Poetry Friday - What I Learned From My Mother

I am hitting the road today to spend some time with my mother. This poem is for her.

What I Learned From My Mother
by Julia Kasdorf

I learned from my mother how to love
the living, to have plenty of vases on hand
in case you have to rush to the hospital
with peonies cut from the lawn, black ants
still stuck to the buds. I learned to save jars
large enough to hold fruit salad for a whole
grieving household, to cube home-canned pears
and peaches, to slice through maroon grape skins
and flick out the sexual seeds with a knife point.

Read the entire poem.

The round up is being hosted by Mary Lee over at A Year of Reading. Do stop by and take in all the wonderful works being shared this week. Happy poetry Friday all!

I'll be on hiatus (yeah, I've been on one for a while) for the rest of the month, but I'll be back in August. I'm hoping to pick up where I left off about a year ago with, you know, regular blogging, book reviews, and poetry. See you soon!

Science, Art, and a New Book

Tonight is my last night of summer school. I've had little time for anything but teaching as of late, but when this came across my desk I had to share. Take a look at the excerpts from the fascinating and absolutely stunning book Field Notes on Science & Nature, edited by Michael Canfield.

Beautiful Data: The Art of Science Field Notes

Monday Poetry Stretch - Books and Reading

I am five days away from vacation--count 'em--just FIVE! If I can get through 6 candidate interviews, my last class sessions, and final grades, I'll be home free. I am looking forward to the last HP movie and reading until my eyeballs fall out of my head. As Emily said, "There is no Frigate like a Book/To take us Lands away," so let's write about reading and books. Leave me a note about your poem and I'll post the results here later this week.

Tuesday Poetry Stretch - Fireworks

So yesterday was a holiday, and as you can see, I took that quite literally. I love those days when the pj's don't come off until noon! We saw fireworks on Saturday, which was fortuitous since they were rained out last night.

I haven't been able to stop thinking about fireworks since the weekend, in large part because the display we saw was once of the nicest I've seen in a while. So let's write about fireworks, the ones in the sky or the ones in your heart. Leave me a note about your poem and I'll post the results here later this week.

Until I see you back here, here's a short poem.

Starburst
colors galore
dancing before the sky
launched heavenward to fall again
KABOOM!