Friday, March 20, 2015

Where I Find Poems

Arts education aids students in skills needed in the workplace: flexibility, the ability to solve problems and communicate, the ability to learn new skills, to be creative and innovative, and to strive for excellence.
~Joseph M. Calahan, Xerox



Reflections star, Wolfsville Elementary School

The Arts and Sciences, essential to the prosperity of the State and to the ornament of human life, have a primary claim to the encouragement of every lover of his country and mankind.
~George Washington


I've talked about the PTA Reflections program a number of times before (here, here, here). The poem I'm sharing today was written by my daughter, then 17, for the Reflections competition literature category. The theme was "The Magic of a Moment."


Where I find poems
by Ariana Yeatts-Lonske

At day break,
The blushing sun paints haiku
On my front yard
With shades of morning dew

On the way to work,
The man on the corner of 47th and 5th
Holds up a sign that reads
STARVING VETERAN. GOD BLESS.
But if I squint a little,
The words rearrange themselves into
A quatrain about loss and solitude

As I call a cab,
I am pelted with afternoon sonnets
That glisten on the slick street
And soak through my dress shirt,
Clamoring for a paper home

At my niece’s 5th birthday party,
I pluck a sestina about dreams
From behind her ear
As she explains to me that
She is going to be a butterfly
When she grows up

At night,
The stars knock on my window,
Showing me how they’ve abandoned
Their constellations
To spell out
this


****************

I decided to help with Reflections again this year, despite what I said at Christmastime. My husband talked me into it, actually! I will only have one school to work on this time, so that will help. (Someone might ask whether Ariana won anything with her poem...she did! She was thrilled!)

You can find the Poetry Friday round-up at Reading to the Core.

12 comments:

jama said...

Love the poem! Ariana is so talented. Especially like the 4th stanza. :)

Donna Smith said...

That was/is an amazing poem! I love it! "pelted with afternoon sonnets" That is just how it happens! Again. Amazing!

Emily Hancock said...

A VERY beautiful poem, Ariana! Look forward to reading more of your work!

Linda B said...

Ariana's poem makes me wish I had thought of such a magical arrangement with poetry. It has lovely images that caused me to read it more than once, Tabatha. I have started a poetry group in class & I will share this with them, & with another student who is writing poetry for a unit of study. I'm happy you shared!

Robyn Hood Black said...

Stunning - Ariana's poem, and she SHOULD have been recognized for it, so I'm glad she was. :0) So much creativity in one family. Thanks for sharing today, and HAPPY SPRING to all of you!

Mary Lee said...

Wow. She nailed it!

Bridget Magee said...

Ariana's poem is A-MAZ-ING! The stanza about the veteran's sign rearranged gave me goosebumps. So good. Thanks for sharing, Tabatha! =)

Michelle Heidenrich Barnes said...

Wow! Ariana is so very talented! (Like her mother.) If the Reflections committee hadn't recognized her for that poem, I might have had to come up there personally and shake some sense into them! So much to love here... but I have to mention the sestina about a 5 year old's dreams of becoming a butterfly... sigh.

Keri said...

You must be so proud! I think I'd like to be pelted with sonnets someday. :-)Good luck with Reflections this year . . .

Catherine said...

The imagery in Ariana's poem stunning, Tabatha. I think I like "the blushing sun paints haiku" best, or maybe the constellations... Just beautiful.

GatheringBooks said...

Those last few lines:
At night,
The stars knock on my window,
Showing me how they’ve abandoned
Their constellations
To spell out
this

- just gorgeous, Tabatha. Your daughter has her mother's soul.

Tabatha said...

Ariana says that the comments about her poem made her smile and blush!