Thinking of November

       I'm slicing with the Two Writing Teachers community today. It's always a pleasure to read what everyone writes about their lives.

Happy November!

        Here are a few of my favorite November things:

NOVEMBER NIGHT  - Adelaide Crapsey, inventor of the cinquainListen…
With faint dry sound,
Like steps of passing ghosts,
The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the trees
And fall.

          She may have titled it November, and I am thankful, but it describes our recent nights.

In November - picture book by Cynthia Ry.ant and Jill Kastner

             It's time to re-visit this beautiful book, today on November 1st. Rylant reminds us of the beauty of November. Don't miss finding and reading or re-reading.

It's Random Noodling's Poetry Friday

            Come welcome November at Diane Mayr's Random Noodling. I'm sure you're find delightful poetry when you visit. Thanks for hosting, Diane!

            Leaves fill our lives in autumn, and this one in Colorado has been particularly spectacular. We've had only a few days of cold weather, and the next cold snap is coming after this coming weekend. Time for coats and scarves and gloves, but still scuffling through leaves, or when a wind blows up in part of the day, the leaves rearrange themselves, and fill my porch, too.

          Here's another "leafy" poem, one a little more somber for this month of November. I nearly shared a full moon poem for that beauty last night, but the leaves again overcame me.

Leaves
              by Elsie N. Brady

"How silently they tumble down
And come to rest upon the ground
To lay a carpet, rich and rare,
Beneath the trees without a care,

           The rest is here, on a poetry/quote site.  Scroll down a little; it's after the Shakespeare quote.

Poets Disagree About November

   Poetry Friday Can Be Found and Savored this week at Tabatha Yeatts: The Opposite of Indifference

     A favorite poem of the autumn season is an old one, by Thomas Hood from the mid 1800’s.  It is  titled NO! and can be found at All Poetry.  At that site, I discovered that Hood also published a shorter version of some of the lines from this poem and titled it November, found at PoemHunter.  Even after some research, I could not find which poem came first.  One could argue either way, I suppose.  Perhaps Hood wrote the shorter one, then expanded it.  Or he wrote the longer one, and decided to shorten it for some particular reason.  I’ve loved the poem NO! for years, find it clever and easy for young students to enjoy.  For some parts of our country, this is definitely the weather in the eleventh month of the year.  For us in Colorado, not as much.  We still have our days with NO sun, but not very many.  Here are the first lines of the poem November.

No sun - no moon!

No morn - no noon -

No dawn - no dusk - no proper time of day.

No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,

As I write this, it is sunny and the weatherman predicts 60 plus degrees.  Colorado weather is mostly lovely, but not always, so I intend to enjoy this contradictory day as much as possible.  Our November is often lovelier than the poet Thomas Hood describes.  

On the other hand, a poet special in my eyes and still writing today is Cynthia Rylant, whose words in the picture book In November create lovely pictures worth illustrating, as is done so beautifully by Jill Kastner.  In Rylant's opinion,  trees are standing all sticks and bones.  Without their leaves, how lovely they are, spreading their arms like dancers.  She believes also that Food is better than any other time of the year. And that food has an orange smell.  Even the ending, a blessing of sorts on winter, is sweeter and more optimistic compared to Hood's persistent "NO'S".  

I still enjoy Hood's poem every year, however, but also love Rylant's book.  The poem by Hood is pragmatic instead of nostalgic, and tongue in cheek instead of sentimental.  There is room for both kinds of poetic response in my world of favorites.