POETRY FRIDAY ROUNDUP

A POETRY FRIDAY ROUNDUP LIMERICK*

There was an old lady from Denver,

With a P Friday Roundup to tender,

She tried and she tried,

But her tired body sighed,

So on Saturday, the roundup did ender.

* with apologies to the REAL poets in the crowd!

POEMS FOR FATHER'S DAY AND SUMMER

• Sara Lewis Holmes (Read, Write, Believe) offers a tribute to her brother on Father's Day with e.e. cummings, "my father moved through dooms of love." 
  
• Karen Edmisten shares Seamus Haney's, "Digging," a portrait of his potato farmer grandfather.
• Our friends at Stenhouse are in with a beautiful Walt Whitman poem, "On the Beach at Night."
• It hasn't gotten too hot yet in Colorado, but if you are feeling a little warm, you will want to check out Mary Helmrick's "Hot Summer Nights," brought to us by Beth at Stone Arch Books. 
• For a little more sunshine, travel over to Blue Rose Girls to read Frank Asch's "Sunflakes," posted by Elaine Magliaro.
• Smell summer with Debbie Diesen's original poem, "Mowing."
• Take another mini-vacation. Stand by a river with Tiel Aisha Ansari's  beautiful "Osprey Circles."

ORIGINAL POEMS

• Wow, wow, wow! If you want to inhale a metaphor, check out Miss Erin Marie's poem, "Chasing White Rabbit."
• Julie Larios at The Drift Record has also drawn on a few fairy tales in her new list poem, "Counting Song." This very talented lady shares not one but THREE original poems today.
  
• Gregory K. throws in a little mathematics with his "Search Fib." The "Fib" is based on the Fibonacci sequence (think back to high school algebra). Gregory's is a "search fib" because he used words that had drawn people to his blog.
• Every week I tell myself I'm going to participate in Laura Salas' 15 word poetry challenge. I never quite get the job done, but I sure admire the variety and brilliance of the poems that pore in. This week's poems are in response to a photo of dominoes. 
• Take along a couple of tissues when you read "Recital," Kelly Polark's poem for two voices. It made this mom get a little choked up.

POEMS BY OTHER POETS

• Like all of you, I've been more than a little troubled by the images coming from Ir*n. "Freedom," posted by  Color Online was a perfect read for today.
• The way poet Jean Garrigue's  puts together words in the poem, "The Grand Canyon" is almost as breathtaking as, well, as the the Grand Canyon. Thanks to Muriel at "The Write Sisters" for sharing this poem. 
• Kelly Fineman shares Shakespeare's "Sonnet 30," along with a really in-depth analysis. If you have not been following Kelly's Shakespeare series this month, treat yourself. I've learned more from Kelly this month than I did in all of my high school and college literature classes.
• Little Willow is also in with a little Shakespeare, Act Four, Scene Five, from HAMLET. 
• John Mutford offers "Noah" by Tom Dawes, and I think about all of the kids I knew/know who struggled to fit in as kids, but are inordinately successful, creative, wonderful adults.
• Laura Shovan (Author Amok) gives us Shirley J. Brewer's "Shoe Blues," a hilarious commentary on what I unaffectionately call "Short Occasion Shoes."
•  After you are done laughing, wander over to Jama Rattigan's blog for a clothing cultural commentary, Kenneth Koch's "You Were Wearing. " 
• Jules (7 Impossible Things Before Breakfast) shares "A Small Dragon" by Brian Patten . I could see myself  pairing this poem with "If You Are a Dreamer" by Shel Silverstein or with Eric Carle's book, DRAGONS, DRAGONS.
• Pour a cup of coffee, then listen to Ted Boss read, "This Morning in a Morning Voice." I'll be thinking about the line "drowned in more than my fair share of joy" for a while. Thanks to Tricia (Miss Rumphius Effect)  for sharing this beautiful "small moment" poem!

BOOK REVIEWS

• Diane Mayr (Random Noodlings) introduces Jane Yolen's newest picture book, MY UNCLE EMILY, about Emily Dickinson.
  
• Then check out Lee Bennett Hopkins' newest offering, INCREDIBLE INVENTIONS, reviewed by Elaine Magliaro (Wild Rose Readers).  The kids I know will love these poems about the origin of kitty litter and straws and velcro!
  
• And while we are talking about books we know kids will love, you have to check out Fran Manushkin's THE TUSHY BOOK, reviewed by Liz at A Chair, A Fireplace and a Tea Cozy
•  Kurious Kitty. introduced me to a new to me poet, Jim Harrison. I want to go looking for his book, THE SHAPE OF THE JOURNEY, this weekend.
• April Halprin Wayland (Teaching Authors) shares five favorite poetry books, including Calling The Doves—El canto de las palomas by Juan Felipe Herrera, which sounds like a book I definitely need to know.  Be sure you read all the way to the bottom of her post where she includes an original poem about reading, (poems AND reading-what could be better???), then try the poetry writing challenge.

AND A FEW MORE…

• Tabatha describes her offering as a "poetry grab bag." She could  have also called it a smorgasboard- a little Pushkin, a little Lucy Maud Montgomery, and a little twitter poetry. 
• Sally at Paper Tigers wonders about children writing poetry. 
• David Elzey wonders whether the old Burma Shave ads might provide a "template" for poems on Twitter. As someone who doesn't have lots of interesting stuff to Tweet (how many different ways can you say, "I'm driving my kids somewhere" or "I'm sitting at a sports practice waiting for one of my kids?"), I'm gonna try it. (A side note: Mary Ann Hoberman is doing some really clever twittering as "KidsPoetLaureat"). 
• Sylvia's Poetry Suitcase, (Poetry for Children) sounds like a really fun way of making poetry real for children. I think I will use this idea the first week we are back in school.
• Mary Lee (Year of Reading) has a quote from Elizabeth Berg's newest book. It's not about poetry, but it's definitely too good to miss. 

Think that's everyone. If I left anyone off, it was totally accidental, so just email me and I will fix it. Thanks for participating in Poetry Friday! See you next week at Crossover!