Apr
2018
Poetry Friday: Happy Birthday, Lee!
Do you know the Pied Piper of Poetry? That would be Lee Bennett Hopkins, and he has a birthday today! Happy birthday to a poet and editor extraordinaire! Head over to Life on the Deckle Edge, where Robyn Hood Black is rounding up a passel of birthday parties of the online sort, as well as lots of other delicious morsels for Poetry Friday!
What am I bringing to the party? One of my favorite poetry collections, of course! My America: A Poetry Atlas of the United States (poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by Stephen Alcorn) will take you on a delightful journey around the country. When first reviewed it here, I was thinking about writing about my home state of North Carolina, but that hasn’t happened yet. Instead, I was inspired to write a poem to capture our family vacation to Missouri last summer. I wrote a stanza of A River Rest each day of vacation. It was a hit with the rest of the family and with the owners of the cabin we stayed in. I shared the poem in parts here and here. Here is the whole thing:
A River Rest
A wide porch beckons
me to sit in a rocking chair
and listen to quiet sounds—
Birds twitter and chatter
above the pulsing strum of cicadas
and occasional bass croak of a bullfrog
A gravel road invites
me to explore the river
that arches around a sandbar.
Water ripples and chortles
as kayaks drift past and we
skip rocks and chase minnows.
A rocky trail entices
me to wander up and down hills
through wooded glens and across dry stream beds.
Wind rustles and flutters
through layers of green leaves
to reveal the vistas below.
A dark, damp cave tempts
me to escape the heat above
and discover its hidden wonders.
Cave kisses plink and plunk and splatter
as stalactites drip ever closer to stalagmites
and an underground steam flows past nature’s artistry.
A Mississippi riverboat signals
me to board as it blows its horn
and chugs up and down the muddy river.
History echoes through the rotunda
of the Old Courthouse while the Arch
gleams over the city below.
A winding river calls
me to glide over clear water
between chalky bluffs under a blue sky.
My paddle dips, pulls, splashes
as my kayak slides with the current
and plays shadow tag with the fish below.
A quaint, bustling main street bids
me to step back in time as I wander
among the painted canoes.
I browse merchandise at Langeley’s General Store,
sip iced Vietnamese coffee with Whistler’s mother
and savor ice cream and Fitz’s cream soda at the Fountain.
Maramec Springs embraces me
with a breath of cool water bubbling
up from an underground cave.
Trout dart and jump for morsels tossed their way
while we wander paths that wind
through the lush green softening the edge of old ironworks.
Flickering firelight lures us
to gather around the campfire
despite the heat of the day.
Embers sizzle and pop as darkness settles.
We share favorite memories sweeter
than the toasted marshmallow s’mores we eat.
**in honor of the McGriff Family Vacation 2017 to Steelville, MO
The best part? Okay, maybe not the best, but really cool! I combined the poem with pictures from vacation to create a book. I kept one and gave one to my in-laws who host our vacation every summer.
I’ve still been following Amy Ludwig VanDerwater over at The Poem Farm. She is exploring one subject 30 different ways by using a different poetic technique each day. She is using her book POEMS ARE TEACHERS as a guide. You can read her introduction to the project here. She is exploring the constellation Orion. I haven’t been satisfied with most of my drafts this week, but it has been an accomplish just to write something every day!
Each Friday, I am excited to take part in Poetry Friday, where writers share their love of all things poetry. Robyn hosts the Poetry Friday Roundup today at Life on the Deckle Edge. She hosts a birthday extravaganza for Lee Bennett Hopkins. Drop by and see what poetry morsels are offered this week.
LifePoemProject
April 20, 2018 at 12:07 am (6 years ago)Your poem affected life?! Yes, you can share your lovely poem and its great “after story” with the world… Submit now on LifePoemsProject.com
Heidi
April 16, 2018 at 6:41 am (6 years ago)I really like how you open each stanza with an invitation word–nice stretch to gather all those! and it is a VERY inviting poem, full of the small details that make a place unique. Nice tribute to Lee.
