~Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Roald Dahl
It's National Poetry Month! Time for celebrating all things poetry. I'm adding to my collection of poems about fictional places.
Today, we have poems by Irene Latham and Sandra Lindow. Thank you very much, Irene and Sandy, for allowing me to share these!
Inside the Chocolate Factory
by Irene Latham
While the Oompa-Loompas toil,
we chart every chocolate river
and sample each chocolate tree.
The squirrels sort their nuts,
and no one swells into a blueberry.
The mystery is no longer mysterious,
and we crave the days before
we stepped onto the glass elevator--
when everything was wonder,
and hunger gnawed our hearts
with its tiny milk teeth.
It took nothing more than the rattle
of a chocolate wrapper to bring us
to the street, before we learned
to count what we didn't have,
when all was feast, and our lips
smacked of a sweetness long since
swallowed by these hollow, golden pipes.
*************
The Theater for Cloud Repair
by Sandra J. Lindow
is in a warehouse
down by the Red Cedar River,
a hangar with adiabatic racks
for stratifying stratus,
separating cirrus, stretching them out,
icing them down,
back stage steam machines
for accumulating cumulus,
mending the worn ones,
stuffing and fluffing,
puffing them up, bleaching them out.
There's lightning practice center stage
and sound-proofed practice rooms
where cumulonimbus
learn vigorous, squall lines
essential for bombastic rhetoric
and vocal techniques
for effective, long-lasting, rumbilious thunder.
Personal weather
is de rigueur for poets this year.
I dragged my cloud down to the shop this morning,
paid the extra hundred for priority service,
but it won't be done 'til Monday—
something about resilvering the lining.
That's why I'm wearing last year's
sunbeams, hemlines a bit uneven;
do you think anyone will notice?
*************
I have a post about Poetry Friday up today at Savvy Verse and Wit. (I am sorry not to have been able to put something about *all* of the people I adore, respect, and learn from in the post!)
The Poem Farm is our Poetry Friday round-up host today.
The Theater for Cloud Repair was previously featured in Strange Horizons.
Oh, this series is just enchanting.
ReplyDelete"and we crave the days before
we stepped onto the glass elevator--
when everything was wonder," - Yes!
"something about resilvering the lining" - Delight!!
Just a magical series. Thank you, Tabatha. Happy Poetry Friday!
Those are both wonderful poems. I love the quote too! Go Hokies!
ReplyDeleteooh, I want to be wearing last year's sunbeams! Thank you, Tabatha, for sharing these, and for inspiring the poems! I share a recorded version of "Inside the Chocolate Factory" at my blog today as well. xo
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing these two terrific poems--I too would like to wear last year's sunbeams, uneven hemlines and all!
ReplyDeleteWonderful poems. How fabulous are these lines and the idea:
ReplyDeleteI dragged my cloud down to the shop this morning,
paid the extra hundred for priority service,
but it won't be done 'til Monday—
something about resilvering the lining.
Awesome!
Wonderful! Both of them. Could I please have directions to the nearest cloud repair shop? I have always loved the way cumulonimbus feels on the tongue. Must go. I hear the rattle of a chocolate wrapper calling my name!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful beginnings to your idea, Tabatha. The poems connect so well. Thanks for your terrific idea!
ReplyDeleteI've been so looking forward to this series, Tabatha! I feel at home at your blog, like I'm in Irene's poem, stuffing my face with all of the wonders I possibly can.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great start to the series! I'm embarrassed to say I neglected to send you answers to your questions about PF blogging, but, I was happy to see so many others who wrote in answer. Good for them and good for you. Bad me.
ReplyDeleteSandra Lindow's last three lines made my heart skip a beat:
ReplyDelete"That's why I'm wearing last year's
sunbeams, hemlines a bit uneven;
do you think anyone will notice?"
That is beautiful. Irene's Chocolate Factory makes me want to revisit novel and Johnny Depp's moribund film adaptation of the book - and yes, makes me want to eat more chocolates! :)
What fun poems here! And you did a great job of describing Poetry Friday and its many nuances in your article. Watch the PF numbers swell!
ReplyDeleteMmmmmm.... So in my imagination now, I'm lying outside staring at the sky & stuffing my mouth with delectable chocolates, pondering the whole innocence-to-experience thing, and waiting on the call telling me my cloud is ready for pick up. Thank you, all three!!
ReplyDelete