Poetry Friday - Love Is In The Air

              Welcome! It's Poetry Friday, and I am happy to host you all this Friday, February 14th. Valentine's Day! However you celebrate, or not, I hope you hold some love for someone or something! 

        These thoughts began as I watched the Grammys this year. Aside from a few artists, I knew practically no one, and realized I have not kept up. My granddaughters tell me about songs now and then and the artists they love. I even listen to them, but I don't remember. I realize that I am so, so behind! I sat with them to watch the Super Bowl halftime show with Kendrick Lamar, and I did know about all the politics about him and Drake, and I enjoyed watching the dancers and what I perceived to be a message (maybe?), but still, I am behind!

       My husband was a crazy music buff. He directed musicals in college and eventually was the manager of a rock radio station in Kansas City, Missouri before we moved to Colorado. Because of him, I knew all the big stars and their songs, too; and all the years since, he's kept me informed because even in Colorado he kept up. We saw a few concerts with wonderful stars here, too. 

        Here's a gift he gave me one Valentine's Day, a very old song! If you'd like, you can listen to it HERE on YouTube! I imagine Linda Mitchell will love it, too!

      So I decided that since Love is in the Air today, I would write a poem from my playlist, songs I loved years ago, and still do. What titles would you use for your own playlist poem?  FYI - the title is a song by Billie Eilish, a recent title! (Trying to catch up!)

                 Everything I Wanted

 

I left My Heart In San Francisco, however,

When a certain someone said he would Love Me Tender

I had to love him back because I could Imagine

How he would Stand By Me, giving Respect that wasn’t

only Blowin’ In The Wind. 

Some days, there were Sounds of Silence for me, 

a Brown Eyed Girl, also Fire and Rain, 

yet we usually shouted Hallelujah to each other– You’ve Got A Friend. 

         When we were Leaving On A Jet Plane, 

Somewhere Over The Rainbow, we caught a Rocky Mountain High,

where lots of Baby Love happened.

Of course, that was Yesterday, and now 

I Try to Remember!

Linda Baie © 

FYI - I will be training a new volunteer Saturday morning so won't be able to read and respond to everyone, but I'll get to you later! 

Happy Valentine's Day!

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Poetry Friday - Love Is In The Air

   It's Poetry Friday, and Carol Varsalona is hosting HERE on her blog, Beyond Literacy Link. Thanks for hosting, Carol, and for all the love in your post!

     Carol is sharing many of the postcards from our card exchange, created and managed by Jone MacCulloch. Thanks to everyone for sending me a smile nearly every day. I'll share soon!

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

I've shared some of these antique Valentines I have from dear my mother-in-law, before. I adore them and found one more to show you. Helen, Miss Helen to her students, was one of those teachers who, after leaving high school, taught in a one-room schoolhouse in the 1920’s.  She rose well before sunup, saddled a horse, and left for the country building where her first duty was to start the fire.  Imagine those cold winter mornings! 

I love these special Valentines, quite different from the ones we see today, and I wanted to share one with all of you, too, as my Valentine's Day wish. 

Oh let’s make life

a jolly lark

A picnic if you

please.

And it will be just

this for me

If words you say

are these:

I Love You!

                                               Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone!

Poetry Friday - Welcome

 

Poetry Friday - Hearts Everywhere

 Happy Valentine's Day next Monday and welcome to Poetry Friday to celebrate our sweetest day where, yes, hearts are everywhere, even in Peeps. I find them all over my home. How about you? Do you have some reminders of love around your own home?

          This is part of a repeat of my Valentine's Post which I hosted two years ago. That was a few weeks before our lives changed in ways some still seem to fight against, our lives changed in ways we could not imagine then, perhaps do not remember the old ones now. There has been much sorrow since then, and yet, much love given. 

        A few of my favorite things: birds, sweet Peeps, finding heart rocks.

           

         I am in the midst of Cybil's judging this week. Be sure to look for the winners on Valentine's Day!  I decided to share some poems that feel full of love from an old book I've used before. This is the one I have to keep in a paper bundle because the leaves are so fragile, they're flaking off. 

         Enjoy your sweetest day however you wish but find some poetry to love, too!

the title page - that odd shape
in the middle is a leaf found
tucked inside - totally shriveled

  1896

Poetry Friday - Love Is In The Air

    Molly Hogan hosts our Poetry Friday today HERE at her blog, Nix The Comfort Zone. Do not miss reading her "Artist's Prayer" of gratitude for her "small cup of life". Thank you, Molly! It is beautiful!

