poetry friday roundup is here!

October 20, 2011September 21, 2017 ~ jama ~ 46 Comments

our house 400 — Welcome Friends, Please Come In!

Why hello! What brings you here?

A poetry lover? You’re just the person I was hoping to see! Come in, make yourself at home, and help yourself to a cup of warm cider. Would you like an apple cider donut to go with that?

Today I’m happy to share one of my very favorite Autumn poems ever, by the one and only Barbara Crooker. She has perfectly captured the gorgeous melancholy that defines the season. Whenever I read this poem aloud, I’m amazed anew at the beauty of the English language and marvel at Barbara’s diction, phrasing, and musicality. Quite simply: a polished gem, a word painting, a heart song that takes my breath away.

THIS TIME OF YEAR,

when the light leaves early, sun slipping down
behind the beech trees as easily as a spoon
of cherry cough syrup, four deer step delicately
up our path, just at the moment when the colors
shift, to eat fallen apples in the tall grass.
Great grey ghosts. If we steal outside in the dark,
we can hear them chew. A sudden movement,
they’re gone, the whiteness of their tails
a burning afterimage. A hollow pumpkin moon rises,
turns the dried corn to chiaroscuro, shape and shadow;
the breath of the wind draws the leaves and stalks
like melancholy cellos. These days are songs, noon air
that flows like warm honey, the maple trees’ glissando
of fat buttery leaves. The sun goes straight to the gut
like a slug of brandy, an eau-de-vie. Ochre October:
the sky, a blue dazzle, the grand finale of trees,
this spontaneous applause; when darkness falls
like a curtain, the last act, the passage of time,
that blue current; October, and the light leaves early,
our radiant hungers, all these golden losses.

Please leave your links with Mr. Linky below. Don’t forget to include the title of your poem or book you’re reviewing in parentheses after your name. I will update throughout the day.

TODAY’S POETRY FRIDAY MENU (sip, savor, chew, swallow):

1. Charles Ghigna (“House of Perfection”)

2. Heidi Mordhorst (“Twenty-four Doors,” an original)

3. jama (“Apple Season”)

4. Gathering Books (Walking Free by Gemino Abad)

5. Teacher Dance (A Goodbye, original)

6. Robyn Hood Black (original wolfy poetry)

7. Amy LV (“I Love Choosing” & P*Tag!)

8. Judy (To the Grass of Autumn, W.S. Merwin)

9. Susan Taylor Brown (Proof of Life, original poem)

10. Mary Lee (Subway Poem)

11. Carol (“To Failure” by Philip Larkin)

12. Tabatha (Edward Shanks)

13. Tara (October poems by Bobbi Katz)

14. Ben @ The Small Nouns (Poetry Mix Tape: Autumn Poems)

15. Maria Horvath’s Daily Poems (“For an Amorous Lady”)

16. Laura Salas (Dogku by Andrew Clements)

17. Laura Salas (15 Words or less poems)

18. KK’s Kwotes (quote by Paul Janeczko)

19. Kurious Kitty (Where Home Begins)

20. Diane Mayr (“Power Source”)

21. Kids of the Homefront Army (“Up Late”)

22. Julie Larios (P*Tag)

23. Greg Pincus (“My Father’s Hair”)

24. Irene Latham (Ars Poetica 5 for Friday)

25. Sara Lewis Holmes (Bad Taste)

26. Sylvia Vardell (Upcoming presentation at the IBBY Regional Conference)

27. Wild Rose Reader (Original Halloween Haiku)

28. The Write Sisters (Now Close the Windows)

29. Katie @ Secrets & Sharing Soda (Lemonade by Bob Raczka)

31. Donna (Shushing)

32. david e. (haul-o-ween)

33. Miss Rumphius (At the Sea Floor Café)

34. April @ Teaching Authors (two Thankus)

35. Janet Squires (Hallowilloween)

36. Kelly Ramsdell Fineman (Troubled Water)

37. Mandy Webster (Rules for the Dance by Mary Oliver)

38. Joyce Ray (J. Patrick Lewis poetry exercise)

39. MsMac (Robert Frost)

40. Ruth (Villain)

41. Wrung Sponge (original haiku)

42. Adrienne (Walt Whitman)

43. Polka Dot Owl (Jack Prelutsky)

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Thanks for participating and have a good weekend!

friday feast: happy birthday e.e. cummings!

