Poetry Friday - More Than A Lucky Penny!

                                                       SPECIAL NOTE! I work at the bookstore every Thursday afternoon, so I will not be here until about 7pm (mountain time). I hope all goes well, and will check the Inlinkz from time to time. 

           Welcome, welcome, to Poetry Friday, one week until spring, a Friday, the thirteenth! Are you prepared to face any superstitions? I remember one of my grandfathers, wise in many ways, was very attuned to his own. I know that if one finds a penny, it's good to keep it in your pocket for good luck. When I was young and there seemed to be lots of clover in our yards, my friends and I spent time looking for four-leafed clovers. And lately, the bookstore was painted and ladders were everywhere. Did I walk under any of them? NO! 

        On one Friday, the 13th a long time ago, I shared a poem of superstition if you'd like to read it! Find it here!

        I am not ignoring the terrible things happening in our world; they feel as if they're always on my mind. I'm rarely looking forward to the morning's news, but I don't look away, start there each morning, reluctant or not. And, I work to find one something I can do to help. From Ben Franklin, to have said "We must, indeed, all hang together or, most assuredly, we shall all hang separately.” at the signing of the Declaration of Independence, I take my inspiration. 

          This, however, is not about 'knocking on wood' to make things better. Whether they are our enemies or allies, someone is missing loved ones. 

the rain

like teardrops falling

from one cloudy sky

filled with angels 

 

Linda Baie ©

          

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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 - Make A Choice

 Welcome to Poetry Friday! 

         FYI - I will be at the bookstore until 6 pm, often don't get home until close to 7. Will start reading in the evening!

I'm looking forward to your posts!

         Though I'm posting this on Leap Day, it's time to "March" on! When I signed up for this date, I thought I would write about spring. Yet, with the continuing turmoil in the world, I thought I'd prefer to write about choices. How are you choosing to change the world, perhaps only in 'your' world? It's hard to see the many needs and wonder if one little person can affect them. I imagine ripples spreading when one stone is thrown. Is it true? Can one stone make a difference? I hope that it can!

created by Linda M.

        

Acrostic Moment

 

Could you take a moment now,

Hasten to own a world of wishes 

Overlook the list--laundry, dusting, working late--

Install ‘be kind’ and ‘listen well’?

Could you look beyond and fasten

Everyone’s lives to part of yours?

 

          Linda Baie ©

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Poetry Friday - The End is A Beginning

 

      Welcome to Poetry Friday! I hope you are all doing well. Leave your links below! 

         Yes, time for BACK TO SCHOOL and Yes, I have seen a few leaves yellowing, dropping on the green grass! Wishing those of you who are so, so busy with your first days (weeks?) starting and hope it has been terrific and not too hot, or that the rain has disappeared from Tropical Storm Hilary. It's been near 100 all week here in Denver, and some schools do not have AC. I remember the challenges from years ago in my classrooms. 

from Vecteezy.com

  

          New and next! My grandson is off to find work, next steps for heading to PA school. The older granddaughter is starting high school; the younger one is starting middle school. I'm thinking of transitions for each, and for students I received in my own classes, termed "Advanced School", the middle-schoolers. Even as old as I am, finding time for self in any kind of play feels like a gift.

Resistance

 

This early adolescent spring, 

this theater of boys,

shows one grown tall, grabs one more fling 

with his old friends, his toys.

 

He plays and plays, barooms around, 

hoping no one hears the sound.

The only other life around

are buzzing bees, like thoughts he found

that reach into the boy’s ears.

He sits and listens to his fears

that all the future coming days

won’t be like all the grown-ups praise.

 

He only wants his monster truck, 

a track of dirt, a time to play,

the growing up, another day.

                             Linda Baie © 

       Wishing you all a great weekend, writing, reading, fun with family and friends or simply "be-ing"!

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Free Stock photos by Vecteezy

Poetry Friday is Here! Welcome!

 

Welcome to the first May #PoetryFriday

And, Happy Cinco de Mayo!

photo from Vecteezy

published in 2019

       I've been reading this book on and off for months. I read a few poems and then move to other poetry books I have. I put stickies on the pages of poems I especially love. Recently, while trying to choose what to do for today, I found one of my favorite poems, "Small Kindnesses" by Danusha Laméris, in the New York Times. Note that this poem was published in the Times in September of 2019, only a few months before March, the US month of lockdown.

