My Poetry Door

This is the poetry door in my office. That's my oldest grandson on the calendar. Sweet boy! While the door doesn't go anywhere special (a closet filled with odd jackets and dresses and random office supplies), I love to stand in front of it and let a word or a phrase or an image draw me beyond what I see to that deeper place where my spirit responds to Beauty.

The yellow strip on the left came from a poetry friend earlier this spring. It's called "Introductions" by Susan Glassmaker. You can read the poem here.

The Hagar the Horrible cartoon came from my husband. (Frame 1 - Hagar's wife: Men may work from sun to sun, but women's work is never done!  Frame 2 - Hagar takes a swig from his mug.  Frame 3 - Hagar: And yet you have time for poetry!)

At the top right is my winter swap poem from Tabatha Yeatts.

Bottom left is my summer swap poem from Margaret Simon.

The most recent addition, my second summer swap poem at the top comes from one of my dearest poetry friends, Irene Latham. I love the daring, adventurous spirit that resides under that quiet, unassuming exterior! And of course I love her poetry. We had a discussion this spring about nonets. I gravitate toward counted syllable poetry, (perhaps its the puzzle aspect of it) and had been writing nonets from the top down (line 1 - one syllable, line nine - nine syllables). I must have known most websites referred to them beginning with nine syllables and working down, because I posted one like that here.  I have no idea why I tried the reverse, but I found that I liked it, as you can see here.

It was fun to read Irene's poetry swap poem for me, a nonet beginning with one syllable and counting down. Her note said she's still not sold on the one syllable beginning, but her poem was perfect.

Nonet for the Journey

for Doraine

Shine

weary 

traveller!

Though storms may shake

dreams from the rafters,

fly with the precision

of cottonwood fluff in spring.

touch down for a moment, a year,

two hundred years. Love the imperfect world.

© 2016 Irene Latham

And you were right, Irene, it IS pronounced

no·net

nōˈnet/

noun

1. a group of nine people or things, especially musicians.

   • a musical composition for nine voices or instruments.

     
     

     Nonet A nonet has nine lines. The first line has nine syllables, the second line eight syllables, the third line seven syllables, etc... until line nine finishes with one syllable. It can be on any subject and rhyming is optional. line 1 - 9 syllables line 2 - 8 syllables line 3 - 7 syllables line 4 - 6 syllables line 5 - 5 syllables line 6 - 4 syllables line 7 - 3 syllables line 8 - 2 syllables line 9 - 1 syllables

     Tara hosts the round up today at A Teaching Life.

Irene Latham

"Imitation is not just the sincerest form of flattery - it's the sincerest 

form of learning."— George Bernard Shaw

Welcome to Day 6 of FEET IN THE CREEK.

For each day I have chosen a favorite poem, a favorite poet, or a favorite friend. I will look at the work, decide what draws me to it, what makes it resonate for me, and then write my own poem about the creek with those techniques in mind. These are first drafts, so nothing will be especially polished, but they will be starting points for revision after the month is done. Feel free to follow along or join in.

Today's poet is my dear friend, Irene Latham, who truly does live her poems. Check out Irene's website here. Read reviews of her recent books of poetry for children here. Stop by her blog, Live Your Poem, to follow Irene's poetry project this month: ARTSPEAK! 2016: "Gardener's Companion."

Artwork by

Mique Moriuchi

from Fresh Delicious


CORN
by Irene Latham


I don't know
why

they call it
an ear

when
I see

rows
upon rows

of tiny
noses.

© Irene Latham, 2016. All rights reserved. Used with permission of the author.

My Intention: Write a one sentence poem with very short lines that sees something from a new perspective.

Spring Shower

Drops fall
and form

kaleidoscopic
circles

that dance
on the surface

but underneath
it's just

rain on
the roof.

© Doraine Bennett, 2016. All rights reserved.

Pigs and Poetry

Saturday was my daddy's birthday. He's 84. My two oldest grandkids were here for the weekend, so we all took him to breakfast. My nine-year-old grandson ate and ate and ate. We watched and waited and laughed at the amount of food he consumed. My daddy, who grew up in the backwoods of northern Alabama, finally said, "He eats like a fattening hog." Then he went on to describe the process of penning up a hog in a small space with all the food he can eat. That hog just eats and sleeps and wakes to eat again.

So where is this going here in National Poetry Month?

Bloggers all over the Kidslitosphere are filling the feed buckets with poetry offerings this month.

And I'm happy as a hog in slop. Yeah, I grew up in the South, too.

