What the Heart Knows by Joyce Sidman

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit the ever-inspiring Anastasia Suen at Poet! Poet! for Roundup.

I'm pretty much in love with WHAT THE HEART KNOWS by Joyce Sidman. It includes 4 sections: Spells & Invocations, Chants & Charms, Laments & Remembrances, Praise Songs & Blessings.

Here are three of my favorites (though I totally could have selected 3 entirely different ones. Much to love here!):

Blessing on the Curl of Cat

As Cat curls
in a circle of sun--
sleep and round,
snug and warm,
a hint of ear
cocked in readiness--
so may I find y place
in this shifting world:
secure within yourself,
certain of my wroth,
equally willing to
           purr
             or leap.

-Joyce Sidman


Illness: A Conversation

I asked my feet why they could not walk
and they said, We are treading water.

I asked my legs why they buckled and fell
and they said, We are growing roots.

I asked my fingers why they had loosened their grip
on the world and they said, It is too hard to hold.
We are gathering clouds instead.

Why? I asked my eyes, which kept crying and crying,
and they said, We are waiting for the very last ear.

Speak! I told my lips, but my voice was not my own.

So I asked my heart, Who am I now?
and my heart said, The you underneath the you.

And I asked my soul, Who will I be?
and my soul answered,
        The one whose heart is open,
        the one whose eyes are clear,
        the one whose hands are full of sky.

-Joyce Sidman


Song in a Strange Land

I awaken in a village
on a mountain
far from anything
I have ever known.

My eyes are no use--
the dark is that deep--
and my ears
buzz with silence.

No ripples in the black,
no chink in the quiet.
Unmoored,

I could rise, teeter,
rumble down the hillside,
drown in the sea.
Why am I not afraid?
Amazed, my heart
waits for direction.

And there -- oh!
A rooster has found the dawn.
Its peal arcs through dark,
waking the circling hills
till the valley rings
like a steel drum.

Oh, yes,
says my heart.
Whatever the day brings,
let it ring.
Whatever the music,
let me sing.

- Joyce Sidman


Let us all sing!

"Err on the Side of Audacity" with THE INVENTION OF WINGS by Sue Monk Kidd

You may have heard me talk about these words of wisdom from my mother:

ERR ON THE SIDE OF LOVE

Well. This past week I had the pleasure of listening to a wonderful book THE INVENTION OF WINGS by Sue Monk Kidd. It's historical fiction about the real-life abolitionist Sarah Grimke and Hettie (Handful) Grimke, the slave girl Sarah was given on her 11th birthday, during early 19th century Charleston, SC.

I love this book. There's mothers and daughters and quilts and history and daring characters changing their own worlds as best they can. And young Sarah latches onto this advice: ERR ON THE SIDE OF AUDACITY.

I love it! Here's to audacious women!! I'm doing my best to be one. xo

Our Cat Maggie, Who Could Be a Circus Elephant

In my experience, every cat has a "thing." Maggie's is balance. She is constantly testing herself on narrow ledges and staircases and such.

image at etsy shop GraphicGears

Don't even bother calling, Ringling Bros. We're not-so-secretly hoping Maggie lives FOREVER. She's that great a cat.

Maybe next we should get her a ball?

Squirrel Poetry: Flora & Ulysses, The Illuminated Adventures by Kate DiCamillo

Hello, and happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit Karen Edmisten for Roundup!

I'm taking a break today from my Karla Kuskin series to talk about the poetry in FLORA & ULYSSES: The Illuminated Adventures.

I'm a huge Kate DiCamillo fan, so I was very excited when I first heard about FLORA & ULYSSES. Yet I wasn't able to get to it for months. And then it won the Newbery! So of course I HAD to make time for it. :)

It's a zany adventure, in part, about a superhero squirrel and a self-proclaimed cynic. The best part? Ulysses (the squirrel) writes poetry!

"I love your round head,
the brilliant green,
the watching blue,
these letters,
this world, you.
I am very, very hungry."

---------------------------------------
"In any case, he wasn't thinking about dying. He was thinking about poetry. That is what Tootie said he had written: Poetry. He liked the word - -its smallness, its density, the way it rose up at the end as if it had wings.
Poetry."

---------------------------------------
And in one of the comic strip segments wonderful created by K.G. Campbell, one of the cells says this:

AND THE SUPERHERO WAS
ENORMOUSLY, INORDINATELY
PLEASED WITH HIMSELF.

HE FELT IMMENSELY POWERFUL!

HE FELT LIKE WRITING A POEM!

--------------------------------------
Finally, in the Epilogue:

Words for Flora

Nothing
would be
easier without
you,
because you
are
everything,
all of it --
sprinkles, quarks, giant
donuts, eggs sunny-side up-
you
are the ever-expanding
universe
to me.

