Slice of Life Tuesday - April Means Poetry

  The Slice of Life Group Can Be Found at Two Writing Teachers with Stacey and Ruth.  Come read some beautiful writing!  One more thank you for the March challenge.  A friend gave me a book of daily writings from Rilke.  One day this arrived:  I live my life in widening circles That reach out across the world.  Rainer Maria Rilke  It seemed important to share with the slicers!

     Also, be sure to check on the Poetry Tag Group shown at the right!  And check on Jama Rattigan's blog post at Jama's Alphabet Soup  to discover so many Poetry sites in the kidlitosphere doing wonderful things!  Cathy, at Merely Day By Day, is joining Mary Lee, at A Year of Reading in a poem a day this month. Other daily poem writers include Amy at The Poem Farm, and Donna at Mainely Write.

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 I am pursuing a personal project about different ways of looking at children (mine, others, and grandchildren, too) growing up.  It will be a series of poems at different stages in a life, essentially saying goodbye each time.  I hope to put them together in a book with pictures of my grandchildren (now 10 ½, almost 3, 7 months) at the particular stage I am describing in the poem.  Part of this comes from my talks with my daughter, about pregnancy, the children growing and changing so fast.  Another part is that I love telling stories through poetry, and I love poems of goodbye, so I thought this would be a good way to combine both passions.  Someday I hope to put it all together in a book for my grandchildren.  It’s good to have a goal and an audience to write for.  You can find poem number one here, and number two here. 

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Toddling into two-

on your way to three,

I find I miss your

halting steps,

holding my hand

only to move

off the curb.

Now you begin

learning no and then why

and I do it-

startling

pronouncements

of separation.

Your eyes prowl

for the next adventure,

now.

Wow, you are growing,

your baby steps going

into a run-and-jump song.

If this could be slowed

I would linger a while

keeping your baby smile

only for me.