Friday, September 23, 2011

Cleaning House and Discovering Old Poems


I’ve kept myself busy lately. I’ve been spending as much time as possible with my adorable little granddaughter Julia Anna. I hate to be away from her for more than a couple of days. She seems to change by the hour. (She's grown two inches and gained three pounds since she came home from the hospital. She's also started to lose her hair.)


I’ve also been busy cleaning house. Actually, I’ve been cleaning my basement. When I took a year’s leave of absence from my teaching job in 1999 so I could return to school and take library media courses, I brought home bins of educational materials. When I retired from my school library position in 2004, it took me the entire summer to bring all my books and library resources home. I threw little away at first because I was still teaching a children’s literature course at Boston University. Now that I’m completely retired, I felt it was time to get rid of things I don’t need that have been cluttering up our basement. I’ve thrown away hundreds of old educational and library review journals, classroom activities and curriculum units that I had developed over the years, and various and sundry other things.

One great thing that has happened while I've been cleaning house is discovering old poems, parts of poems, and rough drafts of poems that I had forgotten about. I had stuffed them into bins that I stored on shelves in my basement a long time ago. I didn’t even recall writing most of these poems and poetic tidbits…on my typewriter.
I thought I’d post some of these "newly discovered" poetic items for Poetry Friday:


UNTITLED

Oh, to be a bird and sing
And wake the apple blossom spring.

Oh, to be a bird and rest
My feathers in a treetop nest.

Oh, to be a bird and fly
And brush my wingtips blue with sky.

Oh, to be a bird and see
The whole world spinning under me.


LIMERICK

There once was a snail who could climb
Up Jack’s beanstalk—if given the time.
     Upon reaching the tip—
     Well, he started to slip
Down the stalk on a river of slime.


MOON MAGIC

Here I am—
The man in the Moon—
Shining my bright
Sky face.
Here I am—
The night wizard,
Alchemist of light—
Changing the sun’s fiery gold
To cool silver.


POND LILIES

Lily pads pressed
on the water,
their shiny leaves
overlapping,
stitched together with
needles of sunlight,
stretch across the pond:
a small green sky
alight with
petalled stars.


ICICLES


From the eaves
icicles hang—
a crystal fringe
sequined with sunlight.
The sun’s yellow fingers
loosen their snowy stitches,
rub their glassy skin
until
bit by melting bit
they lose themselves
in the snow,
leaving their tracks
in a tidy row.

I haven't decided whether I should do more work on these poems--or just put them back in platic bins.

********************

Anastasia Suen has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Picture Book of the Day.

Over at Blue Rose Girls, I have a post titled Banned Books Week: Jonah Goldberg Claims It's Just ALA Propaganda.

14 comments:

david elzey said...

funny how some of our old writing "finds" us. i have an old computer full of writing that i keep thinking "one of these days i'm going to boot it up and see what's in there."

all of these are great, but i think i like the limerick best.

Elaine Magliaro said...

David,

I found so much stuff that I had forgotten about. Some poems were written more than twenty years ago! I still have a lot more bins to go through. Wonder what I'll find in them!

Anastasia Suen said...

What a cutie she is!

Thanks for participating in Poetry Friday this week!

:-) Anastasia

Linda B said...

Your granddaughter grows cuter by the day, as mine does. They are delightful aren't they? I'm happy you can see her so often. Your poems showed your humorous look at nature even after all this time. I enjoyed them all, perhaps the bird looking from above the best. Thank you for digging and sharing.

jama said...

What fun to discover forgotten poems. I like the first bird poem best, especially, "And brush my wingtips blue with sky."

Thanks for sharing more Julia Anna pics :)!

Tara said...

The photographs were lovely - and that limerick made me smile! Good thing yyu came upon these treasures!

GatheringBooks said...

I was so taken by the photos of the lovely lovely baby! So pink and so beautiful.

I like how (as David puts it) our 'old writing 'finds' us' - and somehow it rolls differently in our tongue, its taste and nuance subtly comforting yet strange given who we are at present

Tabatha said...

How fun to spend time with your granddaughter, and to find your old poems! Wonderful wordplay you have in them :-) I wouldn't put them back in bins if I were you.

My youngest child and I come up with stories together at bedtime and "beanstalks" are our recurring motif, so I will have to share your limerick with her.

essay writing said...

So pretty cute baby!

Linda B said...

I've named you a Versatile Blogger. Check it out!

Elaine Magliaro said...

Thanks to all for your comments about my newly discovered poems.

*****

teacherdance,

Thank you. I'll check it out. I've been spending a lot of time lately visiting with my little granddaughter and helping out with her and with meals. My husband's been doing some chef work too. On Sunday, he cooked up a pot of fish chowder and made pizza from scratch. Yum!

I haven't been blogging as much because I've been away from home so often--but I'm having sooooo much fun. I love being a grandma!

Linda B said...

I will miss you blogs not being out so often. But I agree that being a grandparent is very, very nice. Your granddaughter is beautiful. I love seeing how she's changing already.

Anonymous said...

Definitely do more work on these poems .... but not much. They are beautiful. Your granddaughter is beautiful. Speaking as a grandmother of 4, they are the moon and the sky. Poetry and grandchildren; "what a wonderful world."
Rebecca

Rebecca Kai Dotlich

Anonymous said...

I haven't decided whether I should do more work on these poems--or just put them back in platic bins.

--- My previous comment was in answer to your question :) Went back today to make sure the post went thru, and thinking I should have made that clear -- So I meant of course work on them and or just get them out, as opposed to putting them back in the bins! R