Poetry Is in the Air!

photo courtesy of wikicommons

We may still be recovering from snow and ice, but that hasn't stopped Poetry from springing up in all sorts of places around here! Hope to see you at some of these upcoming events:

PHENOMENAL WOMAN -- celebrate Black History Month with poems by black female authors! DISCO, Thursday, February 20, 6:00-7:30 pm. I will be reading Lucille Clifton's "Homage to My Hips."

ALABAMA STATE POETRY SOCIETY -- 10:00 am - 2:00 pm, Saturday, March 1, Madison County Library. Jennifer Horne will be talking about book-making!

 SAKURA FESTIVAL - a number of events, including these poetry-specific ones:

Bards, Brews, & Haiku, Friday, March 7, 6:30- 9:00 pm, Birmingham Central Library, Fiction Department. Featuring haiku readings and sake tasting in addition to the usual performance poetry and beer sampling. Japanese crafts for sale to raise funds for Miss Iwate, the Japanese friendship doll who has called BPL home since 1928. Miss Iwate is in need of some restoration work which will be done by master dollmakers in Japan. 

Haiku Workshop, Saturday, March 8, 10:00 am - 12:00 pm. Birmingham Central Library, Storycastle. Led by Terri French, the Southeast Chapter Coordinator for the of the Haiku Society of America (HSA). Registration required; call 205-226-3670.

Movie Monday: DALLAS BUYERS CLUB

In our quest to see the rest of the Oscar-nominated films, this week we rented DALLAS BUYERS CLUB.

I remember 1986. I remember the homophobia and the fear and shock that came with HIV and AIDS. In some ways, it was hard to watch a film re-visit those things. In another way, it was a reminder of how far we've come.

It's an inspiring story, and Matthew McConaughey is scary-believable. We should all be so proactive about our lives. Who knows what changes might occur both inside of us and out?

Still to go: Nebraska, 12 Years a Slave, & The Wolf of Wall Street

Tree Poems by Karla Kuskin

Hello, and happy Poetry Friday! Please visit lovely Linda at TeacherDance for Roundup.

Also: Happy hearts and flowers and chocolates! Yes, it's a commercialized holiday, but it's never a bad time to let someone know that you love them, right?

And that brings me to CYBILS. Congratulations to all the winners, especially one Amy Ludwig VanDerwater! Yay, Amy, so happy for you and FOREST HAS A SONG. Such a fine group of finalists this year!

In Amy's honor, I've decided to share today some of Karla Kuskin's poems about trees. Aren't trees a wonderful subject?? I'd like to give them a valentine.

 The Tree and Me

There's a tree by the meadow
By the sand by the sea
On a hillock near a valley
That belongs to me
With small spring leaves
Like small green dimes
That cast their shadows on the grass
A thousand separate times
With round brown branches
Like outstretched sleeves
And the twigs come out as fingers
And the fingers hold the leaves
With blossoms here and there
And always  pink and soft and stout
And when the blossoms disappear
The apples hurry out
And
In the middle of the blossoms
In the center of the tree
With a hat and coat of leaves on
Sits smiling me.

- Karla Kuskin

If you stood with your feet in the earth

Up to your ankles in grass

And your arms had leaves running over them

And every once in a while one of your leafy fingers

Was nudged by a bird flying past,

If the skin that covers you from top to tip

Wasn't skin at all, but bark

And you never moved your feet from their place

In the earth

But stood rooted in that one spot come

Rain

Wind

Snow

Sleet

Thaw

Spring

Summer

Winter

Fall

Blight

Bug

Day

Dark

Then you would be me:

A tree.

- Karla Kuskin

Untitled

Three wishes

Three.

The first

A tree:

Dark bark

Green leaves

Under a bit of blue

A canopy

To glimpse sky through

To watch sun sift through

To catch light rain

Upon the leaves

And let it fall again.

A place to put my eye

Beyond the window frame.

Wish two:

A chair

Not hard or high

One that fits comfortably

Set by the window tree

An island in the room

For me

My own

Place to sit and be

Alone.

My tree

There.

Here my chair,

Me,

Rain, sky, sun.

All my wishes

All the things I need

But one

Wish three:

A book to read.

- Karla Kuskin

For the Love of Trees: A BIRD ON WATER STREET by Elizabeth Dulemba

Please join me in congratulating Elizabeth Dulemba on the release of her first middle grade novel A BIRD ON WATER STREET! It will be released in print this May.

What's it about?

