If I Were to Paint You as a Mountain love poem

 

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

I'm still cranking away, writing my new middle grade novel, each day getting closer to "the end" of my first draft. Exciting!

Next week I'll be welcoming Jeannine Atkins to Live Your Poem to talk a bit about her new beautiful, powerful verse memoir Knocking On Windows (Simon & Schuster, Aug. 5, 2025). I have learned so much from Jeannine over the years, about life, writing, and possibility—you won't want to miss this!

For this week's ArtSpeak: PICASSO offering, I've been exploring Picasso's landscapes. Whole exhibitions have been mounted featuring Picasso's landscapes! And when I saw this one, painted during his early marriage to Jacqueline (when he was around age 80!), I knew I wanted to write about it. 

Is it Picasso speaking? Maybe, but it could be just me. :) Thanks so much for reading!

If I Were to Paint You as a Mountain
by Irene Latham

You would be blue
and the clouds
would circle
your shoulders,
cypresses whispering
I am yours
and I would blow
through you
scattering wings
and light—
what fences?
what walls?
Just us,
always singing
always new.

The Poetry of Bending Time

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

This week's ArtSpeak: PICASSO offering is about a painting he did of lovers in the street. 

I love this painting. It reminds me of that famous 1945 V-J Day Alfred Eisenstaedt photo of Sailor Kissing a Nurse in Times Square. Of course that one is a hello, while Picasso's is a goodbye. Either way, what a moment!

I've also been reading about how time doesn't actually exist and is only a human construct. 

Which means, if we want to, we can live outside of time. I am all about mind-bending and time-bending, so why not?! 

Read more about how to bend time here. Thanks so much for reading.

At the Station

If anyone can bend
             time

it’s lovers in the street—

yes, soon
to be parted

but for this moment
melting

              melding—

No words for goodbye

in a world
without clocks.

- Irene Latham

Old Man Fog poem

 Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference for Roundup.

After the (fabulous!) 4th of July festivities, it's been lovely to have a week of calm and quiet. I #amwriting, so the white space on the calendar has been especially welcome.

Today's ArtSpeak: PICASSO features another one of his I-can't-believe-that's-a-Picasso paintings, a landscape from 1928. 

I tried several directions before landing here, with a personification of fog. 

The poem is also a nod to Ram Dass and one of his most famous quotes, and I'm grateful to my son Daniel for gifting me the book Be Here Now a few years back. Thanks so much for reading!

Old Man Fog

here he comes
shuffling into town

rambling over trees
and cottages

softening
today's brittle edges

with his easy pace
and lingering smile

he says in his wizened voice
we are all pilgrims,

walking each other
home

- Irene Latham

Summer Triptych poem

 Hello and Happy JULY! It's Poetry Friday, so be sure to visit Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading for a "Poems of Protest" Roundup.

If you'd like to discover what I'm writing this summer, I invite you to check out this post I wrote on companion novels over at Smack Dab in the Middle!

This week's ArtSpeak: PICASSO poem is a "Summer Triptych." I was researching Picasso's art that includes birds, (umm, that Smack Dab post might explain why!) and I kinda fell in love with this piece! 

I decided to go with a triptych because triptychs are surely Picasso-approved, as they are a kind of construction and deconstruction, meant to show something in three parts where each part works individually but also together as a whole. 

This struck me as the thinking Picasso employed in his cubist work...and since this piece represents him making that transition, it seemed a good way to approach the poem.

I've written other triptychs, perhaps the best-known one is "Triptych for a Thirsty Giraffe," which appears in Dear Wandering Wildebeest: Poems From the Water Hole.  

Have you written a triptych?? Or encountered a triptych you enjoy? I'd love to read it!

Summer Triptych

1

black bird black bird
unbroken moonlight

2
green leaves green leaves
a shatter of faith

3
blue sky blue sky
tiger stalks a bed of daisies

- Irene Latham