Poetry Friday - Seasonal Happiness

       It's Poetry Friday, and Susan is hosting HERE on her blog, Chicken Spaghetti.  If you're thinking of having lunch anytime soon, I suggest that you run right over to Susan's post and have "Lunch with Laura". A certain poet named David Moody has prepared it! Thanks for hosting, Susan!

        I know, I know. Autumn does not officially start until September 22nd, yet here at home in Denver, night is arriving sooner. It's dark in the morning when I rise, and some leaves are changing. . . And, of course, schools have started! It's a lovely time to be outside, glorying in the late-summer blooms. The cosmos and the black-eyed susans, among others, fill gardens, aiming to have the last laugh!

       Here is my response to the challenge from the Poetry Sisters to join them in writing ekphrastic poems. Thanks to  Tanita, Laura,  Mary Lee,  Liz, Sara, Tricia, and Kelly. Make sure to stop by and read their posts! Find more poems from this prompt tagged with #PoetryPals. 

Trees start their whispers:

“Hey, leaves, okay to let go."

‘Til next year, Summer.”

Cicadas applaud.

 

Linda Baie ©

  

Poetry Friday - More Love for Fall

         Poetry Friday is with Matt Forrest Esenwine, HERE at his website, Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme with some "preview" words of his new picture book, How to Be A Human.  Thanks for hosting, Matt!

        Over the years, I have shared poems I've written or those by others about fall. It's my favorite season, one that holds delightful things for us when we go out into nature every single day. Here's a poem I wrote a while ago, still true, still my celebration. The prompt was "forgotten"

a view out my front window

forgotten in July

tree blaze
leaf crunch
coat days
soup lunch
bird trek
bloom wilt
squash check
warm quilt
doors closed
brown lawn
cold nose
socks on
breath steam
snow shine
beach dream
cold –
fine
     Linda Baie © 

Poetry Friday - With #PoetryPals, gratitude

         Thanks to Laura Purdie Salas who hosts this Poetry Friday, at her blog HERE.  She shares some fabulous tankas about autumn for the #PoetryPals challenge. Laura also has a new book coming out: If You Want To Knit Some Mittens! You can see the trailer HERE! My granddaughter Imogene is an active ten-year-old, always taking extra time to climb, jump, and run. But she also knits. This book is on its way to her!

        A little celebration! I'm excited to return to the Cybils Award work this year as a Round Two Poetry Judge! What a pleasure it will be to work with a grand group reading and discussing poetry! The members of both Rounds can be found HERE. And then click on "Cybils" at the top to look around to view the posts of judges for all the other categories! There is also a call toward the top for the "Idea Boards", a place for suggestions. Nominations begin October 1st. 

It's the last Friday in September. I'm wishing happy times for autumn days to all of you! And, I've taken the #PoetryPals challenge, which Tanita Davis explains like this: 

          You’re invited to try our challenge in the month of September! We’re writing tanka in response to a poem we love from the Poetry Friday universe. Choose to respond to an original poem of any sort, from anyone who participates in Poetry Fridays – give us a link to the original poem, then go tanka-trading away, and make something tanka-true and new. Are you thinking of a poem you love? Good! There’s still time to play with your 5-7-5 creation(s), then share your offering with the rest of us on September 24th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals.

         First, I want to say that every Friday, everyone's posts bring joy. It's a big task to choose a favorite. Yet, I was watching last week especially and adored Michelle Kogan's post, and painting, because it celebrated fall, a season favorite. Thus, this is my poem for Michelle, in response to her post HERE with a rondelet! Thank you, Michelle!

it’s freely given

that palette from her garden,

transplanted to mine 

painted perfection escorts

an autumn-driven word song

 

                   Linda Baie ©

 

Poetry Friday - Out My Window

     Poetry Friday is hosted by Bridget Magee here at Wee Words for Wee Ones! She's offering smiles for us today along with a prompt and a poem about her favorite color, orange. And it's not political! Thanks for hosting, Bridget!  

These next weeks are going to be challenging, I imagine, for each of us. Best wishes in doing what you can to be kind to yourself and others. And VOTE!

I'm keeping my eyes on the important parts of life, out in nature this time of year is a blessing. Autumn is a falling inspiration! I found this in one of my notebooks and really do not know if I wrote it or I copied it from one of you! Nevertheless, I love its truth!

Out My Window  

 

windy days 

co-star with leaves –

dancing

swirls

around-the-corner

music –

melancholy

whirls

magical movies –

flirting

twirls

 

Linda Baie ©

Poetry Friday - One More

          Thanks to Carol, at Carol's Corner, for hosting Poetry Friday and sharing a wonderful new book about a special man and his special library. 
           I hope everyone had a good day of Thanksgiving!

          You may like to read this article about the origin of the poem form, The Golden Shovel. Or you might want to read the whole book by Nikki Grimes, out early this year,  One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance, "all" written in this unique form. 

          Instead of 'one last word', I have one last poem about autumn, using one line from Loss by Carl Adamschick.

The first line must mention the wind,
in November, master of the lifting
of the trees, naked without their leaves,
stretching out as they turn from
summer, intermingling branches.
Linda Baie © All Rights Reserved

Poetry Friday - Autumn WithThe Birds

        Poetry Friday is with Laura Purdie Salas today at Writing The World for Kids and she's sharing poetry from Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's new book: Read!ReadRead! Be sure to visit to get a little peek into this wonderful book and then click on all the other links to poetry posts!

