Celebrating National Poetry Month: The Silver Star

Lake Chelan, spring 2008

The end of my favorite poetry month is almost upon me. I have other poems I wrote, but found it difficult to find the time this month to revise and revise again. The following poem was not one I had read of William Stafford's even though I have read many of his verses and am drawn to his words over and over again. I love the way he honors a mountain in this poem. I can also imagine many people in my life that could be the Silver Star.

Silver Star
To be a mountain you have to climb alone
and accept all that rain and snow. You have to look
far away when evening comes. If a forest
grows, you care; you stand there leaning against
the wind, waiting for someone with faith enough
to ask you to move. Great stones will tumble
against each other and gouge your sides. A storm
will live somewhere in your canyons hoarding its lightning.

If you are lucky, people will give you a dignified
name and bring crowds to admire how sturdy you are,
how long you can hold still for the camera. And some time,
they say, if you last long enough you will hear God;
a voice will roll down from the sky and all your patience
will be rewarded. The whole world will hear it: "Well done".
-William Stafford

Celebrating National Poetry Month: Lovely Words from Robert Louis Stevenson

Flower God, God Of The Spring
by Robert Louis Stevenson

FLOWER god, god of the spring, beautiful, bountiful,
Cold-dyed shield in the sky, lover of versicles,
Here I wander in April
Cold, grey-headed; and still to my
Heart, Spring comes with a bound, Spring the deliverer,
Spring, song-leader in woods, chorally resonant;
Spring, flower-planter in meadows,
Child-conductor in willowy
Fields deep dotted with bloom, daisies and crocuses:
Here that child from his heart drinks of eternity:
O child, happy are children!
She still smiles on their innocence,
She, dear mother in God, fostering violets,
Fills earth full of her scents, voices and violins:
Thus one cunning in music
Wakes old chords in the memory:
Thus fair earth in the Spring leads her performances.
One more touch of the bow, smell of the virginal
Green - one more, and my bosom
Feels new life with an ecstasy.

Celebrating National Poetry Month...Some Like Poetry

Some Like Poetry
by Wisława Szymborska

Some –
thus not all. Not even the majority of all but the minority.
Not counting schools, where one has to,
and the poets themselves,
there might be two people per thousand.

Like –
but one also likes chicken soup with noodles,
one likes compliments and the color blue,
one likes an old scarf,
one likes having the upper hand,
one likes stroking a dog.

Poetry –
but what is poetry.
Many shaky answers
have been given to this question.
But I don't know and don't know and hold on to it
like to a sustaining railing.

Home to a Spring Bouquet

When I arrived home today the first thing I did was pick a bouquet. JEJ was gracious enough to pose with the beautiful mix of flowers.

Sibling Assignment# 95: A Visit to the Rainforest

Silver Valley Girl gave our most recent sibling assignment.
Write about a journey, trip, or place you would like to visit this summer, and why.
You will find her post about yearning to travel the chain lakes of northern Idaho here. As our brother heals we hope he will join us soon also.I have always wanted to take a camping trip to the Olympic National Park in the northwest corner of Washington state. From the pictures I have seen and the people I have talked to that have visited this park, it sounds like a perfect place for a camping trip. This national park would be such a contrast compared to the places I usually visit on the eastern part of the state.As I imagine hiking through the rainforest snapping photos in the middle of the hot summer I can just feel cool air, see green moss and blue water, and smell the woodsy, moist forest.I would also enjoy taking the drive to the Pacific Ocean and experiencing a sunset at this northern corner of the state of Washington. I have been to the southern end of the Washington coast and the Oregon coast, but this corner of the state has always held my interest. We already have plans for an Oregon coast trip this summer, but maybe this will be scheduled for another time.

Frozen in Time

Thursday afternoon I experienced one of those frozen in time episodes. I was back on campus at the University of Idaho for a series of meetings for the Northwest Inland Writing Project and as I stood between the Women's Gym and the Education Building snapping pictures I felt like it was the spring of 1976 and I was leaving my job at the gym to walk back over to the Ed building for an afternoon class. The weather had that windy, cold feeling of late spring that I remembered well. The spring flowers were just beginning to bloom. The odd shaped KIVA was still jutting out the side of the second floor of the building that was my second home during college.Shadowed by the afternoon sun the Memorial Gym may be covered with more ivy, but looked exactly the same also. There was one significant change. From that vantage point in front of the gym the trees had grown tall enough to hide most of the famous I Tower that stands high on a hill as a landmark of the university.

I found comfort in returning to those college haunts for a few days. When I return to the Ed. building I always peek around the corner to the University kindergarten on the first floor where I enjoyed my first experience working with students. I love to wander around the College of Education library recalling delightful hours of immersing myself in children's literature collections. The walls are still covered with bright, cheerful projects from the Art Methods class.

Yes, there are new computers that await you when you enter the building now. You can get Vandal Air wifi or try out a Smart Board in many classrooms. Starbucks is close by and you don't have to use the pay phone in the basement anymore, but the bones of the building are still there to remind me of where I began this long and rewarding journey of teaching and learning. I paused and relished that frozen in time experience a few more minutes.