Monday, November 9, 2015

Happy Wild Blogiversary to My Friend Irene!


Wild Dried Poppy (Maraca) Pods for Irene
Photo by Amy LV

Welcome to today's celebration!  I offer my poem from SHARING THE SEASONS, edited by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by David Diaz.

Click to Enlarge this Image

Click to Enlarge this Image



Students - Today is a special day!  My friend, poet and author Irene Latham, is celebrating the 10th anniversary of her blog!  Here in the world of blogging, people call that a blogiversary.  Isn't that a funny thing about writing...how we can make up our own words?

blog + anniversary = blogiversary

Well, when a good friend is celebrating, she will often invite friends to join her, and this is what Irene has done today.  Over at her blog, Live Your Poem, you can find all kinds of posts celebrating the world WILD, Irene's favorite one little word for this year.  I suggest visiting her place today, checking out her poems, and wishing her a Happy blogiversary!  

Remember this...when you wish to celebrate something, you can do so with writing. You can celebrate your own milestones with writing, and you can celebrate others with your writing too.  Words are gifts.

Something true about poetry is also true in my poem above.  Poetry sometimes seems sweet and calm...but often, there is much wildness underneath.  A writer must be willing to explore wild places within her or himself to find the poems and stories and ideas that he or she is meant to write.  Irene is one writer I admire, one who could not be kinder or more genuine...and one who is truly willing to explore the wild questions and glories she finds out and inside of her.

To celebrate today, I offer a copy of SHARING THE SEASONS, by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by David Diaz, the book in which you can find the poem above, to a commenter on this post.  Please comment by this Friday, November 13, to be entered into this drawing.

Thank you, Irene, for being an inspirer.  Happy 10th blogiversary to you, my friend!  

Please share a comment below if you wish.

18 comments:

  1. Yes to making up words and writing to celebrate any occasion and gifting poetry! Amy, YOU are a poppy shaking maracas, and I thank you for being such a beautiful part of my WILD world! xo

    ReplyDelete
  2. "Sometimes something beautiful/is hiding something wild." Wonderful poem for Irene, Amy. I love all the lines about the flowers. "Daisy is a flirt." Terrific!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Beautiful! I love that pot of dried poppies.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I love your poem, Amy--it's one of the standouts in a standout anthology (one of my favorites of Lee's). I already have a copy, so don't put me in the drawing, but thanks for sharing this!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks for sharing your lovely and delightful poem. Love that anthology. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. The poem is beautiful and with the illustration, it is exquisite!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Definitely among my favorite LBH anthologies as well! Your poem is the perfect example of this: "Poetry sometimes seems sweet and calm...but often, there is much wildness underneath." Thanks for the gift of your words today, Amy.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wonderful poem! The music of these wildflowers is still ringing in my ears. : )
    Yes—"Words are gifts"—thank you!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Mmmm. Loved this poem. "Thistles strum guitars"...my maiden name... my brother and I (Thistles) used to strum guitars...
    This reminds me of the secret life of teachers, too. There is always so much more to a person than what you see. Reading between the lines, joining the flowers some evening. Everything is wilder than it seems.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Perfect choice from one of my favorite collections! You and Irene are both wildflowers - beautiful, wild women! XO

    ReplyDelete
  11. What a wild party in the meadow--love the sounds of those talented flowers!

    ReplyDelete
  12. I absolutely loved this poem and am captivated by the idea of the meadow of flowers jammin' through the moonlit night. So many layers here! "A writer must be willing to explore wild places within her or himself..." So true and something I'm still working on. As I write more and more, I see patterns in what I write, but I've also begun to suspect there's a pattern to what I'm not writing. Thanks for a wonderful gift of words to start my day and some inspiration to take a walk on the wild side.

    ReplyDelete
  13. "Sometimes something beautiful is hiding something wild." Love. That. Line. Your poem is jammin'!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I love the milkweed line :). Thanks for sharing this fun and lovely poem, Amy!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I love this poem! What a lovely idea - the noisy flowers.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Amy,
    When I was a child, I owned a Golden Book of Wildflowers. One of my favorites. You take a child beyond identifying a flower to identifying a wildflower's sense of playfulness. Loved it!

    I would love to win a copy of this book. Please enter my name in the drawing.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Happy Blogiversary to you AND your muse. Really, I cannot imagine a world without poetry. I'm fixing to celebrate soon for finishing a 10 week writing class that has stretched and grown my writing...poetry included!
    Thank you, Amy Vanderwater for sharing poetry in all the ways that you do!

    ReplyDelete