn about (not) getting down! 

And then there's the Goat Trees in Dauphin Island, Alabama. Legend has it that goats would "roost" in the trees to ride out hurricanes...and also to escape roaming alligators. I believe it! 

I decided to write today's poem as a pantoum, because that's the page I flipped to in Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z. (I often use Dictionary to hunt for forms to jumpstart poems!) I also found this great step-by-step guide to writing a pantoum. (Just in case anyone out there is considering writing one!) Thank so much for reading.

Goat Pantoum

If you want to meet a goat
let it be spring.
Climb a hill,
look for tender green leaves.

Let it be spring—
that nest of sun and song.

Can't find tender green leaves?
Dream beneath a tree.

O, nest of sun and song!
What joy to climb a hill!
Dream beneath a tree
if you want to meet a goat.

- Irene Latham

Rainbows, Strawberries, and One Pretty Mama!

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Rose at Imagine the Possibilities for Roundup.

I'm excited! All those flower bulbs I planted in fall are coming up tulips and daffodils! (I think bulbs are my favorite kind of gardening: plant 'em and forget 'em. And then...surprise! flowers!) 

Also: My son helped me put up a new bluebird box, and a couple has moved in! They're frequent guests at the feeder, too, so, I am really enjoying getting glimpses. I also put out the hummingbird feeder to attract those early scouts. No visitors yet, but soon. . . isn't spring wondrous?

In other news, I'm proud to have poems in new anthologies. A Universe of Rainbows, poems selected by Matt Forrest Esenwine, illus. by Jamey Christoph (Eerdman's), includes my poem "The Rainbow Keeper" on the spread that talks about crystals and prisms.

When I wrote this one, I was thinking about one of my most favorite poems for kids: "Knitted Things" by Karla Kuskin. I do enjoy a poem that tells a kind of magical story, and because this book is informational, I especially wanted to create a poem with some whimsy! I'm grateful to Matt for including it.

The Rainbow Keeper

by Irene Latham

There was a girl who loved brilliant things:

crystals, gemstones, diamond rings.

She digs them up, wipes them clean.

She asks them: what wonders have you seen?

She marvels at their varied colors—

periwinkle, lime, cyan, butter.

She sings to them of geometry, of heat.

She displays them on her bedroom window seat.

Crystals are her favorite find—

especially the broken kind.

Their way of speaking is to glimmer,

shimmer, SHINE!

How do they make their tiny rainbows?

Only the Rainbow Keeper knows.

----

I'm also super-grateful to have a poem included in 40 Poems for 40 Weeks: Integrating Meaningful Poetry and Word Ladders into Grades 3-5 Literacy edited by David L. Harrison and Timothy V. Rasinski. 

Y'all this book is really special because in addition to the poems and word ladders, each poet speaks directly to kids! I loved learning more about all these wonderful poets, and I know children will, too.

My poem is called "Strawberry Self-Portrait." It was a poem cut from my collection Fresh Delicious: Poems from the Farmers' Market (because it was in the voice of the fruit, and the publisher decided it was maybe a little too creepy for young readers to be empathizing too much with something that will be eaten!). But it's remained a favorite poem of mine, so I am delighted it found a home in this book. Thanks, David and Tim!

Strawberry Self-Portrait

by Irene Latham

Juicy, sweet, delectable:

that's me.

But do you see?

I'm also bumpy, grumpy.

My skin is pink in places

it ought not be.

My cap is crooked

and ants have chewed

a hunk out of me. See?

My brothers are bigger,

my sisters sweeter.

But it's fine, it's okay.

I'm the only me

there will ever be.

-----

Finally I'm excited to share this week's ArtSpeak: PICASSO poem. I love this dreamy painting, I think because I love taking naps! :) 

I was thinking of Janet Wong's noodle poem when I wrote this one. Janet uses her noodle poem as a reminder that poems for kids needn't be complicated. Sometimes simple (silly!) language is best. So instead of wordplay or surprises, I focused my energy on channeling my (egocentric!) child-voice in this one. I was definitely a child who adored her mama (as my mom's box of love poems written by wee me proves!). Thanks so much for reading.

Mama So Pretty

by Irene Latham

Mama so pretty

when she smiles

Mama so pretty

when she sings

Mama so pretty

when she dreams

Mama so pretty

she must be

dreaming about

ME!

----

Donut poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Janice at Salt City Verse for Roundup.

I'm super-excited to be joining Charles Waters next Monday at Story on the Square in McDonough, GA, to share If I Could Choose a Best Day with Southeastern Independent Booksellers (SIBA)! Booksellers, if you're reading this: hello! Can't wait to meet you!

Something I love: donuts! Some of the best donuts of my life I've enjoyed at the following establishments...not necessarily the best donut, but the ambiance! The moment! The mood!

Daisy's Bakery and Cafe in Locust Fork, AL (Not far from home. Y'all! THE BEST!)

Donut Hole in Destin, FL (red velvet donuts!)

Tato-Nut Donuts in Ocean Springs, MS (later we had Tato-Nut bread pudding at Anthony's Under the Oaks!)

Harriette's in Key Largo, FL (key lime donuts!)

Fluffy's Cafe in New York, NY (any kind of donut with a steaming mug of hot chocolate on a cold night!)

So of course when choosing this week's ArtSpeak: PICASSO subject, this Picasso painting of pastries caught my eye! And then I got to thinking: wouldn't it be fun/ironic to write a Skinny poem about donuts? Ha! 

As a refresher, here are the rules for a Skinny poem: 11 lines; lines 1 & 11 have the same words (order can be changed...and I went even a bit further, because my aesthetic calls me to create a poem that moves/shifts from beginning to end, so I would call this a Variation on a Skinny); lines 2-10 contain only one word each; lines 2, 6, and 10 must use the same word.

At the Bakery

If this donut could talk, it would say:

don't
eat
me,
please
don't,
I'm
sooooooooo
sweet,
don't!

I'm glad this donut can't talk. Yum!

- Irene Latham

For Every Child Earth Cracks Open Her Toybox poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Margaret at Reflections on the Teche for Roundup.

Thanks so much to everyone who joined in the virtual reading earlier this week! Wasn't that so fun and inspiring?! I am so grateful for this community.

Poet-readers: Lacresha Berry, Charles Waters,
Irene Latham, Lisa Rogers, Sylvia Liu, Renée M. LaTulippe,
Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Jolene Gutiérrez,
Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Anna Grossnickle Hines,
Laura Purdie Salas, Georgia Heard, Gabi Snyder,
Nancy Tupper Ling, Amy Losak, Robyn Hood Black,
Eric Ode

You're invited to another free poetry offering coming April 1 from Highlights! This will be such a great way to start off National Poetry Month. I hope you'll join us! Click here for more information and to register.

Earlier this week we watched the movie Perfect Days. It's about a janitor in Tokyo who finds beauty in his simple life. 

One son said it was such a great portrayal of an introvert. 

Another son said, "that's me." 

And this mama's heart thrilled to know these boys love nature, love creating, and they value simplicity and peace over materialism and chaos. 

They love their lives. And so do we, their parents. No doubt this heartspace is where today's ArtSpeak: PICASSO poem hails from. Thanks so much for reading.

For Every Child Earth Cracks Open Her Toybox

Look!
sticks
pebbles
dirt
feathers
sky
puddles
leaves
and a zillion
singing, creeping
things
whispering
will you 

be my friend?

- Irene Latham