Category: Poems on Making a Difference

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The Groovy Granny Has Arrived! (or: What I Didn’t See Coming)

Some of you wonderful regular readers have also been reading my children’s poetry blog, A Children’s Poetry Place. A few months ago, I told you I’ve been working on a new children’s book this year.

In actual fact, I’ve been working on this collection of poems for a decade. Two of them were in my first ebook, Bubble Mud and Other Poems (Electric Ebook Publishing, 2001) and the rights have since reverted to me, so I’m republishing them. The others -including a few limericks, haiku and cinquain – are my absolute favorites among the many children’s poems  I’ve written and polished since the birth of our daughter, Kayla.

What I didn’t see coming was that one day, our daughter would ask to illustrate the poems, and that her illustrations would be really, really good —and funny. What I didn’t see coming was that she’d be the illustrator I’ve been searching and searching for all these years for The Groovy Granny —and that I’d be the publisher! (through my registered business, Graceful Publications).

We’ve created our first children’s poetry book together. It’s perfect for reading to preschoolers and beginner readers, and middle graders will love reading it aloud.  You can preview the entire book and have the option of buying it in softcover, image wrap hardcover, or hardcover with dust jacket (the hardcovers are totally worth the extra dollars, they are gorgeous, bookstore quality) HERE:

Thanks so much for taking a look at our ‘baby.’

Best wishes,

Heather and Kayla

Heather and Kayla reading The Groovy Granny for the first time (April 12, 2011)
Reading her favorite poem, 'On Bad Days,' photos by Bill Stewart.
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Poet Claudia Schönfeld

Sakura

you feed me
on raw fish
when our world’s
upside down,
chaos around,
people drown, small
as bugs in the
sink
while forces of
nature
grow tall and
blossoming cherries bleed,
spilling red, white –
hopes like vomit on
shaking ropes,
will they hold?
sing, sing sakura ‘cos
spring
is just ‘round
the corner
miwatasu kagiri – as far as i can see
destruction
kasumi ka kuma ka – like fog, like clouds
descending, tears
blind my eyes,
close to the coast
the giants crack loose
and still
nioi zo izuru – the scent, the colors
of strength in the air
raining rosy,
holding my fear
izaya izaya – let’s go,
let – go,
bow low and pray
for the melting to stop and
you feed me on
sushi
‘til I’m silent, ‘til
I know, hana zakari – blossoming time
is close
__________________
Visit Claudia Schönfeld’s blog at http://splittergewitter.blogspot.com/
Sakura: the japanese cherry blossom is one of the most important symbols in japanese culture. It’s an omen of good fortune, new beginnings, beauty and also a metaphor for the fleeting nature of life.

Thanks for reading Poets for Tsunami Relief.

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Poet Evelyn Adams

Somber Splash

On a new toy
Run film
Tsunami old news
We’ve seen it all

Water to the wheels
Water to the doors
Water to the second floors

Shock of water
Is
Cars rushing
Warehouse next, floating

Shrink of water
Is
We are small
And
The earth can get rid of us
Whenever it wants to…

Evelyn Adams is a poet living in Boston, USA. Read more of her poetry and prose at  her blog www.fillingahole.wordpress.com

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Thanks for reading Poets for Tsunami Relief.

Please consider a donation to The Red Cross.

In Canada, go to: http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=000043&tid=016

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Poet Colleen Hannah

LIVING LIFE IN A SUBDUCTION ZONE

Forced down and shifting sideways
Living life in a subduction zone
The mantle’s quaking dust has flown
The clock stopped counting time is done

Living life in a subduction zone
And it’s heave ho and away we go
Clock stopped counting time is done
I wait in line for cracks to form

And it’s heave ho and away we go
The love wave starts its surface hum
I wait in line for cracks to form
Dig my fissure root within

The love wave starts its surface hum
It is all or nothing stick the pin
Dig my fissure—root within
Clinging deep the earth gives in

Forced down and shifting sideways
Living life in a subduction zone
And it’s heave ho and away we go
The love wave starts its surface hum…

Colleen Hannah, @1RoguePoet http://www.vancouverislandpsychosis.wordpress.com lives on Vancouver Island, right next door to the Cascadia Subduction Zone. She wrote me, “Knowing an earthquake like Japan’s could happen here as well, I wrote my poem keeping in mind how fragile we are not only in body but in love and life as well, I hope it will help in some small way.”

She adds, “This is a pantoum with parataxis ending in invented form. The invented form consists of changing traditional ending to using first lines of the first 4 stanzas, in a five stanza pantoum, as the last 4 lines of last stanza.” Here’s her traditional ending to the poem:

TRADITIONAL ENDING

It is all or nothing time to win
The mantle’s quaking dust has flown
Clinging deep the earth gives in
Forced down and shifting sideways

___________________________________

JAPAN

There is a day when waking
we shed our swings of innocence
picking up the tools
of promise
we work to change the world.

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Thanks for reading Poets for Tsunami Relief.

Please consider a donation to The Red Cross.

In Canada, go to: http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=000043&tid=016

In the UK, go to: http://www.redcross.org.uk/Donate-Now

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Poet Mike Cowan

black muddy waters

black muddy waters
came rolling by
they’ve swept my love
in their raging tides

Earth, to my wife
had sworn to be,
a home of peace
to her and me

but waters rose
from angry seas
and covered Earth
and lands and we

and in the swift
blink of an eye,
my love was sailed
to the Other Side.


Mike Cowan is a Southern poet living in rural Jackson County, Georgia.
On writing this poem, Mike commented on his own blog, Southern Musings, http://southernmusings.wordpress.com “I actually saw a picture of this man walking on top of literally a field of twisted metal and cars and debris. The caption read that he was looking for his wife.”
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Thanks for reading Poets for Tsunami Relief.

Please consider a donation to The Red Cross.

In Canada, go to: http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=000043&tid=016

In the UK, go to: http://www.redcross.org.uk/Donate-Now

In both Canada and the US, click on the red buttons I’ve added on my sidebar

(red buttons are on the Home page https://hgstewart.wordpress.com), top right.