The son of a copper miner who struggles to understand his tree-less, bug-less, bird-less world in 1980s Coppertown, Tennessee (modeled after the actual Copperhill, Tennessee) during strikes and lay-offs and the ever-present fear of having to move from the place he loves.

Jack has all sorts of adventures... and he loves trees!

Here's a couple of quotes, the first in honor of my “mystery” year:

“Now if I could just tell which trees they'd come from – the edge of the parking lot was thick with them. Most were a mystery, but the sugar maple stood out like a bright flame against the others. I stopped breathing it was so beautiful.”

------

Ahhh, sugar maples! One of my most favorite trees!

------

“I read that book over and over, dreaming of spending all my days hiking through forests, taking care of trees. The man who wrote it described how different the trunks felt, with their bumpy or smooth bark, and the spicy smell of sap, and the soft cushion of pine needles under his feet. It sounded like heaven to me.”

-----

Are you thinking what I'm thinking? What fun it would be to spend some time identifying trees by leaf and bark. Could be a great classroom project....

-----

The book includes a section called “Images of the Copper Basin” which shows actual photographs to give readers a clear visual of what life is like in a Company town.

Something that made me smile: the inclusion of the Appalachian vernacular “yu'uns.” I lived in those mountains several years during my childhood, and I can still remember how odd that sounded to me after years of “y'all.” :)

Congratulations, e!

Movie Monday: PHILOMENA

Every year we try to see as many of the movies nominated for Oscars as we possibly can. This past weekend we were fortunate enough to see PHILOMENA.

I'm interested in pretty much anything Dame Judi Dench is in, and when I heard this movie was about a woman searching for the baby that was taken from her 50 years earlier, I knew I needed to see it. (My parents were foster parents, and I chose foster care/adoption as my specialty in social work.)

But the movie was so much more than that! It chronicled an unlikely friendship. It provided much to ponder about faith and evil and forgiveness. It made me really miss the wonderful older ladies I have loved and lost: my grandmother, my mother-in-law, my grandmother-in-law (the real-life Ludelphia). It explores man's inhumanity to man... or in this case, the nuns' inhumanity to young girls.

It's a special movie. I can totally see why it's nominated. I hope you'll go see for yourself!

Nominated movies we've seen: American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Gravity, Her, Philomena

Movies we still need to see: Dallas Buyers Club (on video), Nebraska (on video Feb. 25), 12 Years a Slave (on video), The Wolf on Wall Street (in theater)

Math & Science Poems by Karla Kuskin

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Please visit Poetry-Video-Queen Renee at No Water River for Roundup!

I'm back with another post featuring poems by Karla Kuskin. (Earlier post: snow poems.) Two of them are untitled. Readers, how do you feel about untitled poems? What about titles in general? Are they hard for you? Do they come first or last, or sometime in between? Curious about your habits and processes.

And now, take it away, Karla!


Untitled

Is six times one a lot of fun?
Or eight times two?
Perhaps for you.
But five times three
Unhinges me,
While six and seven and eight times eight
Put me in an awful state
And four and six and nine times nine
Make me want to cry and whine
Sop when I get to twelve times ten
I begin to wonder when
I can take a vacation from multiplication
And go out And start
playing again.

- Karla Kuskin

Counting

To count myself
Is quickly done.
There's never more of me
Than one.

Counting bears
Is fun by ones
But funnier in pairs.

Counting the birds
On the branches of trees
Is hard on the neck
But it's easy on the knees.

It's even harder
Counting leaves
Than counting tiny birds.
They shift their shadows
With the breeze
Among the branches
Of the trees
More  numerous
Than whispered words.

Counting fingers
And counting toes is
A harder kind of counting
Than counting noses.

Counting rabbits running
Rabbit races on the lawn
Must be done while one is sunning
And before a rabbit's gone.

Counting the stars
As they glitter bright white
Is lovely indeed
And a marvelous sight
When the air is as fresh
As the first night in fall.
But I always have a feeling
That comes very softly stealing
When my head with stars is reeling
that I didn't count them all.

- Karla Kuskin


Untitled

Many people who are smart
In physics, French and math and art
Cannot tell two bugs apart.

Bugs are just not very smart
In math or physics, French or art.
But they can tell two bugs apart.

- Karla Kuskin

Words cannot express how much I LOVE that last one! :)

It's Snowing Kindness!

Welcome to another edition of Wonderful World Wednesday! You probably heard about last week's winter snowstorm... or for those local, you didn't just hear about it! When schools across the city suddenly announced school closure, we parents rushed to collect them... as the snow was starting to fall. We had NO warning about the storm -- all satellite data indicated it would pass just north of us. So our city was car-jammed, icy and paralyzed.