O’ pumpkin pie, your time has come ’round again 

and I am autumnrifically happy! ~Terri Guillemets

        Nearly every month, Michelle H. Barnes has a guest who challenges us to write a specific poem. You can read about September's challenge from Carole Boston Weatherford here. My earlier poem was on Michelle's blog this week, a nice surprise, but I haven't stopped writing another. The abecedarian poems are challenging, but lots of fun, too! Thanks, Michelle and Carole!  

        Autumn's here, and birds are in the midst of settling or flying on to new digs. Here in Colorado, we've had a celebration of painted lady butterflies swooping everywhere, and we're still waiting for the snow geese who fly through on the way south. I love birds and try to spot what I can on nearby small lakes, hence this new poem!

Alphabetical Aves

           Amazing Birds, Cerulean-Dazed, Elegantly-Feathered, Geometrically-Hatched—

                  Ibis, Junco, Killdeer, Lark, Magpie, Nutcracker, Oriole, Pigeon, Quail—

                                  Random Selection Tallied Under Various Walkabouts--

                                                                Xylophonic Yammering Zealots!

                                                              Linda Baie (c) All Rights Reserved

photo credit: Bill Gracey 16 Million Views A Sky Full of Snow Geese via photopin (license)

Poetry Friday - goodbye autumn

Our Poetry Friday host today is Brenda Harsham at Friendly Fairy Tales. Thanks Brenda!

       If you'd like to read about a wonderful celebration, visit Michelle H. Barnes at Today's Little Ditty! What a lovely surprise on this day! 

"Autumn carries more gold in its pocket than all the other seasons." Jim Bishop

        We've had a beauty of an autumn this year. Long, long have been the warm days where we can sit outside, have no need of a jacket while raking leaves. It's November 17th and we had the first freeze and a few inches of snow. The record date for latest first snow is November 21st. The average lies in October. We will miss this time, the scuffling through the leaves, last blooms, last butterflies. I don't have a fireplace anymore so I cannot celebrate a first fire, but I can enjoy the soup I made in anticipation of this COLD day. My geraniums, bottom picture, are covered with snow.
         It's supposed to return to the fifties or sixties this weekend! We may have to wait a little longer for a goodbye to these "prosaic days". 

         I searched for a poem that might speak to a goodbye to the season, and chose this one by Emily Dickinson.

Besides the Autumn Poets Sing (131)

Besides the Autumn poets sing, 
A few prosaic days 
A little this side of the snow 
And that side of the Haze - 
  
A few incisive mornings -         
A few Ascetic eves - 
Gone - Mr Bryant’s “Golden Rod” - 
And Mr Thomson’s “sheaves.” 
  
Still, is the bustle in the brook - 
Sealed are the spicy valves -         
Mesmeric fingers softly touch 
The eyes of many Elves - 
  
Perhaps a squirrel may remain - 
My sentiments to share -
Grant me, Oh Lord, a sunny mind -        
Thy windy will to bear!

       Emily Dickinson

Celebrating Special Times

              I celebrate each Saturday with Ruth Ayres at Discover Play Build and the rest of the wonderful community that celebrates together. Come join us!          Tweet at #CelebrateLu
              Unlike others, I like the change in times, enjoy the wintery cold and dark, feel cozy and glad to be inside. I know that some have to work outside and sympathize with that work that is harder in winter dark, but still, I like it. This was the week to feel as if I was sleeping in, but wondering why I was so tired earlier in the evening than usual. And this week means we're closer to the holidays!. 

           Yesterday I shared a poem that has a line about these shorter days. I celebrate poetry that fills me up most every day. I take pleasure in the words. On The Shortest Days by Joyce Sutphen has this line: "Quickly the lights are appearing, a lamp/in every window and nests of stars on the rooftops." You can find all the poem here.
            There were a lot of good moments this week:

            Earlier in the week I went to Tattered Cover, our local wonderful Indie store, to see Elizabeth 
George, a mystery writer that I love. 

Poetry Friday - Autumn Encore

Katya at Write. Sketch. Repeat. hosts today's Round-Up of Poetry Friday links. Thanks for hosting, Katya!


         
For nearly everyone, it's been a glorious autumn. I'm taking liberty with a favorite poem by Karla Kuskin, Thoughts That Were Put Into Words, because some of the words fit so well. In the first stanza, she wrote:

    Thoughts that were put into words
     Have been said.
     The Words were then spoken
     And written
     And Read.
     Take a look and go on
     We are practically done.

Great Week To Celebrate

              I celebrate each Saturday with Ruth Ayres at Discover Play Build and the rest of the wonderful community that celebrates together. Come join us!          Tweet at #CelebrateLu

Discovered the last flowers of summer, or are they?
We have warm weather again in the next few days.

          What can be better than Halloween costumes? Oh my, they are so excited. Happy Halloween everyone.

SuperGirl-being serious and strong

Poetry Friday - Autumn Treasure

         Poetry Friday, that one before the ghouls and ghosts convene, is hosted by Jone Macullough  at her blog, Check It Out. 

       I hope you all have a Happy Halloween. I've had a lot of fun driving my granddaughters down special streets that are going wild with the decorating. Each one is unique in style; some feel that the creepier the better, and others choose the happy and fun Charlie Brown approach. It's going to be a busy Saturday night.
       However, this time of year is also one to celebrate every day as the tree leaves change and their colors shine. I've taken so many pictures, and managed one that sparked a poem. 

autumn leaves flutter,

promise spring butterflies -

the after-winter show

Linda Baie ©All Rights Reserved