Mrs. McGriff
April 16, 2018 at 8:11 am (6 years ago)Thanks, Heidi! I fell into the for the first day and liked it, so I stuck with it. You should see my notebook trying to brainstorm all those invitation words!
Michelle Heidenrich Barnes
April 14, 2018 at 11:49 pm (6 years ago)You make me want to vacation there too, Kay! I love your approach to writing this poem (this little gem gets my “best line” award: Cave kisses plink and plunk and splatter. LOVE!) and your book to wrap it all up is a brilliant idea. I’ll have to do something like this on my upcoming England vacation!
Mrs. McGriff
April 15, 2018 at 5:06 pm (6 years ago)Thanks, Michelle! I can recommend a great house if you want to take a crowd with you! (We have 13 in our family who go). Enjoy your trip to England! What to hope to see while there? I hope to get back one day to see some of the MANY things we didn’t get to our first trip.
Brenda
April 14, 2018 at 11:30 pm (6 years ago)I like seeing MO through your eyes. I love general stores.
Mrs. McGriff
April 15, 2018 at 5:05 pm (6 years ago)Thank, Brenda. Langley’s was a fun shop to hang out in–as was most of main street!
Linda Baie
April 14, 2018 at 11:59 am (6 years ago)I love that you made a book, too, Kay. I have done that for several occasions for family and it is a treasure to keep. I grew up in Missouri, love your words about the forest, the streams and the river. It is indeed beautiful there, very different from our forests in Colorado. Thank you for sharing and connecting it to Lee’s beautiful book, too.
Mrs. McGriff
April 15, 2018 at 5:04 pm (6 years ago)Thanks, Linda. I’m glad my words about Missouri resonated with you. We enjoyed our week along the river.
Carol Wilcox
April 14, 2018 at 9:27 am (6 years ago)What an incredible gift for your family. I would like to do something similar for my granddaughter to capture each month of her year. Thanks for the great idea!
Mrs. McGriff
April 14, 2018 at 9:46 am (6 years ago)Thanks, Carol! For many years I wrote a poem for my daughter on her birthday. It became one of her favorite gifts to look forward to. I hope your granddaughter enjoys them if you write them for her! I had a hard enough time keeping up with once a year! (I’m currently about 3 years behind!_
Glenda M. Funk
April 13, 2018 at 7:07 pm (6 years ago)I had to slow down to read this lovely poem, which seems apropos for spring. The specific details enrich the memory and make me long for such sensuous moments in nature.
Mrs. McGriff
April 14, 2018 at 9:45 am (6 years ago)Thanks, Glenda. It’s a lovely way to remember our vacation.
jama
April 13, 2018 at 12:34 pm (6 years ago)I felt like I was right there with you on your vacation. Love all the details and sensory images. What a fabulous idea to make it into a book, too.
Mrs. McGriff
April 13, 2018 at 1:14 pm (6 years ago)Thanks, Jama. It is a treasured keepsake from the trip.
Robyn Hood Black
April 13, 2018 at 11:30 am (6 years ago)Oh, I so enjoyed being a shadow on your family vacation here, Kay! What a treasure of a keepsake, too. I like how you took your time with this poem, the way a vacation invites/forces us to slow down. And I love that the water “chortles” in your poem! Thanks for joining in the LBH celebration, too.
(BTW – my anti-spam words are “barn glad” – fun, or what?!)
Mrs. McGriff
April 13, 2018 at 1:13 pm (6 years ago)Thanks, Robyn! I loved taking time to write each day of vacation. I didn’t set out for it to be a poem about vacation, but I love how it turned out. My mother-in-law seemed to like the book, too.
Tabatha
April 13, 2018 at 10:16 am (6 years ago)A sensational idea, Kay! Will you do it again for this year’s vacation (or maybe for the trip to England)?
Mrs. McGriff
April 13, 2018 at 1:12 pm (6 years ago)Thanks, Tabatha. I definitely want to do something like this for the trip to England. I wrote poetry and a travel journey, but haven’t put it all together. We’ll see how this summer’s vacation unfolds.