October 14, 2011August 20, 2017 ~ jama ~ 34 Comments

“It takes courage to grow up and be who you really are.” ~ E.E. Cummings (1894-1962)

It’s his fault I sign my name in lower case. Ever since I first encountered his “little lame balloon man” in high school, Cummings has remained one of my top five favorite poets of all time.

I find it interesting that while he loved to experiment wildly with form, diction and syntax, his subjects were pretty traditional — nature (especially Spring), childhood, and love. He was such a great champion of individuality, someone who believed poetry was a process rather than a product, and since he was also a painter, it makes perfect sense that he created poems as visual objects on the page. How could I not love such an out and out lyricist who toyed with typography? A playful innovator with a joyous childlike perception, Cummings infused his poetry with his own brand of vitality that never loses its freshness.

Continue reading →

friday feast: beaucoup biscuits

September 23, 2011September 7, 2017 ~ jama ~ 34 Comments

“Poetry is the synthesis of hyacinths and biscuits.” ~ Carl Sandburg

Well, butter my buns and call me a biscuit!

Go on, grab one (a biscuit, not my buns, silly). You’re perfectly entitled — Autumn is officially here and September is National Biscuit Month. Not that I need any excuse to indulge my biscuit love. You know what I’m talking about. When they’re warm from the oven, you ever so gently break one apart and that little column of steam rises. Oh, tender, flaky bliss: a pat of butter on each half, melt, melt, maybe a drizzle of honey or a lick or two of jam. With each heavenly bite, the South rises again and again.

I freely admit to never having successfully made biscuits from scratch. Yes, I’ve consumed my fair share of ‘whomp’ biscuits (Dough Boy goodness in a can), but I’ve always felt genuine-for-real homemade biscuits should be left to the experts. Most often, they are kind, huggable grandmas wearing faded flowery aprons who never measure ingredients but their biscuits turn out perfectly every time. Anyone have a Southern grandma I can borrow? Continue reading →

friday feast: mary oliver on writing

September 16, 2011September 14, 2017 ~ jama ~ 26 Comments

THE POET IS TOLD TO FILL UP MORE PAGES
by Mary Oliver

But, where are the words?
Not in my pocket.
Not in my refrigerator.
Not in my savings account.

So I sit, harassed, with my notebook.
It’s a joke, really, and not a good one.
For fun I try a few commands myself.
I say to the rain, stop raining.
I say to the sun, that isn’t anywhere nearby,
Come back, and come fast.

Nothing happens.

So this is all I can give you,
not being the maker of what I do,
but only the one that holds the pencil.

abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz.
Make of it what you will.

(from SWAN: Poems and Prose Poems, Beacon Press, 2010)

Those 26 letters never cease to amaze me. Sometimes you feel you can write the whole world, other times, nothing at all. How to court the muse? Endure the agony of waiting? I remain humbled; writing is a mystery.

♥ The lovely Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm is our Poetry Friday host today. Please take her some letters of love. She may just give you some Pineapple Slices!

♥ Click here for the full list of 2011 Poetry Friday posts at alphabet soup.

**Love typography by Sharon Prazner/flickr.

***”i heart you” pasta by achew *Bokehmon”/flickr.

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lovin’ chicken spaghetti

September 6, 2011September 7, 2017 ~ jama ~ 21 Comments

Bawk bawk!

*scatters feed*

Excuse me while I wiggle my wattle and fluff up my feathers. Just exercising a little poultry pride, cause I finally made Chicken Spaghetti!

