Welcome, and happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I’m so happy you’ve dropped by. Whether you’re a regular participant in the Poetry Friday world, or you ended up here from a search or a link, please know that we’re a welcoming community! Read, comment, think, share, and enjoy!
Happy news from me:
Yay!
Now, our wonderful Poetry Friday host this week, Mary Lee Hahn, and her group of Inklings invited us to share poems of protest, patriotism, and justice this week. That’s not my typical arena, but I realized I’ve written several over the years. So…I created a new Small Reads Roundup for Peace, War, & Justice here, and you can find (mostly) imagepoems I’ve written.
Here are two:
Flag Music
Luff-luff-luff-luff
like a clipper’s great sail
Rat-a-tat-tat
Like a stormy day’s hail
Creak up and down
Like squeaky old brakes
No matter the sound
that our flag outside makes
Still day or windy
Quiet or loud
It makes me feel safer
And stronger and proud
–Laura Purdie Salas, from Tiny Dreams, Sprouting Tall: Poems About the United States
I wish I felt proud of my country right now. Instead, I’m frustrated and disillusioned…Here’s my other poem, sharing my own inadequacies in the face of meeting families who’ve lost everything.
And for lots of inspiring and motivating poetry, don’t miss Mary Lee’s Poetry Friday Roundup! Hope you all have a safe and fun holiday weekend.
16 Responses
I love that second poem still so much. I love how much that whole visit impacted you — enough to send you writing. It’s so vivid — and I tear up a little now, wondering where and how they are, and hoping for them…
Thanks, Tanita. Me too.
Congratulations on your new book, Laura! And thanks for sharing both of your poems that speak such truth. I’ll be heading over to your Small Reads Roundup for more.
Love that you have a new book on the way, Laura! And the poems, too. Both show there are still many of us who want to do good for those in need, wishing we didn’t need to fight for it. Thank you!
I saw your book announcement Laura. Congrats!! And thank you for both poems… two extremes of pride and humility— we need both. Here’s hoping our current leaders learn more if the second!
First, CONGRATULATIONS! I love seeing your happy news for you but more for the young readers that are going to fall in love with the words and illustrations. Hooray! Your flag poem is one I want to save for my youngest ESL students. Thank you for re-sharing that.
I too am a bit low this morning, realizing that I had no idea about the breadth or depth of the fight I am in to see America be the America I want for all. But, every poem helps. Every refugee that can be given humanity helps. Thank you, Laura.
Thanks, Linda. Yeah, the 4th of July just didn’t feel good this year.
Congratulations on the new book! What a wonderfully different take on “find the helpers!”
And appreciations for your compare-contrast poems for These Times. Maggie Smith wrote in her recent newsletter that “It’s both. It’s always both. And, not or.” Our country will always be one of contradictions, but hopefully we can work our way to a better balance.
Congratulations on the book!! Excited for this one!
And that second poem–wow. A gut punch.
Laura, huge congrats on the new book deal! That’s wonderful.
Your second poem today touched and gutted me. Like you, I want to feel pride in my country, but today I am feeling anything but. I’m telling myself, though, that I can take pride in the fact that I know so many people who care so much. Thanks for being one of them. xo
I love the topic of your next book so much!! I would love to have a giveaway on my blog and will buy it myself to do so.
Also, can I share “Stop Wishing for Me!” on my blog? xo
Aw, thank you, Tabatha! I’ll be sharing the pub date once I have it. I don’t even know if it’s spring or fall next year! And yes, you can definitely share the peace poem. Thanks! <3
First, congratulations on the new book. Second, I still remember your refugee poem and it’s still a gut punch. I don’t recall the flag poem and I love it.
Many Congrats on your new book 📕 Laura!!! Thanks for sharing both your poems, how powerful and timely that second one is, you bring us right there.
Laura, congratulations on your new book that will appear next year. I read through your Small Reads Roundup for Peace, War, & Justice. There are so many poems that speak out. It is great that you now have your own gallery of small reads on a very important issue. The first stanza of your poem about the Refugee Camp is heartbreaking. I remember when I went to Mexico and Morocca. I saw children on the streets half dressed with hungry eyes. Those children were not refugees but huddled in masses. I had never seen anything like that. There was no hope. Your writing made me ponder my past and the world’s present right now.
Events have sustained the relevance of your refugee poem, Laura. Life has a way of recharging older words by looping back to them. Quite impactful words. I enjoyed how the flag noises prompted your thinking towards it in your first poem.