Hi everyone,
Welcome to the merry, merry month of May! Let the rumpus begin. Let the days warm. Let leaves unfurl and blossoms charm and bees hum in the garden. Let fancies turn to love. Let poems flow, inspired by our word for May, which is FLOURISH.
The poetry lamp is lighted.
David
Children's Author David L. Harrison's Blog 
Reblogged this on Joanna Goodwin Author and commented:
Wishing everyone a beautiful and happy May 2015
Greetings, Joanna, and thank you. I appreciate your help in sharing the Word of the Month word. I hope it inspires even more poetry this month.
I See You Spring and Raise You
I see you spring, and raise you
one soft day at a time
till summer antes up
and brings us the full deck.
I hear you spring, that flourish,
note after note, on the syrinx,
bird pipes sending us songs
to March to. April, May as well.
I touch you spring, the mossyness
of your mornings, the sharp prick
of daffodil spikes, the nap
of lawn before the moles.
I taste you spring, that tang-
tangling tongue, a spritz
of showers, lemon fresh,
the zest of sunlight.
I smell you, spring, new in the nose,
an awakening, a perfume explosion
swung by censers in the cathedral
of the rising sun.
©Jane Yolen all rights reserved
And I love you, spring! And that special Yolen tang-tangling tongue that tells it all.
I’d reply that I’d tangle tongues with you any time, but your dear wife would (quite reasonably) bop me on the head when all I was talking about was poetry! So I will refrain. In fact, I am good at refrains. And stanzas and verses and. . .
Hi Jane
I see that you will be in Hudson tomorrow for the Children’s Book Fair. Here I am living in Hudson and loving your books every day. (Especially Bad Girls!) Perhaps I’ll face the crowd…
Ha ha! If you’re speaking of poetic license, sign me on.
What a gorgeous poem, Jane.
I spent hours at Disney’s Animal Kingdom studying a band of bachelor gorillas, and I’ve tried and failed to write about them until I decided to play with one of my favorite sonnets. The bird I write about is not strictly real. (I get “flourish” in “fruiting flowers.”)
The Gorilla Bird
(After Robert Frost’s “The Oven Bird”)
There is a singer Africans have heard,
Proud, a silverback gorilla bird,
Who makes his nest in a clouded mountain glen.
He says that leaves are bland and fruiting flowers
Taste sweet with pith and tree bark now and then.
He says his highland habitat is vast
From bamboo forest sloping up to towers
Of kousso redwoods from a hidden past;
And climbs the distant ridges to feel tall.
He says volcanic ash is under all.
The bird would change into his namesake ape
But that he knows he’d lose the single thing
In trading in his wings for knuckled shape
That gives him undiminished power to sing.
To read “The Oven Bird,” visit http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173533
© 2015 Steven Withrow, all rights reserved
Steven, I’m so glad you decided to share your poem here. It’s a delightful read and I hereby declare it fits flourishly!
Thanks, David!
Steven:
Think the flourish is in the knuckles. Every flourish need not swing out; could curl in like those hairy sexy ape knuckles.
Oh do, Jeanne. Meet my daughter, too.
Please go to:
https://thevibrantchanneledcreator.wordpress.com/2015/05/01/definition-199-flourishes/
to see my illustration and haiku for flourish!
You’re all so upbeat and sweet
about spring
Flourishing
Nourishing
Flowers and birds
I’ll just add ACHOO!
Because
Hay fever doesn’t rhyme with anything.
Hello, fellow sufferer. Our pollen/mold/spore counts are so high around here that sneezing is reaching epic proportions. There’s surely a poem about misery loving company.
May beaver, nose weaver, big sneezer (a stretch), mold siever, winter bereaver or winter griever), flower achiever, allergy cleaver, snow leaver, ski peever, come on–you’re not really trying.
Or maybe you are very trying.
Your choice.
xxxJane
And after that you have, of course, made me a believer.
My poem for May is on the esoteric side because some of the name places may not be familiar to everyone, but I’m going with it anyway. Ask for footnotes in Reply.
Aloha to one and all.
Weather report, Maui, Hawaii:
Expect early morning showers
and surfers
along roads and streets leading to Ho’okipa.
The sun will challenge clouds for domain
and change gray waves to hues of green and blue.
humans and Hibiscus will unfurl and flourish in the bright sunlight.
From Haleakala at 5000 feet,
the best forecast is for white eyebrows
along the shore from Kanaha to Maliko Gulch
upward from there, at dawn,
small precious birds will fuss and twitter
in old trees.
clouds will crowd the shining mountain
and trekkers will experience a catch of
breath not connected to diminished air.
Along the road to Hana
fermenting mangos and breadfruit
White Ginger
wet forest
stinging sand and salt spray at Baldwin Beach.
windward and mauka showers, indeed.
Gene Belmont May 2015