A Taste of Dickens for our Times

Happy Autumn

         It’s a pleasure to be your host for Poetry Friday this week.  I’m always so excited to see what poetic gifts each of you offers.  Please add your links in the Inlinkz at the bottom of the post. 

        You may know that I volunteer at an all-volunteer-run used bookstore, and I have recently stepped down as the volunteer coordinator, but I'm still in charge of donations. We review them each Thursday, reject some, and shelve the others. We are grateful that they keep coming in, in large numbers, every week.

         Recently, an older set of nearly all the novels by Charles Dickens was donated. As I placed them in our classics section, I began to wonder if I could use the titles for a poem? This frustrating and actually frightening time in our country has taken up much of my time, and I am working to help the organizations that are fighting back, who are not accepting the changes being enacted. Thus, Dickens and my, perhaps nutty, imagination!

What I brought home!

What The Dickens?

If I could use The Pickwick Papers, being picky, 

I would write that these are Hard Times, 

though I continue to hold Great Expectations 

in spite of our recent world feeling like a Bleak House. 

This involves more than A Tale of Two Cities,

and it is not any of Dickens' Christmas Stories!       

Each morning I rise to face news of people 

appearing to live in the halcyon? days of Martin Chuzzlewit, 

some, or none claiming that man is Our Mutual Friend. 

He’s only The Haunted Man, filling us with something 

never To Be Read at Dusk, Time to check out

 The Mystery of Edwin Drood. You'll understand.

                                                                           Linda Baie ©

If you're wondering, these are Dickens' books I didn't use:  The Chimes, The Cricket on the Hearth, The Old Curiosity Shop, Oliver Twist, Barnaby Rudge, Dombey and Son, David Copperfield, and Little Dorritt.

       

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Poetry Friday - Remember Summer Pleasures

    It's Poetry Friday, and Jama Rattigan is hosting HERE on her blog, Jama's Alphabet Soup and celebrating her 18th blogiversary! Congratulations, Jama, and thanks for hosting on this special day!

             

             Well, It's been a while since posting and I'm excited to be back, but most excited to read all your posts. I want to try to catch up a bit with everyone's lives and spectacular creativity, which I have so missed. 

           I didn't have the pleasure of a trip to the beach this year. I'm sad to miss the ocean, have been somewhere "on a beach" every summer for a lot of years. There was just too much going on for the family to get together for a week. When I saw this book at the library, it filled me up a little. Esther Freud has written the story of a family who lives at the beach in poetry, and it's about year-round pleasures, illustrated by Emma Chinnery, who shows the joys of every time of the year, even when there's snow on the sand!

        One lovely double-page spread!

                And our own kite-flying day. This time, it's my daughter who's flying!

The Weeks Behind and Ahead

   It's Poetry Friday, and Tabatha Yeatts-Lonske is hosting HERE on her blog, The Opposite of Indifference. She's sharing special words from Laura Purdie Salas, a call for what we all need! Be sure to get over there to read Laura's poem! Thanks for hosting, Tabatha! 

             

           In the news of the terrible, life-altering flooding this past week, in Texas first, then in New Mexico as well, I saw heartbreaking stories of losses that felt unimaginable. Yet, I also saw many stepping up to help, to support, to search, and to give what seemed needed at the time. Recently, I read the final book, created by Jerry Pinkney and completed by his son, Brian, after Jerry's passing. The book was written by Sascha Alper, and I thought of it as I watched those whom Mr. Rogers told us to look for, "the helpers." 

        Here is my review: 

         Everyone in our world has something to offer, perhaps a small thing, perhaps a large one, but in this extraordinarily poignant story, Sascha Alper tells us that what each one of us does matters. When Jerry Pinkney passed away, he left his sketches for this book, and his son, Brian, completed it. The illustrations swirl as readers see the action of a hummingbird carrying "The Littlest Drop", trying and not giving up to put out a fire. Other animals watched, amazed, knowing it would do no good, and told it that. The hummingbird replied, "I'm doing what I can." What happens next from others will bring a few tears, also a learning, that working together brings success that one might not imagine, until one begins to "do what one can". It's truly special, and perhaps even more needed in these demanding times. There are notes from Sascha Alper and Brian Pinkney at the back.

           Thoughts

May we tell the day backwards?

That time of fun,

Of loving hours when

Laughter reigned.

No memories shaken?

I hear dishes clinking at dinner,

Maybe a story told 

By old and young.

A few yawns noticed.  

Heading for bedtime,

 

If Wishes were horses,

You know the answer,

So we do what we can

To hug and bring relief,

Say thanks for those 

Who have one more day.