    

 My most recent found heart rock!

          I am writing a poem every day in February with the group celebrating Laura Shovan's birthday. This is the ninth year! Each day one of us offers a prompt and everyone responds with a poem. This year, Laura has chosen the theme of the "body". Each day the prompts shared have been amazingly thought-provoking but the poems are written even more so. It's a joy to read others' words full of heartfelt feelings. Today, I'm sharing my response to Marilyn Garcia's prompt, My Skin, a song by Lizzo. You can watch it HERE. There's little better on Valentine's Day than to celebrate one's skin and everyone else's, too! Here is what I wrote:

How To Be In Our World

 

Go out into the world

some afternoon to find 

ways to honor the skin

of others, the dark and light,

the in-between. Go! Mutter

into the wind, “I like my skin,

and yours, and yours and yours!” 

Go home to think

how the blessed bounty of humans

needs noticing, then a listening

to all who live around us.

Spread out your feelings

in the grass; one by one

remember ‘who’ and ‘how’

and ‘why’. 

Let them stay awhile,

as you feel the stretch

of  ‘when’ and ‘where’ they rooted,

‘what’ it means to you now.

Can you celebrate? Not yet,

but a soft tug means you’re no longer

an old fool.

 

Linda Baie ©

           HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY WITH A BRIEFER MESSAGE FROM AN ANTIQUE VALENTINE

The whole world

   loves a lover

So they say—I hope

        it’s true,

‘Cause then the world’s

     in love with me

‘Cause I’m in love

           with you.

People Who Made A Difference

art by Sarah S. Brannen

          Visit Alyson Beecher on Wednesdays for Non-Fiction Picture Books at Kidlit Frenzy.  From her and others, you will discover and want to celebrate terrific nonfiction picture books!
           I can't argue with the Sibert Award winners because I haven't read any, sad to admit, and have only heard of one. You can find all the winners here in case you missed them. Congratulations to all the winners!

Also, Cybil's Awards will be announced today. I had a wonderful time discussing the finalists in the poetry category. Congratulations to them, too. 

And, Happy Valentine's Day!

       This book infuses some of the challenges faced by African Americans, especially women, during and after World War II, focusing on four black women who were very smart in math and wanted to help their country in ways they were so capable of doing. It begins with the work on airplanes during the war and continues through beginning computer work through the forming of NASA and the trip to the moon.  In Shetterly and Conkling’s text, the reader is introduced to the reasons these figures were hidden through giving some details of U.S. history of segregation and the Civil Rights movement. Freeman’s illustrations are boldly colored, like the cover. It's great to see a picture book story made for younger readers from the original book. There is enough information given to satisfy parts of this history and to spark interest in discovering more. Added information at the end includes a timeline of pertinent events, short biographies of each woman, a glossary, and an author's note.

             As Andrew Carnegie gained power, he acquired a greedy reputation because of his fight against the workers at his steel mills. However, this book focuses on his story growing up in a poor family, finally giving up and migrating to American. There as a fourteen-year-old, Andrew had to work to help his family, began as a bobbin boy in a cotton mill, twelve hours a day, small breaks for lunch and dinner. Wow! Slowly, he moved into more important jobs, and through hard work, he became one of the richest men in America. His story is briefly told, with emphasis on his first opportunity to spend time reading from a rich man's library. He remembered that, and later, as a wealthy man, began to spend his millions building libraries, the first in his birthplace, that small village in Scotland. Illustrations done by Katty Maurey are made in muted tones of few colors, interesting to see. Andrew Larsen has added additional information about Carnegie's legacy. 

Poetry Friday-Love Is In The Air

           Poetry Friday is hosted by Kimberley Moran at her blog, Written Reflections. This time, Kimberley shares her newfound love of hummingbirds and a beautiful book of poems that follow their life cycle. Be sure to visit to take a peek.  I imagine there'll be a more love shared today, two days before Valentine's Day. 

I've had fun this week writing for Laura Shovan's birthday challenge to found objects, and entered Susanna Leonard Hill's Valentiny story contest. Over a hundred have entered. Wow! And it was fun to give it a go. I wrote a poem/story you can read in yesterday's post. 

I'm sharing a favorite love poem from Chaucer today. Enjoy!  

