POETRY FRIDAY: Ring Out, Wild Bells

 

My granddaughters want to wish everyone a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I find the following poem by Alfred Lord Tennyson most fitting to post at the end of 2017.

In Memoriam, [Ring out, wild bells]

Alfred Lord Tennyson, 1809 - 1892

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
   The flying cloud, the frosty light:
   The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
   Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
   The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
   For those that here we see no more;
   Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
   And ancient forms of party strife;
   Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
   The faithless coldness of the times;
   Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
   The civic slander and the spite;
   Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
   Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
   Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
   The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
   Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

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Heidi has the Poetry Friday Roundup at My Juicy Little Universe.

May 2018 bring better days ahead for all of us!

THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE A BELL: A Holiday Poem

My granddaughters on the day they went to take pictures with Sana

 

 

THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE A BELL

By Elaine Magliaro

 

Ride on a reindeer's harness.

Tinkle in the icy air.

Jingle across a Christmas sky.

Sing with a silver tongue.

 

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

 

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Buffy has the Poetry Friday Roundup at her blog.



THINGS TO DO IF YOU AN ALARM CLOCK: An Original List Poem

I got some great news recently. My book THINGS TO DO was named a Best Book of 2017 for Kids by the New York Public Library! Here are two links where you'll find the list of the NYPL's Best Books of 2017 for Kids:

BEST BOOKS FOR KIDS 2017



BEST BOOKS FOR KIDS 2017 (PDF)

In addition, Sammy Juliano of Wonders in the Dark wrote a wonderful review of THINGS TO DO. He thinks the book should be taken into consideration for a Caldecott Medal. I couldn't agree more. I love the artwork that Catia Chien did for the book!

CALDECOTT MEDAL CONTENDER: THINGS TO DO

Excerpt: Birds know well the consequence of missed opportunities and the likelihood of a second chance not availing itself anytime soon.  Magliaro implores our feathered friends to take full advantage of the unfaltering mantra, “Fist come, first served” by descending down to a lawn where feed has been offered up.  A delay will undoubtably result in other birds “seizing the day.”  When breakfast has been negotiated the poet advocates airborne tenacity:  Stretch out your wings on the brightening sky.  Morning’s upon us.  Get ready to fly!  Chien’s overhead capture is an impressionist gem, featuring the metaphorical image of a bird sporting the wing span and tail of an airplane in a now busy sky of many other airborne creatures evoking Richard Bach’s line from his famed 1970 novella:  “and the word for breakfast flock flashed through the air, till a thousand seagulls came to dodge and fight for bits of food.”  The artist makes lush use of saturated acrylic red and green projecting out from the flicked brown and tan cross strokes in a scene witness by the intrepid young girl and her inveterate canine.

For this Poetry Friday, I thought I'd post one of the poems that I had to cut from my THINGS TO DO manuscript:

THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE AN ALARM CLOCK

Don’t YELL at me!

Don’t DING-A-LING-LING

with a harsh metal voice

that makes my ears ring!

Don’t jolt me from my sleep

and start my day off wrong.

Sing me awake

with a soft morning song.



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 Here are two reasons why I don't have much time to blog these days. My girls keep me busy!

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Mary Lee has the POETRY FRIDAY ROUNDUP  over at A Year of Reading.