It’s another Poetry Friday, this week hosted by Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio Rhythm and Rhyme. Thank you, Matt, for hosting!
I hope everyone in the poetry universe is healthy and well. I am supposed to attend a Highlights poetry workshop in a week, led by Gail Carson Levine. Only ten people have signed up and I suspect that it will not be cancelled, but who knows? I have been so looking forward to it. Fingers crossed. It’s an uncertain time, for sure.
Meanwhile I have a short post for this week. I’ve spent way too much time with the news, thinking about my sister in California and my son in New York City.
My oldest son, Philip, was supposed to be born on April 4th. But I never made it, and he was born early on April Fool’s Day, which he found to be a delightful birthday. Maybe that’s why he was blessed with a good sense of humor. Anyway, since it will be April soon, I will celebrate him by posting a self portrait he painted in fourth grade and a poem I wrote inspired by it. Of course, being Phil’s Mom I hardly look at the painting with objective eyes, but I’ve always loved this self portrait. It makes me smile.
Philip’s self portrait.
SELF PORTRAIT It’s a painting from school, a picture of me displayed in our house so my family can see. Not happy or sad, what does that boy think? He stares into space and never a blink! He used to be me, the boy I was then. Maybe it's time to paint me again. ©Janice Scully 2020
To end, check out and enter the NPR ekphrastic challenge. Kwame Alexander has chosen two paintings. Choose one that speaks to you and write a short poem inspired by it. Your poem might win and your words just might be heard on NPR.