Today the Kidlitosphere is celebrating Lee Bennett Hopkins’ 80th birthday. Click the Poetry Friday button to go to Robyn Hood Black’s site to see more posts for this celebration. How fun to light up cyberspace with candles and confetti!
Lee Bennett Hopkins is well known as an anthologist. He collects the best children poets and puts them together in unique ways. His most recent collection is World Make Way.
This book is a collection of ekphrastic poetry, poetry about art from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The book opens with the following quote:
Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.
Leonardo da Vinci
This month I’ve been writing poems about my father’s art and this quote speaks to what I believe to be true; My father’s art is poetry that is seen.
Lee’s poetry collections are a canvas for poets, a place to find words that can be felt rather than seen. To write my poem today, I have chosen a line from Early Evening by Charles Ghinga.
Coming Home
We are coming home
stretched across a canvas of time
waiting for steam to rise
into still humid air.
We carry a load
of dreams from far
away where seas meet rivers.
We are born of the river,
her muddy banks birthed
strength to carry us
through toil and trouble
all the way home.
–Margaret Simon (c) 2018
You’ve taken us on a powerful journey in your poem. I think this is one of my favorites this month. I love your ending:
“We are born of the river,
her muddy banks birthed
strength to carry us
through toil and trouble
all the way home.”
Sometimes like today the poem seems to write itself. Thanks for your constant encouragement.
*happy sigh* this is beautiful, Margaret. A gorgeous blend of you, Charles, your dad, the steamboat men, and a load of dreams.
Beautiful poem w/ strong images of the river giving birth. Thank you for mentioning the ekphrasis book. I’m not well-versed in kid lit (high school teacher) but am learning a lot today and know I want that book.
I was drawn in by the same lines as Molly – they are incredibly powerful. Also, I’m quite taken with your father’s art. I tried to Google him, but it turns out that there is more than one artist named John Gibson 😉 Is his work on display anywhere?
No Amanda, his art has not made it much out of his hometown of Jackson,Ms. and he hasn’t done a website. He’s happy that this project is getting his work seen.
“Lee’s poetry collections are a canvas for poets, a place to find words that can be felt rather than seen.” Well said, Margaret. “Coming Home” speaks to me personally and powerfully.
“We carry a load of dreams” is my favorite line. I just read a new picture book about ‘home’ where this ship’s cat just doesn’t understand what that means. It connects to your poem and your father’s art today, Margaret! “Vincent Comes Home” by Jessixa Bagley.
Beautiful imagery Margaret! I like the movement and the churning of one line into the next as the engine of a steamship would move her ship forward. Intriguing art too, thanks!
“waiting for steam to rise/into still humid air.” — terrific lines, Margaret, and a terrific post all around. Thanks for bringing your own magic to the celebration this week!
I can feel the humid air and hear the steam engine. 🙂
I love the flow of this poem, Margaret. It’s like the story was ready and just waiting to be released.
What a lovely homecoming poem. It flows like the river itself.
This is lovely, Margaret. I also love these lines: “We carry a load/of dreams…”