Tag: Tabatha Yeatts

Poetry Swap: Visitors from Other Worlds

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week, hosted by Romona, at https://pleasuresfromthepage.blogspot.com. Thank you for hosting, Romona!

What is Poetry Friday? Find out at https://www.nowaterriver.com/what-is-poetry-friday/

Previously I posted concerning questions about the universe at https://janicescully.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=4858&action=edit

I shared this Golden Shovel poem entitled Einstein’s Theory of Relativity:

Einstein's Theory of Relativity

 ". . . we are luminous beings made of energy." (Quote from "Frequently asked Questions about the Universe," by Jorge Cham & Daniel Whiteson.


Because of Einstein, we
find out that we aren’t what we think we are.
Can you sense the luminous
forces that bind molecules inside Human beings
together? Our arms and legs seem made
to appear solid, but we are simply sculpted of 
pure energy. 

© Janice Scully 2023

In my recent poetry swap gift, Tabatha responded to my poem, imagining what the visitors from other worlds might look like, how energy might “shape itself” in the alien world. It’s a wonderful poem, and we all might wonder if life on other planets are like us or “a new formulation, unrecognizable to us.” 

VISITORS FROM OTHER WORLDS
by Tabatha Yeatts
 
They could be anything, couldn't they?
The possibility of cosmic life circles us like a comet,
leaves a trail of stardust we fall asleep beneath, 
dreaming of creatures whose ship descends in our midst 
like a ladder being lowered from the galactic attic.
 
They could be anything, couldn't they?
We know this because we see what's here–
long-necked, long-limbed spotted leaf-eaters,
underwater jelly dancers, nighttime light darters,
zipping sword beaks, round-tailed waterslappers.
Even wolves come in a thousand unlikely variants,
including ones we can carry with us like a yapping moon.
 
Energy shapes itself in startling ways– asserts itself– 
is the recipe, the chef, and the waiting mouth.
What has it cooked up in other watery, windy worlds?
What life-forms are brewing, sloshing out of their primordial sea?
Are they primate-shaped, mammalian? Like us at all? 
Or perhaps they are a new formulation, unrecognizable to us,
which treasures the atmosphere, the elements, the star-span
that cups the flame of their existence, 
keeping it from blowing out.

Her poem arrived with a quote from Thoreau about gratitude that begins, “I am grateful for what I am and have.” I know I am grateful to Tabatha and the Poetry Friday community.

How shall I end this post? I’ll end with a haiku inspired about swimming and especially floating in a lake or a pool. For a few minutes I can make all external sounds go away and all is silent. 

I float, ears submerged.
Swaying tree tops are silent.
Is it them breathing?

©Janice Scully 2023

I wonder if some aliens have ears and might similarly enjoy floating?

Have a wonderful weekend.

Imperfect ll, A Poetry Anthology for Middle Schoolers

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by the amazing Jama on her blog, Jama’s Alphabet Soup, HERE . Make sure you stop by and see the art and poetry she is sure to share.

Poetry can provide a vacation from the small intense worlds in which kids and all of us live day to day. IMPERFECT II, edited by Tabatha Yeatts, is a thoughtful and also entertaining poetry anthology of eighty poems that in different ways address the notion of perspective. This collection will give the middle school audience ways to think about what they see happening, the stress, all the things that seem in any given moment more important than they really are. This is Yeatt’s second anthology after IMPERFECT: Poems about Mistakes.

One of the first poems, in IMPERFECT ll, is “Compared to What?” by Robert Schechter. Written in rhyming quatrains, the poem shows his fun take on perspective. Here are the first three stanzas (out of eleven) 

Compared to What?
by Robert Schecter

A pebble isn't all that big
   compared to stones or boulders,
but it's a mountain to the ant
   who lifts it on its shoulders.

And if you were a molecule,
   an atom or a proton,
a water drop would be a lake
   for you to sail your boat on.

An elephant is huge for sure;
   its trunk would crush your scale.
And yet it doesn't seem that large
   if you're a humpback whale.

The rest of Schechter’s poem takes us into outer space to consider the sizes of stars and galaxies, that make the pebble or a whale seem small, because it provides a different perspective.

Wisdom is sprinkled generously throughout the anthology in poems such as this:

It takes a lot of courage and strength
to change yourself. You need to be brave
enough to look at what is better for you
and change for that. 

Matt Haig

And here’s one free verse poem that certainly speaks to me, as I remember times when I said the wrong thing and relived that horrid moment for days or much longer:

RUMINATION
by Stanley Dunlap

It's over,
so why
does my brain want to
revisit
reimagine
recreate
What I COULD have said
What I SHOULD have said?

As hard as I try
to get it right
in all these scenarios,
I will
never change what has already happened.

Perhaps I should
stop the endless imagining
of what might have been
give myself a break
and know that I have surely learned
surely grown
and will surely 
do better 
next time.

These are just a few examples and there are many great more poems in this book that are accessible to young readers and fun to read. They might help adults begin conversations with kids about topics that teachers and parents might need a nudge to initiate.

IMPERFECT II ends with back matter about positive thinking and also tips on releasing tension with deep breathing. I think these end chapters would have been helpful to me as a young person.

Imperfect ll can be purchased on Amazon, HERE.

Speaking of perspective, passing though St. Louis recently, I felt small indeed next to the famous arch there. I had no idea it was so big.

Another place to gain a sense of perspective is Badlands National Park in S. Dakota, that filled the horizon.

Imperfect ll can be purchased on Amazon, HERE. I wish all a wonderful weekend, and if you’re in a temperate climate, daffodils, new leaves on trees and forsythias.

Thank you Jama for hosting!