Welcome! Poetry Friday Is Here!

 

             

• "A smile is a welcomed sight that invites people in."
• 
  
• Do you feel me smiling? I am, because I'm delighted to welcome you to this Poetry Friday, two days before the first official day of Autumn.

Want to know what Poetry Friday is? Here is an explanation that Renee LaTulippe shared on her blog, No Water River, 

          Many of you know that I am the Volunteer Coordinator at a non-profit used bookstore run entirely by volunteers. Except for a few "new" books we purchase, every book in the store has arrived through donations. It's an amazing and wonderful place. In addition to those donations, some interesting things come in the boxes of donations and in the books, too! Sometimes, there are postcards, special notes, and photos. Other times, we find lots of sticky notes, boarding passes, receipts, playing cards, and certainly bookmarks from bookstores everywhere.  

          One thing recently left in an older book, not a bookmark, was a pressed leaf. And, I've kept it, imagining who kept it, when and from where. So I have it on a shelf, remembering the time I created a leaf book when I was a child, excited for the coming season.  I know many of you are, too, a time of change and beauty as we say our goodbyes to another beloved season of sunshine and lazy days and vacations. 

Clock Watching

 

Summer yawned before us in June.

We leapt into time spent our way,

with neighborly talks,

July outside walks

at the shore enjoying the spray.

 

Days filled with flights or blue highways, 

picnics with family and friends.

Gardens are growing

because we are knowing

how quick summer slips to its end.

 

Earth at its maximum tilt

brought hours full of buttery sun.

Yet weeks circle by,

now we give a sigh

at the signs summer’s had its full run.

 

Linda Baie ©

A Reminder - Here is the #PoetryPals challenge for next week, the last of September!

             Poetry Peeps! You’re invited to our challenge for the month of September! Here’s the scoop: We’re wandering through Wallace Stevens’ “13 Different Ways of Looking…” at something. Maybe it’s not 13 ways – maybe it’s only seven. Maybe it’s not a blackbird or anything alive, but something inanimate. Whatever happens, your way of looking will be different than mine, and I’m here for it. Are you in? Good! You have a month to craft your creation and share it on September 27th in a post and/or on social media with the tag #PoetryPals.

Leave your links below!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Poetry Friday - Goodbyes Made Sadder

It's Poetry Friday, and Buffy Silverman is hosting HERE on her blog by the same name.  She is giving us a delightful peek at her new book, which is coming out next week! See the cover above! Don't miss it! Congratulations and thanks for hosting, Buffy!

              I wrote this a few days ago, before Wednesday, September 4th. It's not a happy post, but I thought many of you would like to know the poem my husband chose to be read at his funeral. He passed away eleven years ago on September 4th, a day I won't forget, though I will also remember the good memories of our life together for many years. 

          Now, with the grief of missing my husband, I am also filled with sorrow for those whose loved ones died Wednesday. And, I am angry that our country cannot make changes, especially to protect our beautiful children and also adults who have left their loved ones way too soon. You know the arguments, all of them.   

             The poem is The Long Boat by Stanley Kunitz  Here, on his 100th birthday, he is reading it.

      The Long Boat

When his boat snapped loose
from its mooring, under
the screaking of the gulls,
he tried at first to wave
to his dear ones on shore,
but in the rolling fog
they had already lost their faces.
Too tired even to choose
between jumping and calling,
somehow he felt absolved and free
of his burdens, those mottoes
stamped on his name-tag:
conscience, ambition, and all
that caring.

        the rest is HERE

Poetry Friday - Goodbyes

          This first Friday of September, Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong hosts this Poetry Friday at their blog, Poetry for Children. Thanks, Sylvia and Janet! I have also been watching the hurricane news, wishing a good outcome for all those in this community. It is heart-breaking to see the news of those in the Bahamas. 

          This past Wednesday it was six years since my husband, Arvie, left us. I still want to tell him things, ask him questions, be with him. My life is as good as I can make it, but I've never stopped missing him. I, with Arvie, have raised children of which I am so proud, who have chosen loving spouses whom I love being part of our family. And many of you know because of them, I have three special grandchildren. 
         Time is fleeting. We all know that. Thoreau touches me with this quote: "“Time is but the stream I go a-fishing in. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains.” ~ “Where I Lived, and What I Lived For,” Walden 
          Here's a poem I originally wrote for Carter, my oldest grandchild, now in his first year at college. I've changed it a bit to include the grand-girls, too, now ten and eight. I've written more than one poem about them, call them "goodbye" poems, trying to capture them at certain ages before that time flies away!
         When I am with them all, I wish Arvie could see the children growing up, and have fun with them as I know he would have if he were still here. He was a wonderful husband, father, and grandfather.

at the beach - June 2019

         Sometimes Goodbyes

Oops, it’s time. I must depart

     from these kids who stole my heart.

