Tenants of Air

Follow the spiders...Why spiders? Why couldn’t it be "follow the butterflies"?!
~Ron Weasley

This video of a flutist who has a butterfly land on her face during a competition made me want to have a butterfly theme for Poetry Friday:


THE BUTTERFLY'S BALL
by William Roscoe

Come take up your Hats, and away let us haste
To the Butterfly's Ball, and the Grasshopper's Feast.
The Trumpeter, Gad-fly, has summon'd the Crew,
And the Revels are now only waiting for you.

So said little Robert, and pacing along,
His merry Companions came forth in a Throng.
And on the smooth Grass, by the side of a Wood,
Beneath a broad Oak that for Ages had stood,

Saw the Children of Earth, and the Tenants of Air,
For an Evening's Amusement together repair.
And there came the Beetle, so blind and so black,
Who carried the Emmet, his Friend, on his Back.

And there was the Gnat and the Dragon-fly too,
With all their Relations, Green, Orange, and Blue.
And there came the Moth, with his Plumage of Down,
And the Hornet in Jacket of Yellow and Brown;

Who with him the Wasp, his Companion, did bring,
But they promis'd, that Evening, to lay by their Sting.
And the sly little Dormouse crept out of his Hole,
And brought to the Feast his blind Brother, the Mole.

Read the rest of The Butterfly's Ball

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A Blue Butterfly
by JR Solonche

I was outside reading.

A blue butterfly settled on the table.

The opening and closing of its blue wings

looked like a small blue book opening and closing to one blue page.

Then it looked like a blue eye opening and closing.

Then it looked like the blue book.

Then it looked like the blue eye.

Then the blue book.

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Truth Serum
By Naomi Shihab Nye

We made it from the ground-up corn in the old back pasture.
Pinched a scent of night jasmine billowing off the fence,
popped it right in.
That frog song wanting nothing but echo?
We used that.
Stirred it widely. Noticed the clouds while stirring.
Called upon our ancient great aunts and their long slow eyes
of summer. Dropped in their names.
Added a mint leaf now and then
to hearten the broth. Added a note of cheer and worry.
Orange butterfly between the claps of thunder?

Read the rest here.

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Ten Taps
by Megan Arkenberg

the ten taps of your fingertips
to a sonnet’s beat

Read the rest here (Sorry, it's short. I would have gotten permission, if I hadn't done this at the last minute...)

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More flute:


A final word from Emily Dickinson:

In the name of the Bee -
And of the Butterfly –
And of the Breeze – Amen!

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Amy at The Poem Farm is the Poetry Friday round-up host this week.