Two of my sons and I got stuck downtown. The youngest and I camped out at Alabama School of Fine Arts, where we were well taken care of, and, frankly, the boy was in complete heaven. The oldest decided to hoof it home... all 10 miles. It took him three hours. Some folks picked him up so that he could thaw a bit as they inched down the highway. Some folks were helping to push cars out of icy spots. Kindness everywhere!

Meanwhile, back at ASFA, the faculty and staff made it a once-in-a-lifetime party. Mr. J dragged out mattresses for all the parents. Dorm kids gathered extra blankets and pillows and soap and towels, and left it in the hallways for anyone who needed it. The library loaned us books. We were fed and sheltered and not once allowed to panic or despair. Kindness.

And now, backing up: my youngest son was wearing flip-flops. That's right: FLIP-FLOPS. Normally this is not a problem in Alabama, even in January. So we needed shoes and socks.

Across the street from the school, the city opened Boutwell Auditorium to serve as a warming station for the homeless population. We popped over there to see if, by chance, they had shoes.

They didn't. But they did have socks. And hats. And gloves. And heavier jackets. And snacks and cots and laughter... and HUGS. I was so moved in those moments... people who have little to nothing giving everything.

Thank you. I cannot express my gratitude. I promise to pay it forward!

Eric in his Subway-bag wrapped feet and flip-flops!

p.s. Middle son and husband also had adventures including a car wreck, a cold hike, and being stranded overnight at the office with staff and clients! Yikes! Once in a lifetime, indeed.....

A Survival Story with Heart: ICE DOGS by Terry Lynn Johnson

I love dog stories.

I love survival stories.

I love adventure stories that pulse with emotion.

ICE DOGS by Terry Lynn Johnson is all of these things! And it should be: Terry is herself an experienced outdoorswoman and musher. She LOVES dogs. It shows in her writing!

So far it has garnered all sorts of lovely reviews and was selected as a Junior Library Guild Selection. And doesn't it have a gorgeous cover?

Here are some things I learned:

Mushers bait the water with chicken parts to entice sled dogs to drink, and drink quickly, before water freezes.

Trappers hide cabin keys in the outhouse.

Don't leave home without your dog booties.

Sled dogs bark and yowl and gripe until you command them to do the thing they love best: run!

A wolf pack just might save your life, if you happen upon the remains of a kill and take some for yourself.
-----------------------------------------------

Thank you, Terry, for a page-turner! I enjoyed meeting Vicky and Chris and the whole team -- and I savored every word of their story.

Readers, don't miss this one! xo

Snow Poems by Karla Kuskin

*see below

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Please visit Terrific Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect for Roundup.

I'm beginning a new series today on Karla Kuskin. Several of you suggested her work to me when I mentioned wanting to do a follow-up to my series on Valerie Worth. And since I knew nothing of Karla's work, well, it seemed a perfect way to educate myself!

In honor of the polar weather, I'm happy to share with you today some snow poems:




Snow

We'll play in the snow
And stray in the snow
And stay in the snow
In a sow-white park.
We'll clown in the snow
And frown in the snow
Fall down in the snow
Till it's after dark.
We'll cook snow pies
In a big snow pan.
We'll make snow eyes
In a round snow man.
We'll sing snow songs
And chant snow songs
And chant now chants
And roll in the snow
In our fat snow pants.
And when it's time to go home to eat
We'll have snow toes
On our frosted feet.

-Karla Kuskin

Joe's Snow Clothes

For wandering walks
In the sparking snow
No one is muffled
More warmly than Joe.
No one is mittened more,
Coated or hatted,
Booted or sweatered,
Both knitted and tatted,
Buttoned and zippered,
Tied, tucked and belted,
Padded and wadded
And quilted and felted,
Hooked in and hooded,
Tweeded and twilled.
Nothing of Joe's
From his top to his toes
But the tip of his nose
Could be touched
By the snows
Or the wind as it lows,
And grow rather rosy,
The way a nose grows
If it's frozen
Or possibly chilled.

-Karla Kuskin

*About the photo: Scott's Run, West Virginia. Miner's child - This boy was digging coal from mine refuse on the road side. The picture was taken December 23, 1936 on a cold day; Scott's Run was buried in snow. The child was barefoot and seemed to be used to it. He was a quarter mile from his home.(WikiCommons, WPA photo by Lewis Hines)

Movie Monday: HER

What to say about HER? It'a love story. Yes, even though one of the partners is an OS (Operating System, perfectly voiced by Scarlett Johansson), it's a love story. Oh, how we humans long for connection! This movie examines what that connection looks like in the 21st Century -- how the advances in technology are transforming the ways in which we relate to one another. So much social media, so many ways to connect, and yet how difficult it can be, how isolating our machines can be.