See, when I first came online in 2007, reading all the cool kidlit blogs and learning who’s who and what’s what, having an inkling that I’d somehow like to stir in a few vittles with my books, the blog, “Chicken Spaghetti,” caught my attention right away. I learned it was written by Susan Thomsen, who once worked for the New Yorker, published this most excellent article about Poetry Friday with the Poetry Foundation, and eventually went on to also blog for PBS Parents’ Booklights. And yes, dang it, she lived with two chickens (and two cats and a snake)!

I’d eaten a lot of chicken dishes in my time, but had never heard of Chicken Spaghetti — *pause while 80% of Americans gasp* — not once. You’d think since I live in Virginia (and by all accounts, CS is a Southern dish), someone, somewhere at sometime would have mentioned it. Or brought it to a neighborhood potluck, anything. But lo and behold, I remained a Chicken Spaghetti virgin right here for close to 30 years. One could say I’d never been plucked. Till now.

*prance, peck, preen*

Shortly after discovering Susan’s blog, I promised myself I would try her recipe, cause it’s pretty much my job to investigate these things and make the necessary sacrifices on your behalf (hee!). You know, just in case you’re a CS virgin too.☺

I’ve since learned it’s quite the beloved casserole, comfort food at its easiest and most satisfying, forgiving when it comes to variations and experimentation. Key ingredient? SOUP! Cluckity cluck!

We’ve all grown up with cream of mushroom soup something — throw it into tuna casserole, pour it over pork chops, an easy way to make scalloped potatoes. Susan’s recipe calls for cream of mushroom and cream of celery (isn’t she brazen?), with black olives and pimiento. I don’t know, whenever I hear the word, “pimiento,” I feel I should don a smoking jacket.

Not having one handy, I wore my “Babette Eats Oatmeal” black t-shirt, polka dot capris, green Merrell clogs and set to work. The recipe suggests using a pre-cooked deli chicken as a shortcut, but I felt it would be easier to poach a couple of breasts rather than debone an entire chicken. Once you chop up the onions and peppers and pre-boil the pasta, you pretty much just combine everything and then bake.

Just in case you’re wondering why Susan named her blog Chicken Spaghetti, here’s what she said:

I love that casserole; there are many versions. When I first thought of starting a blog, I was going to devote it to the various incarnations of the casserole but realized that would get boring fast. When I was growing up, chicken spaghetti, always served with spinach/mandarin orange salad (with poppyseed dressing), was a popular ladies’ lunch at church and such. I kept the name when I decided to write about books because it was kid friendly and reminded me of my Southern childhood.

CHICKEN SPAGHETTI

1 medium onion, chopped
1 medium bell pepper, chopped
3 T butter
1 chicken, cooked, deboned and diced (grocery store deli chickens work great)
1 can (10-3/4 oz.) cream of mushroom soup
1 can (10-3/4 oz.) cream of celery soup
1 jar (2 oz.) pimiento, drained
1 jar (2-1/2 oz.) sliced mushrooms, drained and chopped (I sauté fresh ones)
1/2 can (6 oz.) black pitted olives, drained and chopped
1 package (16 oz.) long spaghetti, cooked
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1 cup grated cheddar cheese

Preheat the oven to 375. Sauté onion and bell pepper in butter. Then pour in the soups, pimientos, mushrooms, chicken, olives, and spaghetti. Season with the seasonings. Put the melange into a large casserole dish. Top with cheddar cheese. Bake at 375 for 45 minutes, or until cheese is nice and melted.

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Yum! This is a big recipe and we enjoyed the leftovers for days (of course there’s just two of us here, but if you have a big family, it’ll probably disappear instantly). Make it soon if you haven’t tried it yet — will really hit the spot on a cool Fall day.

♥ Check out some variations on this recipe here.

♥ Some of my favorite posts from Chicken Spaghetti: her famous “Best of” Book Lists, Poetry Friday, and her musings about real chickens! I think she lives with three chickens now: Lovey, Queen Elizabeth III, and Loretta Lee II.