Poetry Friday is here!

Happy Poetry Friday! I'm Toby's cat, Kashi, and I'll be your host today. 

Thrilled to be here.

Because Toby has been so busy since she got home from Kidlit Con, I offered to take over her hosting duties, a favor she gladly accepted. But I have another reason for stepping forward—today, October 29th, is National Cat Day. What better way to celebrate (besides extra treats) than with poems that make me purr?

To me, autumn means leaves—lovely, crunchy leaves floating down, leaves in piles, leaves hiding who-knows-what-treasures on the lawn, leaves that jiggle and must be pounced upon. In my heart of catness, I am the leaf-lover to end all leaf-lovers.

Cat-pleasing loveliness outside my door

So today I offer you a poem by Robert Frost that captures the true meaning of fall.

Gathering Leaves

      - by Robert Frost

Spades take up leaves

No better than spoons,

And bags full of leaves

Are light as balloons.

I make a great noise

Of rustling all day

Like rabbit and deer

Running away.

But the mountains I raise

Elude my embrace,

Flowing over my arms

And into my face.

I may load and unload

Again and again

Till I fill the whole shed,

And what have I then?

Next to nothing for weight,

And since they grew duller

From contact with earth,

Next to nothing for color.

Next to nothing for use.

But a crop is a crop,

And who's to say where

The harvest shall stop?

Here's another one I like, by Andrew Fusek Peters:

The Leaf's Lament

Said the leaf to the sky,

I would learn how to fly,

But I'm shaking like a leaf do I dare?

Said the sky to the leaf,

It's a matter of belief

Just jump into my blanket of air!

You can read the rest of it here, and even listen to the poet read his poem aloud.

Next time you're at the library, look for Toby's picture book, One Leaf Fell. It tells the story of a leaf that begins after it falls off the tree. Leaves do have a life after they fall—if cats like me don't catch them first (tee-hee).







Poems for Breakfast

Julie Larios at The Drift Record offers us a poem by Amy Clampitt about how we anchor ourselves in life despite uncertainty.

Jone MacCulloch at Check It Out has some familiar squawking and a gentle rapping, rapping on her chamber door today.

At Tabatha Yeatts' site, The Opposite of Indifference, you'll find two haunting poems by Emily Dickinson and Richard Brautigan.

Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading shares her love of fly fishing with us, along with a poem by Ken Hada that expresses her joy at being on the river. (And a meow back to Willie Morris from Kashi!)

At Ruth's blog, There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town, a small poem about death captures her sense of loss at the many recent deaths from cholera in her homeland, Haiti.

Over at Author Amok, Laura Shovan shares a lesson in writing portrait poems, using images from art or newspaper clippings. One of the students imagines the story behind Edvard Munch's "The Scream"—and it's truly a scream.

Betsy Bird at Fuse #8 offers a rich and thorough review of Joyce Sidman's book Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature's Survivors, illustrated by Beckie Prange, which melds poetry, nonfiction, and exquisite art.

Diane Mayr has been busy on all of her blogs today! At Random Noodling she has a poem by Walter de la Mare; at Kurious Kitty's Kurio Kabinet she takes a look at poet Elizabeth Alexander's latest book, Crave Radiance; at Kurious K's Kwotes she has one of Alexander's quotes; and The Write Sisters look at books of spooky poems. ("Meow! Meow!" says Kashi. Please pass along her greetings to Skippy and Smudge.)

David Elzey does a bit of imagining as an unapologetic butcher block table today at Fomagrams. Feel better soon, David!

Her involvement in the SPARK 10 collaboration between artists and writers has inspired Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe today: her poem, "Willowriver," reflects the ripples and crumples of a lovely pencil-and-watercolor creation made on rice paper by the artist Dolores Ekberg. (Hello, little Acorn!)

Bill at Literate Lives gives us examples of Guyku, written by Bob Raczka, designed to get boys to engage with a poetic form that must seem totally out of their realm.

The prolific and charming Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, over at The Poem Farm, treats us today to a reverso poem she wrote, inspired by Marilyn Singer's book of reversos called Mirror Mirror. This is #213 in her year of poem-a-days, and #22 in her collection of poems about poetry. Amy also shares a Poetry Peek into a first-grade class who wrote some terrific poems. And she has lots of other news—go take a look!

JoAnn Early Macken at Teaching Authors posts a windy, original, and very fun poem today that will grab you!