 

          Linda Baie (c) 

 

Poetry Friday - Taking The Leap

  It's Poetry Friday, and Mary Lee Hahn is hosting HERE on her blog, sharing her own shout-out on Independence Day. How can I NOT return after months away, except for the Progressive Poem, after reading Mary Lee's call for us to care for our country! 

             

        I know I've missed some of your news, both happy and sad, and I am sorry for that. I spent three-plus months in a lot of pain, managing only regular things needed, holding up for some crazy times when my body was not reacting in usual ways, my plumbing problems meant watching my entire backyard dug up, and my car hit and needing repairs. I kind of lived on Advil! 

       It was a time, until finally, finally, I saw a rheumatologist who diagnosed me with what is called PMR - a disease in 'mostly' older people that attacks the muscles. Whew! I haven't taken any medicine except vitamins, etc., for a long while. Now, Prednisone has been my saving grace. The pain is gone; I'm back to doing what I want to do, knowing that the hurt in the world still has been, is being, so much harder than I had. Still, I am grateful for the modern medicine world that has so helped me. 

      It feels like serendipity that you, Mary Lee, are our host today, because I am thankful for one more thing that buoyed my life during the hard days, a postcard sent last year, sitting to greet me every day as I walked into my workroom.

       

      Now, for all of you, too, take Mary Lee's words, and know that not only can we "do hard things", but we must, for our country, our families, for everyone who is in need!

You watch the news

can never look away, and must

do whatever is possible: write, call, donate, then shout

hard words at those who want our silence

things will change by our protests, our action

                  Linda Baie 

A Journey Near Its End: Welcome to Day 27 of the Progressive Poem

                                             

       Welcome to Progressive Poem 2025, Day 27! Hello everyone! I've loved being on this special journey with you, offering a respite from my challenges through visiting a garden full of wonders, and a mystery of what we find next.

        Irene Latham began the Progressive Poem and hosted it from 2012-2019. Those archives of the poem can be found HERE! Margaret Simon took over in 2020, and those archives are HERE!

        Here are the rules:

The poem passes from blog to blog.

Each poet/blogger adds a line.

The poem is for children.

       Each blogger copies the previous line exactly as written, unless permission from that poet has been given. They then add their own line, offering an introduction if they wish. 

        Here is the poem thus far, nearly the end of our adventure! I'm following Michele Kogan,  whose words inspired me to paint the sky! My line - at the end!

    Open an April window

    let sunlight paint the air

    stippling every dogwood

    dappling daffodils with flair

Race to the garden
where woodpeckers drum
as hummingbirds thrum
in the blossoming sweetgum

Sing as you set up the easels
dabble in the paints
echo the colors of lilac and phlox
commune without constraints

Breathe deeply the gifts of lilacs
rejoice in earth’s sweet offerings
feel renewed-give thanks at day’s end
remember long-ago springs

Bask in a royal spring meadow
romp like a golden-doodle pup!
startle the sleeping grasshoppers
delight in each flowering shrub…

    Drinking in orange-blossom twilight            

    relax to the rhythm of stars dotting sky         

    as a passing Whip-poor-will gulps bugs         

    I follow a moonlit path that calls us               

                                        

   Grab your dripping brushes! 

    Our celestial canvas awaits…

 There we swirl, red, white, and blue

     Now passing on to Pamela Ross!

And, here is the list of those who have written and who are about to write!  

 

April 1 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
April 2 Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect
April 3 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge
April 4 Donna Smith at Mainely Write
April 5 Denise at https://mrsdkrebs.edublogs.org/
April 6 Buffy at http://www.buffysilverman.com/blog
April 7 Jone at https://www.jonerushmacculloch.com/
April 8 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
April 9 Tabatha at https://tabathayeatts.blogspot.com/
April 10 Marcie at Marcie Flinchum Atkins
April 11 Rose at Imagine the Possibilities | Rose’s Blog
April 12 Fran Haley at Lit Bits and Pieces
April 13 Cathy Stenquist
April 14 Janet Fagel at Mainly Write
April 15 Carol Varsalona at Beyond LiteracyLink
April 16 Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm
April 17 Kim Johnson at Common Threads
April 18 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
April 19 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page
April 20 Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading
April 21 Tanita at TanitasDavis.com
April 22 Patricia Franz 
April 23 Ruth at There’s No Such Thing as a Godforsaken Town
April 24 Linda Kulp Trout at http://lindakulptrout.blogspot.com
April 25 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe
April 26 Michelle Kogan at: https://moreart4all.wordpress.com/
April 27 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
April 28 Pamela Ross at Words in Flight
April 29 Diane Davis at Starting Again in Poetry
April 30 April Halprin Wayland at Teaching Authors