Stronger than an airplane wing

Maybe what we can do when we feel overwhelmed is to start small. Start with what we have loved as kids and see where that leads us.
~Aimee Nezhukumatathil

Happy Poetry Friday! I am thinking about a well-loved bird today...and especially about voting.

One Vote
by Aimee Nezhukumatathil

After reading a letter from his mother, Harry T. Burn cast the deciding vote to ratify the 19th amendment of the U.S. Constitution

My parents are from countries
where mangoes grow wild and bold
and eagles cry the sky in arcs and dips.
America loved this bird too and made

it clutch olives and arrows. Some think
if an eaglet falls, the mother will swoop
down to catch it. It won’t. The eagle must fly...

read the rest here

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Chicken Spaghetti has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Susan!

Vynohrad

You cannot eat a cluster of grapes at once, but it is very easy if you eat them one by one.
Jacques Roumain

My parents are having a bumper crop of grapes this year so I brought some back yesterday and hope to make jelly today. I don't really know what I'm doing but am hopeful!

For Art Thursday, grapes:

Bufford's fruit cards, no. 779-5 [grapes]
Bufford

Druer i et Drivhus (Grapes in a Greenhouse), 1903 oil on canvas
Anna Syberg

Bunch of Grapes Quilt in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
photo by Daderot

Porträt einer jungen Frau in einer Weinlaube, 1851
Franz Xaver Winterhalter

Archaeological revival necklace, circa 1880
Castellani
Metropolitan Museum of Art

Crouse Brothers' descriptive catalogue, 1879

A delicate look in her eye

The song was co-written by Costello with Paul McCartney, and was co-produced with T-Bone Burnett and Kevin Killen, and features Paul McCartney on his iconic Höfner bass.
~Wikipedia

I bought some flowers the other day, Veronica flowers in particular, and Elvis Costello's Veronica kept going through my head when I looked at them. For Music Monday, Costello's song inspired by his grandmother:

The next Games

This medal is mainly for Yunidis Castillo. Yesterday she suffered a serious injury and I know that it is a bad moment for her now. It has happened to me before so I know how she feels.
We are all humans, we spend almost all our career together so when a teammate suffers, I suffer too.
~Omara Durand, Paralympic gold medallist

Happy Poetry Friday! I am excited that the Paralympics are starting soon (August 28-September 8) . The sports are: Para Archery, Para Athletics, Para Badminton, Blind football, Boccia, Para Canoe, Para Cycling, Para Equestrian, Goalball, Para Judo, Para Powerlifting, Para Rowing, Shooting Para Sport, Sitting Volleyball, Para Swimming, Para Table Tennis, Para Taekwondo, Para Triathlon, Wheelchair Basketball, Wheelchair Fencing, Wheelchair Rugby, and Wheelchair Tennis.

photo by Bob Nichols (USDA)

Guide Dog
by Ona Gritz

He's a celebrity on trains,
an unexpected guest at restaurants
where he lies still as the table legs
that frame his sprawled form.
There's a jaunt to his walk
as he guides you past sign posts,
weaves through rush hour streets
so that no one so much as brushes
your sleeve. That's your best friend...

read the rest here

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Previous Paralympic posts

A collection of picture books featuring disabled athletes on Instagram (The KidLit Mama)

Imagine the Possibilities has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Rose!

Peaches

One does a whole painting for one peach and people think just the opposite - that particular peach is but a detail.
~Pablo Picasso

Did you know that nectarines are actually a type of peach? I didn't realize that until recently. This week, a friend brought me a basket of peaches and they were like candy. Soo good. For Art Thursday, peaches:

Still life with peaches and silver platter
William Mason Brown

Die junge Pfirsichverkäuferin, 1888
Giovanni Sottocornola

Jin Tingbiao's painting of Yaochi to celebrate longevity

Pêches
Claude Monet

Still life with peaches, grapes and nuts on a table
Emilie Preyer

Here in my car

On November 7, Nine Inch Nails was formally inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, Class of 2020, by punk icon Iggy Pop.
~Wikipedia

For Music Monday, Nine Inch Nails with Gary Numan:

Happy typo

The more I do poetry, the less it’s about what the poem is and more about who the poem serves.
~Elizabeth Woody

I read Ariel Lawhon's The Frozen River this week and closed the book thinking that Lawhon must be a wonderful person.

The feeling reminded me of that age-old quandary: how does an artist's personality/behavior affect how you feel about their work? Recently, a lot of people were disappointed by Alice Munro.

In this case, I'm sure Lawhon is great, haven't heard anything otherwise. I feel like I know so many ethical, big-hearted writers whose beautiful internal lives are reflected in their writing. I am still wrapping my head around the gap for some people between their writing and their lives. It's bewildering.

On to today's poetry!

Blessed by Mistake by Kim Stafford

Kim Stafford on Revising the elements of a poem
Kim Stafford's poems and prompts

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Not a poem, but:

Linescapes Drawing (Sonja and Gasper)

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Salt City Verse has the Poetry Friday round-up. Thanks, Janice!

Sneezers

Instinct is the nose of the mind.
~Delphine de Girardin

I'm a bit obsessed with noses (aka honkers, sniffers, and snoots) this week because I haven't been able to breathe out of mine since I had a procedure done last week. Looking forward to improved breathing!

It's amazing I hadn't heard of the Bird of Self-Knowledge before now!

The popular proverb "Nimm dich selbst bei der Nase" ("take yourself by your nose"), also called "Vogel Selbsterkenntnis" (Bird of self-knowledge) by an unidentified painter

"Go within yourself and know yourself!" "Have the courage to use your own understanding!"

Die Wachauer Nase (i.e. The Wachau Nose), a sculpture by Gelitin artists Group in Austria. A giant is interred there so that only his nose is above the surface.
photo by Schurdl

Herb Conn doing maintenance work on Mount Rushmore
U.S. Dept. of Interior photo

The Soul of the Rose, 1903
John William Waterhouse

Pinocchio
Lizardi Saucedo

My heart’s totally lost for words

Where has the wound gone
Where the heaven have I gone
Looks like I finally melted it all down
~Fujii Kaze

For Music Monday, Fujii Kaze with a Willy Wonka-esque rainbowy good-time video:

Embrace the shake

As an art student, Phil Hansen’s intense style of pointillism led to a tremor in his hand and a diagnosis of nerve damage. Devastated, he dropped out and lost his way ... until a neurologist suggested he “embrace the shake.”
~TED

Influence and Expressions by Minnesota artist Phil Hansen ("Phil in the Circle") for Art Thursday. First up, Influence, showing 30 of Hansen's influences:





He also made Poems in Poets