I'm still in recovery mode from my frenetic last few months of work, so I don't have the energy to write a poem a day, a haiku a day, or give you a poetry pointer a day. I just want to sit in the pen and partake of the abundant offerings. Just eat and sleep poetry for a month.

So, if you stop by my blog this month, I'll direct you to the trough I'm enjoying at the moment. By the end of the month, we'll all be poetry fat and happy.

Start your week with a Poetry Party. Head on over to Live. Love. Explore! where the ultimate hostess, Irene Latham, knows how to throw some poetry around. Irene is the poetry editor at the Birmingham Arts Journal, as well as a wonderful children's author. She'll be offering poetry quotes, trivia, craft tips, publishing resources and free books all month long. Don't miss this one.

Back to Daffodils

This weekend I finished another one of the scripts for the reader's theater book I'm working on, so I gave myself permission to do some fun things as a reward.

I finished Irene Latham's fabulous first novel, Leaving Gee's Bend. If you haven't read it yet, go straight to the store and buy a copy. Irene stopped by my blog a few weeks back to talk about the book. You can read the interview here.

After that, I worked in the yard for a few hours. Moved a couple of rose bushes. Yes, I know. I should have done that in January, but I couldn't brave the cold and my shoulder was hurting too much back then. I moved a hydrangea and planted a new variety that my nephew brought a few weeks back. And I planted a couple of basil plants in the same spot the tomato plants refused to grow last year. It looks like good dirt. And I added a little fertilizer, so maybe they will flourish.

Then I wandered around my yard and enjoyed the daffodils. Who knew there could be so many different kinds!








The single spindly ones, the orange-centered ones, the double ones, and the whites.




And there are the lilies-of-the-valley blooming alongside.

It was a good weekend. Now it's time to get back to work. Seven more scripts to finish and a deadline to meet.

Interview with Irene Latham

My sweet friend, Irene Latham, has agreed to answer some questions about her brand new middle-grades novel, Leaving Gee's Bend. Irene describes the book as "heart-touching tales of unexpected adventure." Irene's own journey discovering the quilts of Gee's Bend and writing her book was an adventure, too.

Tell us a little bit about Ludelphia Bennett, your main character.

Ludelphia is ten years old and only has one eye that works. But her other eye is always on the lookout for color -- because it might be a bit of cloth she can put into her quilt. She loves stitching more than anything. And she loves her mama, too.

Talk some about the setting of the book.

The story is set in 1932 Gee's Bend, Alabama, which is just southwest of Selma. It's a tiny little community that's tucked away in a curve of the Alabama River. There's only one road in or out, and it's forty miles long. So it's remained pretty isolated throughout its history. And it's populated by descendants of slaves, who, at the time of our story, are sharecroppers.

What curriculum ties have you identified for teachers who would like to use your book in their classroom?

I created a book discussion guide (available at my website www.irenelatham.com) with ties across the curriculum: language arts, social studies, math, music, art. The quilting component combined with the historical element makes for rich, accessible material.

Have you developed teacher helps or extended activities for classroom use with your book?

In addition to the book discussion guide I created, an activity guide created by Frankie Germany, a Mississippi teacher, is also available at my website. It has activites presented in a tic-tac-toe squares, and students are asked to choose three activities to complete the tic-tac-toe puzzle. Again, the activities presented span the curriculum, with activites such as creating a story quilt, designing a new book jacket, writing an acrostic poem.

Can you give us examples of what you might include in a school visit focused on Leaving Gee’s Bend?

I will present my first school program in Flint, Michigan, later this week. My presentation includes a powerpoint with actual research documents: Farm Security Administration photos taken by Arthur Rothstein, quilt images, and newspaper scans. I've also written two of the scenes as Reader's Theater and have some artifacts to share, such as a 1930's quilt, cotton bolls, a sack dress.

Would you share some highlights of your journey from the glimmer of idea to published book on the shelf?

First and foremost would be that life-changing day when I first viewed the quilts of Gee's Bend at the Whitney in New York City. After that, I really didn't set out to write a novel -- I was just feeding my obsession with everything Gee's Bend. So, a couple of years later, when I found myself writing story snippets set in Gee's Bend, it felt like something I was meant to do all along. Moving through the writing process, I had a huge breakthrough when I switched my manuscript from third person to first person -- finally, there she was, Ludelphia, a living breathing girl. Other highlights include seeing the cover art for the first time, viewing the dedication page in galley form, and reading letters from a group of students whose teacher read the ARC to them. It's such a feeling of connection, of coming full circle, to enter the life of a reader and to jointly experience a piece of literature that for so long existed only within myself. It really is the very best part.