You can read the beginning here:

I’ve been thinking about the way, when you walk
down a crowded aisle, people pull in their legs
to let you by. Or how strangers still say “bless you”
when someone sneezes, a leftover
from the Bubonic plague. “Don’t die,” we are saying.
And sometimes, when you spill lemons
from your grocery bag, someone else will help you
pick them up. Mostly, we don’t want to harm each other.

                                    and the rest here.

        In that year of 2019, it seems that even then, there was need for all of us to be kind. My car was hit recently by a driver who ran a stop sign, in a rather quiet neighborhood. More than one driver slowed and offered help. Though my son-in-law came fairly fast, I was grateful that even strangers tried to give me comfort.

       And then, in April of 2022,  the times posted still another article saying this: "After more than 1,300 teenagers told us about the small kindnesses they appreciate, the poet Danusha Laméris wove their answers into verse."  You can read that collaborative poem here. 

           Here are a few of the beginning lines:

"Kindness is neighbors saying “Buenos Dias”

It’s the man in the red shirt helping the woman in the floral blouse cross the street. 

It’s the way my heart sings when I’m smiling at a baby, and their mom notices and lifts up the baby’s sweet little hand and waves it at me.

A friend patiently waiting as you quickly tie your loose shoelaces, while everyone continues walking.

A slight buzz in your jean pockets indicating messages from friends appearing out of the blue, questioning how you might be feeling that day, written in text abbreviations, the shared teenage experience.

Getting woken up at my bus stop."

           As you've already seen from my sharing up above, in what seems like such troubled times, even though we have made it through most of the Pandemic, I thought it would be nice for us to create our own "kindness" collaboration. It was a huge pleasure to create the Progressive poem created first by Irene Latham, then now managed by Margaret Simon. Let's do it again, with non-fiction "small kindnesses".

        If you leave something you notice in your special world, I will collect them and share next week.

          We know how much poetry helps us all in all kinds of ways! I hope you enjoy the words that Danusha Laméris has brought to us today. 

                            

HAPPY MAY!

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Welcome to Poetry Friday - Welcome September

 

          Yes, green grass with yellow leaves, more are coming! Welcome to Poetry Friday everyone, September's beginning. It's twenty days until autumn! Click on the link below to add your posts.

      For all those starting anew: "The vision must be followed by the venture. It is not enough to stare up the steps–we must step up the stairs." ~Vance Havner

    Our lives hold numerous thresholds; from youngest to oldest, starting can be exciting, daunting, happy, and sad. This time, I'm thinking of schoolchildren who wonder so much before that first day.  Do you imagine the first day's morning?

     I am not a great artist but I do like trying to sketch once in a while, thus my attempt from my imagination about that first day with all ages beginning again! Enjoy your Friday and the weekend!

Tick-Tock

 

See the afterglow

on students’ faces,

sunshine souvenir

from the neighborhood pool.

So long silly races with 

splashy-ends,

relentless fun,

their vacation run.

 

Hear the sighs

as they keep the swing-along,

goodbyes up the stairs

to summery songs.

Open doors await

to enter and then

they hop the threshold

to begin again.

 

Linda Baie ©

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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 - Costumes Welcome!

 

The night was dark, and devilish, too, 

when out of the night,

a scarecrow flew, 

he landed at the corner of Scared and Brave,

shouted "Welcome All to the Halloween parade!

                                                           Linda Baie ©

                                        

I always look forward to hosting near Halloween. This year seems like a wonderful night will happen. Last year I was sad that it really didn't happen. I took some goodies to neighbor kids whom I know and they peeked through their door to wave, costumes on.

           This year, the young boy next door showed me he had created a frightening cape with bloody streaks he had painted on himself! Big grin! It will be a fun night to see what everyone wears.

My poem mixes Halloween with my own undertone of politics and women's rights. I am inspired by those women who amuse us with their smiles and nods and then go ahead and do the right thing for all of us and do it with great skill.

On My Front Porch

 

Jill O’Lantern stared as she contrived 

a contest with a skeleton just arrived,

envisioning the apathy of the fright  

he would give to youngsters Halloween night.

 

She knew she’d given her life for this,

one ghostly night full of hair-raising bliss,

but also knew she had to think it through

as Bag O’ Bones rattled for his cue.

 

When given a breeze, his screaming yaw

and clacking bones would break the law

and scare the pants off every child,

making Jill’s grin seem too, too mild.