Laura Salas of Writing the World for Kids shares a creepy witch poem by the inimitable Lilian Moore, and a wrap-up of the Poetry Friday panel she and I participated in last weekend at Kidlit Con 2010. And Laura's weekly poetry feature, "15 Words or Less," a neat creativity exercise that I aim to participate in more often, can be found here. (Kashi says sure, she'd love to play in the leaves with Captain Jack Sparrow!)

Carol at Carol's Corner posts a review of and a poem from Lee Bennett Hopkins' recent award-winning book, Amazing Faces, plus a picture of one of the amazing faces in her life. (Hello from Kashi to Star and Black Jack!)

Poems for Lunch

Irene Latham of Live. Love. Explore! is in today with a rather mysterious love poem by Ellen Dore Watson.

At The Blog with the Shockingly Clever Title, Karen Edmisten brings us an old favorite by Robert Frost, "After Apple-Picking." Happy National Cat Day to Mr. Putter!

Sara Lewis Holmes, who is in orange here for a reason, posts a moving poem called "Poppies" by Sandra McPherson at Read Write Believe . I feel very sad, since reading it.

Blythe Woolston joins Poetry Friday for the first time today (welcome, Blythe!) with an original poem at her blog called "Invocation to Ingenuity." I'm so glad to have met Blythe last week at Kidlit Con.

Over at the Blue Rose Girls (which has a snazzy new look), Elaine Magliaro is in with an original poem called "Look at the Man: A Poem Explaining Why Women with Mates Gain Weight." Need I say more? Also, look for details on Elaine's upcoming panels at the NCTE conference. Elaine has also posted a "Fax. To: Snow White. From: the Seven Dwarfs" over at Wild Rose Reader.

Andromeda Jazon reviews In the Wild, by David Elliott, today at a wrung sponge. I don't know about you, but I'm partial to woodcut illustrations.

Liz Scanlon of Liz in Ink is in today with some candy you'll surely recognize, and some sweet videos, too.

Another reminder to stop by for some catnip at Jama's Alphabet Soup!

Caryl at Leaning Tower of Books posts one of my old faves today, "Little Orphant Annie," by James Whitcomb Riley, along with a version in song. I was interested in her link to All Hallow's Read—hop over to Caryl's blog and check it out.

Debbie Diller at A Journey in Learning joins Poetry Friday today with a story about how Christina Rossetti's famous wind poem introduced her second-grade daughter to poetry.

Zsofi McMullin at the Stenhouse Blog features a poem called "Fire," by Judy Brown.

Debra Ghigna stopped by to remind us that she and Charles Ghigna at Father Goose are compiling a list of "Favorite Poetry Anthologies for Children," and they welcome your suggestions. Their list is also a terrific resource, as it includes anthologies from as far back as 1885!

Sally at PaperTiger reviews two children's poetry books by William New today, Vanilla Gorilla and Dream Helmet, which both sound like fun.

At Here in the Bonny Glen, Melissa Wiley has posted a gorgeous original poem called "Lena, Waiting for the Mail," that was first published in Quarterly West. Melissa was one of the earliest Poetry Friday participants, and I had the pleasure of meeting her last week in Minneapolis at Kidlit Con. Welcome home, Melissa!

Janet Squires at All About the Books tells us that the last Friday in October is actually Frankenstein Friday. I didn't know that! For the occasion, she shares a book of poems called Frankenstein Makes a Sandwich, by Adam Rex.

Susan Taylor Brown, at SusanWrites, joins us today with a poem by Robert Graves called "The Caterpillar" that captures the essence of caterpillarness.

TeachingBooks.net is in today with an audio excerpt from Homer's Odyssey.

Poems for Supper

Carol Rasko, who blogs at Rasco from RIF, shares a book of poems about one of her (and my) favorite subjects: trees. The book is Douglas Florian's Poetrees.

Shelley Shaver, from Rain: A Dust Bowl Story, invites us to browse through her many poems on the dust bowl era, quilting, friendship, and other topics.

Doraine Bennett from Dori Reads is back from traveling and in tonight with a poem by Theodore Roethke called "Night Journey."


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Poetry Friday friends, please leave your links in the comments, and I will update this blog during the day. If you are new to Poetry Friday, all you need to do is:

1. Leave the exact link to your blog post that you would like people to read—not to your generic blog address.
2. Tell a bit about your post.
3. Within the post itself, link back to my page. That's it!

And enjoy all the poetry that's being shared today. Welcome to the Poetry Friday community!

P.S. Look for moi, Kashi, as I celebrate National Cat Day over at Jama Rattigan's Alphabet Soup!