Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Linda at TeacherDance for Roundup.
It's been a busy week of travel and teaching and revising in the cracks! Life is full, just the way I like it. And I am full of amor mundi (love of the world), which I was reminded of in this article about Jane Goodall. Jane—may she rest in peace—and I have this particular trait in common.
Also, in celebration of our newest (25th) U.S. Poet Laureate Arthur Sze, here's a lovely poem.
The Shape of Leaves
by Arthur Sze
Ginkgo, cottonwood, pin oak, sweet gum, tulip tree:
our emotions resemble leaves and alive
to their shapes we are nourished.
Have you felt the expanse and contours of grief
along the edges of a big Norway maple?
Have you winced at the orange flare
searing the curves of a curling dogwood?
I have seen from the air logged islands,
each with a network of branching gravel roads,
and felt a moment of pure anger, aspen gold.
click to read the rest of the poem
In answer to Arthur's questions: YES! Trees are the great witnesses, aren't they, to all our human-ness. I have my tree-friends for sure.
This week's Artspeak: PICASSO also speaks of trees...and those hopeful yellow butterflies that frequent the Alabama air in August. Thanks so much for reading!
yellow butterfly
gives flit-fluttering lessons
to August birch leaves
- Irene Latham
Oh how Sze's poem touches us, Irene, glory in all those trees and nature. I have seen the field of sandhill cranes and one whooping crane there, too, on a student trip years ago. Love the "flit-fluttering" lessons those butterflies are giving you! Thanks for your special shout-out to nature!
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing the Sze poem (he's totally new to me). Just lovely!! The image of that yellow butterfly flit-fluttering cheered me up. Charming!
ReplyDeleteOh, Irene, thank you for our new poet laureate's poem. I'm taken with "I am living at the edge of a new leaf." Picasso's butterfly sketch is as playful and fun as your haiku. "flit-fluttering lessons" - spectacular!
ReplyDeleteYour haiku matches Picasso's drawing perfectly, Irene! And thanks for the link to Arthur Sze's poem. I want to read more of his work.
ReplyDeleteWhat a legacy Jane left us! My son attended an outdoor preschool in a nearby forest, and it was so wonderful to see the wonder of natural world through his eyes.
ReplyDeleteOh, this is one of my favorite poems. Sze is such a marvelous choice. And your "flit-fluttering lessons" pair perfectly with this Picasso pick!
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