     Now, they’re looking very tall;

     some never play with toys at all.

     I remember they used to be

     the ones who sat and read with me,

     and held my hand as we walked along

     and listened while I sang them songs.

     I also know though nearly grown,

      they’re still the little kids I’ve known.

Linda Baie ©

Poetry Friday - Being Ready

              Poetry Friday this final one in May is hosted by Margaret Simon at Reflections on The Teche! Thanks, Margaret, for sending us off into summer!

Photo- Linda Baie

        I spent many years saying goodbye in Continuation Ceremonies and with speeches to my students. I taught gifted middle-school students in an independent school and our continuation ceremony felt as important as high school graduations, though not quite as big. Usually, in my speeches to the students and the guests in the audience, I shared a poem, hoping they could take the wise words of a poet on with them. I'm thinking of all of you who are saying your goodbyes to your own grown-up children or students today, sharing the beautiful and wise words of William Stafford. 

You Reading This, Be Ready

Starting here, what do you want to remember?

How sunlight creeps along a shining floor?

What scent of old wood hovers, what softened

sound from outside fills the air?

Will you ever bring a better gift for the world

than the breathing respect that you carry

wherever you go right now? Are you waiting

for time to show you some better thoughts?

When you turn around, starting here, lift this

new glimpse that you found; carry into evening

all that you want from this day. This interval you spent

reading or hearing this, keep it for life -

What can anyone give you greater than now,

starting here, right in this room, when you turn around?

~ William Stafford ~

     Thank you to all those who have served our country. I appreciate each one who has stood in harm's way for us.

#SOL17 - 31/31 - Poetry Friday Too!

 


         #SOL17 31/31 I'm writing for the March Slice of Life challenge with the Two Writing Teachers community for Day Thirty-One of Thirty-One.  Thank you, Stacey, Beth, Deb, Betsy, Lanny, Kathleen, Lisa, and Melanie for helping us all arrive at THE END! I appreciate all that you have done to make the challenge a success. Happy Tenth Anniversary!



If it's the end of March, then it's also time for April and poetry month. Today on Poetry Friday, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater hosts us at The Poem Farm, a place I love to visit.

Endings today and preparation for beginnings. 

For those poetry Friday people, and others who may want to continue with poems in April:  "It is not every day that the world arranges itself into a poem"  That is what happens in April, regardless of the weather, regardless of where you live, April is Poetry Month. 
       
       My goal for Poetry Month: TINY THINGS. My point of view may surprise you, but I'm excited to write, share, and read everyone else's goals for celebrating poetry month. See you tomorrow!

Poetry Friday - Goodbyes

             Doraine Bennett at Dori Reads hosts Poetry Friday today. Be sure to visit this week’s poetry links.

         I love Linda Pastan's poetry, and imagine many of you know this poem. Yet, this is going-back-to-school time, and whether you have a little one going off to Kindergarten, one starting high school, or going to college for the first time, even the second, this particular poem speaks to a kind of separation most can relate to. It's a separation needed and strived for, but so hard too. Even teachers know about this at their "ends" of school years. 

         Wishing everyone a delightful school year for those young people in your lives.

To A Daughter Leaving Home

When I taught you

at eight to ride

a bicycle, loping along

beside you

as you wobbled away

on two round wheels,

        the rest is HERE.

photo credit: 234A4033.jpg via photopin (license)

Slice of Goodbyes

           I'm slicing with the Two Writing Teachers community today.

          Thinking of this school year ending and saying goodbye to students is both a celebration and a grief. Even as teachers are tired, and ready for rest, they still wish "just another week, another conversation, another book shared, another hug". I hoped good things for students at the year's end, for the summer near and the future far. And this year I am not saying goodbye, but still remembering the goodbyes. I thought those of you in the classroom would enjoy one of the poems I used and gave the students on the last day. It fits them, you, me--treasured words. 

As you journey through life,

      choose your destinations well,

      but do not hurry there.

      You will arrive soon enough.

      Wander the back roads and forgotten   

            paths,

      keeping your destination

      like the fixed point of a compass.

      Seek out new voices, strange sights,

      and ideas foreign to your own.

      Such things are

      riches for the soul.

      And if, upon arrival,

      you find that your destination

      is not exactly as you had dreamed,

      do not be disappointed.

      Think of all you would have missed

      but for the journey there.

      and know that the true worth

      of your travels lies not in where

      you come to be at journey’s end,

      but in who you come to be

      along the way.