            How to Write a Love Letter

            Don’t write too neat, and use a little guile—

            Let tear stains blot your words once in a while

            But if you find a word you think is clever,

            Use it but once, don’t harp on it forever!

            For though a harper were the best alive,

            And had the best harp in the world to play,

            And played it best with all his fingers five,

            If he but touched one string or sang one lay,

            However sharp his nails were filed away,

            His music would but make men dull and sad,

            And only when he stopped would they be glad.

                        --Geoffrey Chaucer in ‘Troilus and Cressida’

Poetry Holiday-For Me!

        Join all Poetry Friday bloggers at Cathy Mere's blog, Merely Day By Day, today. I have a winter break starting today, and after this past week of celebrating our big Expo of learning, I am ready. 

                          Valentine's Day, that day of red things: hearts, chocolate in foil, blushing lovers, lollipops, glitter...

Sweet Valentine Poetry Friday Here

Posting this late afternoon for the early birds. I will be out until later in the evening.

Welcome to sweet Valentine’s Day Poetry Friday:

A little laughter: 

I claim there ain't


Another Saint


As great as Valentine.
~Ogden Nash

A little sugar: “All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.”

― Charles M. Schulz

A little romance: Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs.  - William Shakespeare

And a few hugs from me!  Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone!

                

An old Valentine I've saved.

Sweetness for Valentine's Day

         Poetry Friday is hanging out with Laura Salas-Writing The World For Kids

                                                        If you love Valentines

                                                   and the sweetest of rhymes,

                                                please read these poems today  

                                                written in old fashioned ways!

      I had a wonderful mother-in-law named Helen.  She warmly welcomed me as a new daughter into her family.  Through all the years and visits, she and I had fabulous talks about just everything:  raising children as well as politics, people’s behavior along with town events, the virtues of hand-mixing batter or use of an electric mixer.  I never heard her say a bad word about others, nor did she complain about anything.  As they say, she kept a stiff upper lip, even in the most sorrowful times, like when her husband of many years died suddenly of a heart attack soon after he retired.  Broken dreams.  She was a kind woman who helped out at the church nursery well past seventy and continued to play the piano for church when needed until the last year of her life.  I loved her and still miss her.  She just made it into the 21st Century, after having lived almost all of the 20th.

My dear mother-in-law Helen was one of those teachers who, after leaving high school, taught in a one-room schoolhouse in the 1920’s.  She rose early, saddled a horse, and rode to the country building where her first duty was to start the fire.  Like that story told so eloquently by Charles Portis, she had grit.  And, as a true woman of her generation, she saved everything!  I am the proud recipient of many old-fashioned Valentines given to her (Miss Helen) by her students, probably about 1928.  I thought since we will celebrate St. Valentine’s Day next Tuesday, I would share a little sweetness with all of you. 

Here are photos of some, and the rhymes found inside are beneath.  Many are intricate, lacy, and pop out.   A few have been altered like little hearts have been cut out in them, and it’s clear that it was hand done.  You may be able to see which are the pop out ones, but photos did not show that very well. 

                                              Happy Valentine’s Day!

To my Valentine

      Your voice is like a

              song bird

The sweetest thing I’ve

         ever heard.

May you be always happy, gay,

And joyous, as you are to-day,

Is what my ardent hopes express

For you, my Love,

           and nothing less!

The whole world

   loves a lover

So they say—I hope

        it’s true,

‘Cause then the world’s

     in love with me

‘Cause I’m in love

           with you.

Dear Teacher,

Don’t overlook

This One

from

me

You’re my Valentine

‘Cause you’re sweet

as you can be.

I hope my heart will

     reach you

And be there right

       on time,

It’s just chock-full of

     loving thoughts

For you, dear Valentine.

Oh let’s make life

a jolly lark

A picnic if you

please.

And it will be just

this for me

If words you say

are these:

I Love You!

The Valentine I’m sending

Is sealed with kisses two.

Which I trust will reach you safely,

For both are meant for you.

Of all the girls I know

You are the very best.

To me you seem much brighter

Thank any of the rest.

Postman, handle this with care!

I’m sending my heart to a lady fair,

Who is an old sweetheart of mine

And I want her to be: My Valentine.

I think that I shall try a line,

I hope to catch a Valentine,

There’s only one I want, ‘tis true.

Oh! Can’t you guess that one is you?