One scene in the movie broke my heart: The main character Theodore, played by Joaquin Phoenix, is at the entrance to the subway, and he's watching all these people come up the stairs. They make no eye contact, and each of them is involved not with each other, but in their connection with an earpiece that connects them to whatever is on the other end. Is that what the world is coming to?

Something I loved about the movie: the relationship between Theodore and his OS (Samantha) mirrored a human love affair. From delight to intoxication to eventual disenchantment and moving on... all the emotions were completely real and authentic -- even if one of the partners wasn't completely real and authentic. I liked how falling in love with one's OS wasn't seen as weird in the world created by the movie. There was even a double date: a human couple, and our human/OS couple. And it worked!

The movie did drag in places, but ultimately I found it a valuable, entertaining experience.

Love is like that.

And The Answer Is....

Thanks to everyone who offered guesses for Mystery Photo #1! And Happy Poetry Friday! If I was really on the ball, I would post a sundroppy poem. Alas. I am too busy scrapbooking  with the women in my family. :) Please visit Tara at her new Wordpress blog A Teaching Life. Happy happy day!

Mystery Photo #1

As part of my "Mystery" year, I thought it would be fun to post some photographs for you to guess what they are! I love how changing perspectives can open up new worlds, and that's my goal with this series.

So. What do you think this is?

photo by my amazingly talented brother MicaJon Dykes!

Clue #1: It' refreshing.
Clue #2: It's my brother's family's favorite.
Clue #3: It has a poetic name.

There's a prize in it for the first person to guess! xo

A Full Moon is Rising by Marilyn Singer

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Please visit my most favorite beekeeper-writer-gal Keri for Roundup at Keri Recommends.

I've been having so much fun reading the Cybils finalists. When I was at the library this week, I also picked up a 2011 poetry book I'd like to share with you: A FULL MOON IS RISING, poems by Marilyn Singer with pictures by Julia Cairns. The moon is the focal point of all the poems, which are set in different parts of the world. For someone with a traveler's heart like me, it's a great way to get a quick fix of other lives and cultures. And it's true: the moon is the same wherever you go. What a comfort that is when one is far from home or without the ones we love best.

Moon Festival
Hong Kong, China

Look up!
Rabbit, dragon, butterfly, carp:
lanterns parading by.
Look around!
All of us together,
sampling these sweet cakes--
red bean and lotus paste--
each with a surprise inside:
a salty egg, round and golden
as the glorious eighth moon.

- Marilyn Singer

Moon Illusion
Cape Town, South Africa

outside their new brick house
in the dusty township,
Mama takes in the wash and asks her children
what they learned today in school.
her daughter grins "I learned that nobody's sure
why the moon looks so big on teh horizon."
Her son bends over and peers at the sky through his legs.
"And I learned how to shrink that moon."
Such smart children." Mama laughs.
"Bright as the moon!"

- Marilyn Singer


High Tide
Bay of Fundy, Canada

Sail on a Saturday.
Sail on a Monday.
You'll find the highest tides of all
here, in the Bay of Fundy.

Sail at a new moon.
Sail at a full.
Waters spring up to their peak
to heed the lunar pull.

One hundred billion tonnes of water
in and out the bay.
One hundred billion tonnes of water
two times every day.

Sail in December
or sail in June.
Set out on a high tide.
Always thank the moon.

- Marilyn Singer

Have YOU ever written a "moon" poem? It's one of those words we poets seem to like!

Sunny Days are Here Again

Big thanks to Deborah Bussewitz over at Show...Not Tell, who nominated Live Your Poem for a Sunshine Award! It totally made my day, especially as I learned about a billion things Deb and I have in common... including opinions about sunny blogs! Her nominees are ones I would also like to acknowledge today. And I have some nominees of my own! 

Here are the rules:

1. Acknowledge the nominating bloggers
2. Share 11 random facts about yourself
3. Answer the 11 questions the nominating blogger creates for you
4. List 11 bloggers
5. Post 11 questions for the bloggers you nominate to answer and let all the bloggers know they've been nominated.  (You cannot nominate the blogger who nominated you.)

11 Random Facts:

I love to rearrange furniture. It's really important to me to have a clean floor. I'm double-jointed. And left-handed. A middle child.

Love rainy days. Love to walk in my neighborhood in the early mornings (except when it's super-cold). I go on a yearly scrapbooking weekend with the women in my family. I'm getting good at foosball. I'm working on being less judgmental.

11 Questions from Deb:

1.  What is something that has changed you for the better?

Writing books that scare me.