     

            anonymous

Slices - Goodbyes

          Slicing with the Two Writing Teachers community is a pleasure every week.  Thanks to Stacey, Tara, Dana, Betsy, Beth and Anna!

          I guess this whole past year has been a kind of goodbye. I've known since it began that it would be my last year, but when I started I never dreamed that I would end with one final group of students, back in my original classroom in this building.  I said goodbye today as I finished up clearing out the room. I still have some things that I will need help moving out, stored in my office, but the classroom is free for the teacher who will make it hers next. She is a teacher already at school, moving into teaching the oldest students, and I know she's thrilled for this next challenge in her teaching life. I wish her wonderful times, just as I had. The classroom already has many supplies and books and tables, etc., but now she gets to arrange and re-arrange (as we all do) until it feels just right for her and her class. 

Sometimes Slices Are Goodbyes

            Thanks to Stacey, Tara, Dana, Beth, Anna and Betsy and all this blogging community for the Tuesday Slice of Life!  Looking forward to the SOLSC, and this time with my class! If you'd like to connect, I would, too! My colleague Max is also slicing with his class, for the second year!

Aunt Carol and Aunt Barb-my mother's sisters

            Sometimes slices of life are moments to mark for sad reasons. I received a call last night from my brother, telling me that my dear Aunt Barb, in a nursing home for a few years with Alzeimer's, was dying. A few hours later, she left us. All those stories and memories still are here with me, her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, and the rest of my family, especially cousins. I wrote about her a few years ago and am going to repeat those words here. She was a most special aunt, the last of five siblings to go, my mother's sister. Everyone needs an Aunt Barb.

Goodbye School

          Poetry Friday is hosted today by Carol Wilcox here, at her blog, Carol's Corner, welcoming summer days with a beach trip! Happy Travels, Carol!

             Thursday was the final day of school for our students, and while all of them and all of us staff are ready for a break, there were tears too. Here's a goodbye I imagine from a student or a teacher.

Outta Here!

Goodbye pencils

and lined paper,

friends at recess,

game creators.

Farewell teachers

and homework lessons.

They must leave us to our summers-

assignments lessened.

The Hardest Goodbye

 Visit the Tuesday Slice of Life at Two Writing Teachers.  Tweet at SLICE2013! 

     One of the biggest challenges of the Slice of Life is to write and share something very personal, yet for all of you who are part of my life in mostly online, but personal, ways, I think I must. I want to share all that is my life with you and the following story is part of my life.        

      I’ve written about my husband nearly all the time I’ve been blogging.  We have been married 48 years, have two children and their spouses and three grandchildren.  We’ve had a large extended family through all our marriage, a wonderful group of grandparents, parents, aunts and uncles, cousins and their families, etc.  And we count our blessings in the numerous friends both near and far. We have celebrated together and grieved together all the years. 

            And now I must grieve once more. 

End of The Year Goodbyes

            Ed DiCaria of March Madness fame, at ThinkKidThink is our host today!  I'm sure it will be a fabulous party!  Thanks Ed!

           I've written earlier about my collection of poems that say goodbye, and as we are now living the final weeks of this school year, It's time for another goodbye poem.  
          When I taught my own class, I either wrote or found a goodbye poem that I copied and laminated to give to students on the last day of school.  Since I am working in a class these final weeks for a teacher who has needed to leave early, I thought I'd do this one more time for this class.  This is a poem I wrote a while ago, but fits well because they will all be leaving this particular class this year, moving into other classes. 

My Poems of Goodbyes - 22/31

           Greg at Gotta Book is hosting Poetry Friday today.  Thanks Greg for all the funny moments on your blog!

The March Slice of Life Challenge-
                            Thanks to Ruth and Stacey, at Two Writing Teachers - 22 of 31

Tweet at #Slice2013

              Round Three of the March Madness Poetry Competition is upon us.  Please go read the fabulous "sweet sixteen" poems, vote for your favorite if you haven't already, and give compliments in the comments to all.  Ed DiCaria is working hard to make the event challenging and KNOWN.  I had fun while I lasted, was excited to be included in the first sixty-four, but alas, disappeared quickly in the first round.  Maybe next year!

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I’ve continued to create poems for a personal project that speak of different ways of looking at children (mine, others, and grandchildren, too) growing up.  It is a series of poems at different stages in a life, essentially saying goodbye each time.  I hope to put them together into a book with pictures of my grandchildren (now 11 ½, almost 4, and 18 months) and children at the particular stage I am describing in the poem.  Part of this comes from my talks with my daughter, the children growing and changing so quickly.