COOL POOL: An Original Poem

We’ve had some beastly summer weather in my neck of the woods this week. I’m not a lover of the heat. I much prefer the cooler days of autumn. I cope as best I can when the temperatures rise into the nineties.

Here is a poem I wrote many years about a child finding a way to cope with heat in summertime.

COOL POOL

The sun beats down.
It sears.
It scorches.
Sweating neighbors sit on porches
Sipping ice-cold lemonade
Waiting for the day to fade.
BUT
When I’m hot as steaming tea,
I stand beneath our maple tree,
Remove my sneakers, socks…and wade
Into a cool green pool of shade.

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Amy has the Poetry Friday Roundup at her wonderful blog Poem Farm.

PICKING STRAWBERRIES: An Original Memoir Poem

My husband and I became shareholders in a local organic farm this year. We’re happy about being involved in CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). CSA has become popular around these parts. We had been on a waiting list for two years.

Last Monday, my husband, daughter, and granddaughter went to Appleton Farms to pick our weekly barn share of farm produce. They also "picked-our-own share" from the garden. One item they reaped from the garden was a basket of strawberries. Yum!

With strawberries on my mind this week, I decided to post a childhood memoir poem about picking the luscious red fruit in my grandfather’s garden.

PICKING STRAWBERRIES

We pick strawberries

in Dzidzi’s garden,

snap their dark green stems,

finger their beaded coats,

and pop them

into our mouths.

We sink our teeth

into soft, sweet rubies,

little jewels bursting

with the flavor of summer sunshine.

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Super teacher Mary Lee Hahn has the Poetry Friday Roundup over at A Year of Reading.

ROOSTER: An Original Animal Mask Poem

I’ve mentioned many times on this blog how much I enjoy writing animal mask poems. I have quite a collection of them. A couple of years ago at the suggestion of two friends and writing advisers (Grace Lin and Janet Wong), I culled the poems about smaller animals that children might observe in their backyards or close to home--earthworms, frogs, spiders, butterflies, etc.--for a collection that I call Backyard Voices. I also began writing more poems about little creatures that most children are familiar with for the collection. 

In addition, I took the poems about bigger and/or boastful animals (grizzly bear, blue whale, lion, toucan) and put them in a separate collection tentatively titled Loud and Proud. As I was reading through my Loud and Proud manuscript this morning, I found a poem about a rooster I had forgotten that I had written. (I love finding forgotten poems!) Here it is:

ROOSTER

Cock-a-doodle-doodle-do!

The sun is rising. You should too.

Wake up! Wake up, sleepyhead.

Get your body out of bed.

Cock-a-doodle-doodle-do!

I bring the morning news to you.

It’s the dawn of a brand new day.

That’s something to crow about, I’d say!

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

The super blogger Jama Rattigan has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Alphabet Soup today.

JUNE: An Original Acrostic Poem

I feel as if I’ve fallen off the face of the kidlit blogging world. It’s difficult finding time to write book reviews and new poems to post at Wild Rose Reader when I’m away from home so much and so busy taking care of my granddaughter Julia—who will turn ten-months-old next week! 

Today, I thought I’d post an acrostic poem about June…as this is the first day of the month.

Just as spring grows weary, Mother Nature

Ushers in a brand

New season of sun and fun.

Everyone cheers for summer and the end of school.

P.S. Julia LOVES blackberries!

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The Poetry Friday Roundup is over at Carol’s Corner this week.

Jonas Salk: An Original Poem

Yikes! I haven't posted at Wild Rose Reader in over a week! I've been really busy lately. My attention has also become more focused on family—especially my little granddaughter Julia. I so enjoy being her “nanny granny.” Watching her change and grow is such a joy for me. I had the BEST Mother’s Day ever this year because I’m a grandma now. 

 Julia on Mother's Day

Here’s a picture of me on Mother’s Day with my daughter, my granddaughter, and my mother.

I’m still doing revisions on my Things to Do manuscript. I have a few more “things to do” on the collection. I think “final” revisions can be the most difficult. I sometimes find that I have to step away from a poem for a day…or two…or more before I can look at it with new eyes and make the changes that are needed. Can't wait until I'm done!

I also went through an extended rewriting process last year when I was working on a poem about Jonas Salk for an anthology titled Dare to Dream…Change the World.  (The book will be published by Kane Miller this coming fall.)

JillCorcoran is the editor of the anthology. Here is her synopsis of the book:

Dare to Dream … Change the World pairs biographical and inspirational poems focusing on people who invented something, stood for something, said something, who defied the naysayers and not only changed their own lives, but the lives of people all over the world.

Last November, I posted the first draft of my Salk poem. You can read that poem here.

Working on revisions for my Things to Do manuscript gave me the idea of posting another draft of my Jonas Salk poem for Poetry Friday. The following draft was dated July 21, 2011.

Jonas Salk

Becoming a lawyer was not for me.

I had been captivated by atoms and molecules,

By the world of science.

I was interested now in the laws of nature—

Not the laws of man.

I would become a medical researcher,

Learn how the human body fights infection,

Discover cures for illnesses,

Find ways to prevent diseases.

I would be a problem solver.

That excited me!

The laboratory became my home.

Finding a way to immunize people against polio,

The disease that had crippled so many, became my passion.

I spent years experimenting, searching for an answer.

In 1953, we inoculated our first “polio pioneers.”

The vaccine worked!

Now no more children would have to walk

With metal braces on their legs…

No more children would be paralyzed or trapped inside iron lungs.

No more parents would live in fear of the word “polio.”

President Eisenhower said he had no words to thank me.

I needed no thanks.

I had lived my dream to help mankind.

I was asked who owned the patent on my vaccine. I replied,

"There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?"

It belonged to the people.

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Katya has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Write. Sketch. Repeat.