2.  What makes you smile?

Letters from students! Here's one I got recently:

Dear Mrs. Latham, I would like to see Phil and Hugo meet again. And maybe Whit can get a new brother! Maybe the sequel could be about Whit's like in Middle School. From Robert

3.  What food is unique to the city you now live? 

Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe! Of course any good southern cook has a recipe for these up her sleeve... I love the sour flavor of green tomatoes so like only a light batter, so I coat mine with Aunt Jemima's corn meal mix mixed with grated parmesan cheese and garlic salt. Mmmmm....

4.  What book has had an impact on your life?

The Great Gilly Hopkins by Katherine Paterson. When I read this book, I knew I wanted to write middle grade fiction.

5.  Who is your hero/heroine?

My father, a 5 year cancer survivor.

6.  Fire or water? 

Water. My new book very well could have been called The Ocean Between Us... lots of water images and themes! 

7.  Do you have a secret that you can share?

Secrets and secret-keeping happens to be the theme of my wip!

8.  What are you reading currently?

Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell. I loveloveloved Eleanor & Park, and am really enjoying this one as well.

9.  How did you KNOW you were a writer?

Each time something in my writing life beats me to a pulp, and I still get up the next day to get after it again, I know I'm a writer.

10.  How did your home of origin shape you?

The fact that we moved so often that there is no one "home" I use to answer this question is very much a shaping factor in my life... I have a restless, vagabond spirit, and adore traveling.... yet I also adore my home (where we've lived for 16 years) and love coming home best of all.

11.  What is your fantasy vacation?

This moment I've got the Mediterranean on my mind...

Bloggers I'd like to beam with skies and skies of sunshine:

Pat at Writer on a Horse

Doraine at Dori Reads

Janet at Through the Wardrobe

Caroline at Caroline by line

Miranda at Miranda Paul

Vicky at History with a Twist

Sheri at  Sheri Doyle

Sylvia at Poetry for Children

Linda at Write Time

Terry at Terry Lynn Johnson

Ruth at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town

11 Questions:
Favorite food to bring to a potluck event?
What do you do to relieve stress?
Favorite quote?
What is the story behind your name?
Chore you abhor?
Cinderella or Snow White?
Do you plan blog posts ahead of time, or real-time posts only?
Other social media you enjoy?
Introverted or extroverted?
Title of the last book you gave as a gift?
Happiness is..... (you fill in the blank!)

Thank you, again, Deb, for including me!

A Poet's Dozen

Sky-big thanks to the dozen poets who shared work with us at Poetry in the Sky with Cupcakes: top row, l-r (Matt Layne, Alicia Clavell, Bob Collins, Jim Reed, Susan Luther, Bonnie Roberts & Joe Whitten, Robert Boliek; bottom row, l-r (Tabitha Bozeman, Irene Latham, Andrew Glaze, Alabama Poet Laureate & Jerri Beck)

Truly, I cannot express what a glorious event this was! Thanks to everyone who came out to share it... and to those far-flung... lots of "we are star-dust" vibes in the air. Really great poems! And cupcakes:

This pic features chocolate ones I made, but Tabatha's were much prettier. Thank you, Tab!

This week I am WRITING. Finally. Happy day to everyone... .especially my third bouncing baby boy who arrived this day 14 years ago. Love you, sweet boy!

Winter Wonder in the Winn Dixie Parking Lot

Today's installment of Wonderful World Wednesday comes live from our local Winn Dixie, where my 17 year old son works as a bagger/parking lot attendee. He worked Monday night as record-low temperatures were setting in, and he said he felt like a popsicle. He also said he was re-thinking this whole recent obsession he's had with snowboarding.

And he showed me a pair of gloves. And a scarf. Neither of which he had taken to work with him in the first place.

They were gifts, he explained. From random strangers. People buying groceries who saw him in the parking lot and knew they had what he needed. He said it made the night more fun than playing video games, which, if you know my son, is saying A LOT.

To those folks who saw a kid in need and did something about it: thank you. I promise to pay it forward.

What a Wonderful World!

Poets in the Sky with Cupcakes!

Today is the official release of my latest book of poems for adults, THE SKY BETWEEN US. Yay! I'm pretty excited about the celebration we've got planned for Saturday.... pretty amazing lineup of poets, yes? Hope to see you there! You can order personalized books on my website, and there's Amazon, of course... local indies Reed Books and Alabama Booksmith can also fix you up!

Movie Monday: SAVING MR. BANKS

Confession: as a young reader, I never thought at all about the author of the books I loved -- those  stories were mine and to think of them being written by anyone never occurred to me. It's only as an adult author myself that I've become curious about other authors.

