Poetry Friday round-up is with Carol today. Click to see more poetic goodness.
When you are standing in line for a book signing at ALA, you could meet your new best friend. This happened to me on Sunday. I was alone, not really paying much attention, when the woman standing next to me commented on my dress. This, of course, started a conversation. We were looking eye to eye and she could have been my sister from another mother. Her wheat-colored hair was tied in a bun on the top of her head. Her fair face was freckled like mine. And even her dress matched the very one she complimented me on.
I looked at her name tag, “Gienah.” She immediately pronounced it for me, “Gina,” and told me her father named her for a star. I said that sounds like a poem. The star is in the constellation Cygnus, the Swan. Gienah and I spent the next few hours together. Our list of signings matched, surprise, surprise. She fan-girls the same authors I do. We became each other’s photographer. We exchanged phone numbers and are still texting each other today. Making a new friend is so much fun.
Here’s the poem I wrote for her.
Her name is a star –Gienah–
eyes that sparkle with familiarity,
“Don’t I know you from somewhere?”
We must have been sisters once,
like the wings of the swan,
balanced and flying the night sky.Margaret Simon, (c) 2018
Bayou Song Blog Tour continues today at Ruth’s blog. She was inspired by my Ode to a Toad to write her own ode about the flamboyant tree. Check it out here.
Reflections on the Teche 