Poetry Friday: "From a Country Overlooked"

Kiesha at Whispers from the Ridge

 has this week's round-up of poetic goodness. 

Inspired by all things summer-esque,

she gifted us with a wonderful "Summer Song."

I almost included this poem in my Spiritual Journey First Thursday summer post yesterday. However, by the time I included my musings and pics, the post was long enough. So I saved the poem for today. And I was delighted to find it in the Writer's Almanac archives. Here's a taste of "From a Country Overlooked" by Tom Hennen. Click on the poem's title to read the entire poem.

"There are no creatures you cannot love.

A frog calling at God 

From the moon-filled ditch

As you stand on the country road in the June night.

The sound is enough to make the stars weep

With happiness."

NPM 2017 Day 7: Three F's for Poetry Friday

My book spine poem for NPM 2017:

She walks in beauty

A jar of tiny stars

Awakening the heart

Open the door

House of light 

Pass the poetry, please!

For day seven (and letter f) of my alphabet stroll for National Poetry Month, I dip into my poetry collection to share a haiku of three favorite poetry books.

Falling down the page

for the good of the earth and sun

firefly July.

• Falling Down the Page:  A Book of List Poems edited by Georgia Heard - An invitation from the introduction, "After you read a few of these list poems, I bet you'll feel inspired to write one of your own.  Think about your day.  Jot down what you notice.  And let your (list of) words fall down the page."
• For The Good of the Earth and Sun:  Teaching Poetry by Georgia Heard - From the back cover and Lucy McCormick Calkin's forward, "This book is deep and alive and important because it comes not from desk work and dusty theories, but from childhood worlds, love affairs, lifetime fears, long summers in a New Hampshire cabin, and Saturday mornings in sunny New York bookstores.  It has grown, layer by layer, out of all (of Georgia's) life."
• Firefly July:  A Year of Very Short Poems selected by Paul B. Janeczko and illustrated by Melissa Sweet - My much-loved copy was autographed by illustrator Melissa Sweet when she spoke at Western Washington University's 2016 Children's Literature Conference.  This anthology of poems features poems through the seasons, beginning with spring.  It includes poets writing today for children as well as poems by older poets who wrote mostly for adult audiences showing that good poetry has no age boundaries .  A delightful collection, my copy is filled with sticky notes that peek out the top and sides of the book.  

There's a lot to think and write about this month and I had totally forgotten that today is Poetry Friday.  

Head over to Irene Latham's blog, 

Live Your Poem for this week's

round-up of poetic goodness that includes

Irene's line for the progressive poem

and her Artspeak:Portraits poem.  

Thanks, Irene, for hosting this week!

Poetry Friday: One Today

Head over to Carol's Corner

for this week's roundup of poetry love.

Thanks for hosting, Carol!

I haven't posted much to Poetry Friday recently, but I love stopping by and becoming familiar with new poets and poems through your posts.  I just had to stop by today and mention a new favorite book of poetry, One Today by Richard Blanco.  It's the poem he delivered on the National Mall for Barack Obama's inauguration for second term as president of the United States.  The book is illustrated by Dave Pilkey.  I shared it last week when I substituted in 8th grade Social Studies classes.  It was fun to see how many students in each class recognized the illustrator's name, Dav Pilkey (illustrator of the Captain Underpants series).

I'll borrow these words from the front flap to describe this delightful new book, "...a lush and lyrical, patriotic commemoration of America from dawn to dusk and from coast to coast."  It was my second day with these 8th grade students, some of whom I had taught as sixth graders.  In every class, the students were stirred to applaud at the end of the poem.  I love every single page, but two in particular are favorites.

The two page spread of cars, trucks, and people wending their way home through a plum dusk with these words:
"We head home: through the gloss of rain or weight
of snow, or the plum blush of dusk,
but always - home,
always under one sky, our sky."  

And the final two pages offering these words of optimism against a blue night sky filled with stars:
"Hope - a new constellation
waiting for us to map it,
waiting for us to name it-
together."

If you haven't seen this book yet, head to your favorite indie book store tomorrow (it's small business Saturday) and purchase two copies, one for yourself and one to give away!