Which is why I knew I wanted to see SAVING MR. BANKS. I mean, P.L. Travers, the creator of Mary Poppins... clearly an imaginative woman, yes? AND. For me, there's the whole Disney connection: in case you didn't know, I was born the year Walt Disney World opened in Orlando. I went to Kindergarten, 1st, 2nd and 3rd grades in central Florida, just outside Mickey's magical domain. For my 6th birthday, I had a Cinderella cake and got to visit Disney World for the very first time. During college, I worked as a booking agent at Walt Disney Travel Company and earned a "Mouster's Degree" through the WD College Program. (I could have earned a "Ducktorate" but, ahem, I was maybe more interested in some less Disneyfied pursuits at the time....) I think Walt Disney was a pretty amazing guy. And guess what? I loved the movie.

Maybe it isn't an accurate picture of P.L. Travers OR Walt Disney. I don't know. But I was touched by the story. It kind of reminded me of DRIVING MISS DAISY, what with the whole grumpy old lady being driven about by Mr. Brightside chauffeur. I loved how their relationship grew and developed, how a true friendship emerged. I felt tremendous compassion for the way Mrs. Travers' father was depicted... he was an alcoholic, brilliant and imaginative, but unable to control his addiction. What a toll this takes on a family, and how confusing for a daughter who admires her father one day and hates him the next. And all the more reason to value and cherish one Mary Poppins.

My favorite quote in the movie is courtesy of Tom Hanks as Walt Disney, on the power of story, the reason we NEED fiction:

“It’s what we storytellers do: We restore order with imagination.’’

And maybe Disney never actually said that, and maybe the film portrays its characters inaccurately, and maybe the criticism is deserved that this is a sugary, self-serving film. Who cares? I still enjoyed the heck out of it.

One Little Word for 2014

Wow, is it really the first Poetry Friday of 2014?? Be sure to visit Betsy at I Think in Poems for Roundup.

Sometime in December I started a list of possible words. I wrote them down, and one by one, tried them on. I wasn't sure which word to choose until I viewed a post at Tabatha's blog, The Opposite of Indifference. When I read and listened to O Magnum Mysterium, I knew instantly what word on my shortlist was THE one:

MYSTERY

Thank you, Tabatha!

Some synonyms for mystery: puzzle, conundrum, riddle, secret, problem, enigma

While I don't have any concrete expectations for how this word will exist in my life during 2014, I am feeling "mystery" on a deep, spiritual level. I want to be open to mystery, I want to find beauty there and not place my focus on solving anything. Kind of like Emily Dickinson's dwelling in possibility, I want to Dwell in Mystery.

I want to read more mysteries, too. It's never been a favorite genre -- I'm not sure why. Maybe this year I will discover as I open myself to all the possibilities.

When I think about mysteries I have enjoyed, I think of WHERE'S WALDO and I SPY books. Also, Gollum's riddles in THE HOBBIT. My siblings and I watched the animated version of that movie over and over... and you know what, I find it far more enjoyable that the recent in-the-theater incarnation.

And then there's MASQUERADE by Kit Williams. The one with the riddles that told the location of an actual jewel in the art and the text? My sis and I worked so hard to solve the riddle! Here's a wee riddle from the text:

"What is nothing on the outside,

And nothing on the inside,

Is lighter than a feather,

But ten men cannot pick it up?"

---------------------------------------------

                                                          The answer:

photo from Wikipedia commons

CYBILS POETRY FINALISTS

Big thanks to Round One CYBILS judges Bridget Wilson, Sylvia Vardell, April Halprin Wayland, Ed DeCaria, Jone MacCulloch, Kelly Fineman and Anastasia Suen for their amazing work in the Poetry category! Here are the Sensational Seven finalists:

FOLLOW, FOLLOW: A BOOK OF REVERSO POEMS by Marilyn Singer, illustrations by Josee Masse, companion to Mirror Mirror, Dial Publishing

 FOREST HAS A SONG: POEMS by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, illustrations by Robbin Gurley, Clarion Books. My review here.

POEMS TO LEARN BY HEART edited by Caroline Kennedy, paintings by Jon J. Muth, Disney Hyperion. My review here.

PUG: AND OTHER ANIMAL POEMS by Valerie Worth, illustrations by Steve Jenkins, Farrar, Straus & Giroux. See my review.

THE PET PROJECT: CUTE AND CUDDLY VICIOUS VERSES By Lisa Wheeler, Illustrated by Zachariah OHora Atheneum

WHAT THE HEART KNOWS: Chants, Charms & Blessings by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Pamela Zagarenski, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

WHEN THUNDER COMES: POEMS FOR CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS

 By J. Patrick Lewis, Chronicle Books. See my review.