 

Bag O’Bones stooped to smile and greet,

whispering nothings that were not sweet,

knew he held an ace, a wily key

to win the shocking HATE trophy.

 

He’d carry it on to another place

leave without friends, without a trace.

Jill felt pleased to light her smile

till she was heaved to the compost pile,

 

joining friends with happy faces

partying on from the garden places.

Old Bag O’ Bones’ could do his feat

But Jill remained a grinning treat.

                                 Linda Baie ©

Happy Halloween!

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#PoetryFriday - Spring Dress Rehearsal

       Welcome to the Spring Dress Rehearsal - Spring is Saturday!  

        Yes, waiting, waiting and then we really did have snow. The weather people were scrambling with the 'why' of the snow being so late. This picture is early Saturday. I wanted to show those sprouts to prove that spring is on its way. The BIG snow arrived overnight and all day Sunday!

           Most everyone was talking about time this past week, what 'time' people first heard about Covid-19, what 'time' they decided that it was going to be a serious threat to our lives, what 'time' did they first have a friend with the virus, how long a 'time' did it take to actually see anyone, friends or family? Perhaps other important questions are "When will we stop talking about the virus?" and "When will it really be spring?" (Daylight Savings Time change also arrived this past week. I'm not sure anyone is asking about that.)

            I have a little sign I bought long ago at a shop in Concord, Massachusetts after spending the day at Walden Pond with my students. It pleases me and perhaps it will please you, too, especially since March, 2020. Are you fishing in a Thoreau kind of way?

             Welcome to Poetry Friday where words wait to entertain, educate, and blast you with emotion -- the big three E's!

                      Like Clockwork

 

 Albeit time is but an abstract thought;

 

Seldom is the minute that can be bought.

 

We count it, and kill it, and watch it pass,

 

Then try to save it, and cannot, alas!

 

We turn it backward, and forward spring it,

 

Waste it, clock it, coordinate it.

 

Time heals, time marches, we yearn for more.

 

Though time lies heavy, there is a time for

 

everything. In the blink of an eye,

 

once in a blue moon, old rules do not apply.

 

Linda Baie ©

 

          Thank you for joining us today. Add your post below to Inlinkz! I will be at the bookstore where I volunteer, home about six, mountain time. Hope everything works for you as you add your links! (The link goes live at 2 pm Mountain Time.)

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Poetry Friday - Hearts Are Everywhere

 Happy Valentine's Day 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 and am happy to share some old-fashioned Valentines given to my mother-in-law years ago. 

         

Poetry Friday - A DEFINING Moment

Hi Everyone, and welcome to Poetry Friday. Leave your links below and enjoy a special day of poetry!

         Irene Latham wrote me a few weeks ago to ask if I'd like to help reveal the cover of a new book coming in February 2020. Of course I shouted "YES!" and here we are, getting ready to welcome autumn on Monday and today a marvelous new book by Irene Latham and Charles Waters, illustrations by Mehrdokht Amini.  

         All kinds of dictionaries come into the world. When I researched to find the first, I found that in 1604, the first book generally regarded as the first English dictionary was written as Robert Cawdrey, a schoolmaster and former Church of England clergyman. Yet, other sites give different names, ones you will recognize, like Webster. However you look at it, our world is filled with books that want us to learn and grow with words! And that's how poets do their thing, right, with words! 

Two I found at the bookstore where I volunteer!

         As for a second way of communicating a concept, a story, a feeling, artists make art with the medium of their choice. That is where Mehrdokht enters the collaboration with Charles and Irene. She painted their words, helping to create a new kind of dictionary for children from her palette. 

       Here's the publisher description:

How can we make the world a better place? This inspiring resource for middle-grade readers is organized as a dictionary; each entry presents a word related to creating a better world, such as ally, empathy, or respect. For each word, there is a poem, a quote from an inspiring person, a personal anecdote from the authors, and a "try it" prompt for an activity.

This second poetic collaboration from Irene Latham and Charles Waters builds upon themes of diversity and inclusiveness from their previous book Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship. Illustrations from Iranian-British artist Mehrdokht Amini offer readers a rich visual experience.

         Sounds fabulous, doesn't it? Because the book is filled with inspiration to write and act, I asked Irene, Charles and Mehrdokht a question about their own actions. At the beginning, one might ask "What if?" as in "What if we do this?" or "What if this was added?" or "What if we did a _______?" When Mehrdokht began her work for the book, perhaps she asked: "What if I took each word and?" or "What if this time, using _______ would work?"