Congratulations to the poets, and thanks to the publishers for bringing out these fine books! The Round Two judges will consider these titles, and the winner will be announced on Valentine's Day. Woohooo!

Note: I've pictured the ones I have yet to read... and linked to my reviews of the ones I have. What a good year for poetry books! Also, I am attending a Picture Book Boot Camp later this month with author Lisa Wheeler. Fun!

GOODBYE SKY

What to say about my "sky" year? It's been AMAZING. Thanks to all of you who helped make it that way!

Every single day this year I've been aware of the sky in a way I never was before. It provided a focus for me, which is exactly the point of choosing One Little Word. The experience has brought me wonder and joy and beauty. Also: poems! And I learned a few things, too-- if the sky can change and change and change, and be beautiful ever which way, so, too, can we.

Soon I will begin again with a brand-new One Little Word. I've made my choice, and I'm excited... but sad, too. The good news is that the sky is good at waiting. It will be there whenever I turn my eyes that way. And I will. Often. I don't think that habit is going away.

Happy 2014, everyone!

RECIPE FOR A GOOD BOOK & OTHER POETIC NEWS

Can it really be the last Poetry Friday before Christmas?! Indeed. And then just one more Roundup before 2014. Wowza. Be sure to visit Buffy's Blog for the festivities!

It's been a busy week 'round these parts... and I've had the crud. Improving now, but feeling very behind! So I am going to use this opportunity to share some poetic goodness I'm more than grateful for:

1. I recently wrote poems on the topic of "what makes a good book." One called "Fishing for a Reader" was accepted for inclusion in a textbook, and the other entitled "Recipe for a Good Book" appears in the Utah Journal of Literacy.  Thank you, Terry!

2. Enter to win an autographed copy of THE SKY BETWEEN US:

Goodreads Book Giveaway

The Sky Between Us

by Irene Latham

Giveaway ends December 23, 2013.
See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

3. My poem "Coming to Terms" appeared at Womens' Voices for Change. This is a fantastic site. Do check it out!

4. My favorite pic from this week's visit to Forest Oaks Elementary in Chelsea, Alabama (taken by one of my favorite fellas):

Talk to the hand.... :)

5. I've written poems recently about Harriet Tubman and Barbara Johns. (Will share when they appear in the magazines!) Writing about history presents a unique challenge... how to stay true to the facts, but also include a surprise for the reader? For these two, I leaned heavily on metaphor. Hope it works. :)

THE GIFT OF SKY

Santa came early to our house this year! Here's what I received in the mail:

Don't you love those paper packages tied up with string?! They were gifts from my Winter Poem Swap partner Linda! (Shout-out to Tabatha for setting this up! It was my first time to participate, and I loved it.) When I opened the packages, here's what I found inside:

A blue sky scarf! Art made out of woven aluminum cans! And best of all: an original "SKY DREAMS" POEM!! Here it is close up:

Thank you, Santa Linda. I will treasure it always.

INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE JOURNEY

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit the every-generous and inspiring Tabatha at the Opposite of Indifference for Roundup. Her blog never fails to get my creative juices flowing!

Here in Lathamland, we've got life journeys on our minds. We've had our struggles recently, and I think all of us here are keenly aware of how the most we can claim is to be works-in-progress.

And since writing, for me, is spiritual practice, I turned to Pat Schneider's book HOW THE LIGHT GETS IN. It's an inspiring read... and nice companion to Jeannine's new book!

Pat Schneider's previous work, WRITING ALONE AND WITH OTHERS, is another one of my all-time favorite books on writing. And, many moons ago, I was accepted into the Amherst Writers & Artists program. It seemed like the perfect way to join two of my passions: writing and social work. I decided not to go the formal route, but I do practice many of the teachings introduced to me by Pat.

Today I'd like to share with you a poem that speaks to me right now:

Instructions for the Journey
by Pat Schneider

The self you leave behind
is only a skin you have outgrown.
Don't grieve for it.
Look to the wet, raw, unfinished
self, the one you are becoming.
The world, too, sheds its skin:
politicians, cataclysms, ordinary days.
It's easy to lose this tenderly
unfolding moment. Look for it
as if it were the first green blade
after a long winter. Listen for it
as if it were the first clear tone
in a place where dawn is heralded by bells.

And if all that fails,
wash your own dishes.
Rinse them.
Stand in your kitchen at your sink.
Let cold water run between your fingers.
Feel it.
-------------------------------

Something else on my mind: it will soon be time to choose a One Little Word for 2014! "Sky" has been such a rich and rewarding word for me that I'm a bit sad to leave it behind. Think of me, searching, pondering, considering.... what will your One Little Word for 2014 be??