Welcome! Welcome to Poetry Friday and today I have the honor of hosting. It’s a busy weekend for me with family visiting but over the weekend read and comment on everyone’s post. Please check in with Mr. Linky at the end to add your name to share your blog.
What is Poetry Friday? Find out here.
I have been thinking about storms this week. I love watching a storm in progress, the changes in the sky, the air and the trees. I love the sound of rain and wind as long as I feel safe. I know I’m not the only one who likes to think about storms. Many writers have written and write about dramatic weather. I’ll recommend a picture book and a few poems out the very many that have been inspired by weather.
CLAP! CLAP! BOOM!: The Story of a Thunderstorm, by Laura Purdie Salas, illustrated by Elly Mackay, takes us into the heart of a storm, the sights and terrific sounds. It is written in rhyming verse that will definitely appeal to kids. It would also be fun for parents to read aloud.
We learn of a storm from it’s suspenseful onset, where we feel something is about to happen. Below, three children sense a storm is coming when they see clouds, just as we all do. We hear what they see in Purdie Salas’ lyrical verse. . . and the storm builds.
Starting low, they grow and grow-- white above, now gray below. Rustling, murmuring rush begins or whispering leaves in newborn winds.
The climax of the storm is shown inside the book and also on the cover of the book, seen above, featuring the roiling sea and lightening bolts lighting up a craggy mountain. It’s a lovely illustration.
The storm ends with the world quiet and “shining.” Storms have satisfying arcs.
ZAP! CLAP! BOOM! is a wonderful picture book capturing stormy excitement that all humans, young and old, can share.
Besides ZAP! CLAP! BOOM!, I bought another book, a new poetry collection, with gentle rhymes and lovely art work.
I enjoy the humor and voice in THE FATHER GOOSE COLLECTION OF POETRY, by Charles Ghingha and illustrated by Sara Brezzi. I love the subtle humor, for instance, in the following short fun poem.
THUNDER BUGS By Charles Ghigna On stormy nights I often wonder, Do Lightning bugs Make the Thunder?
What a wonderful question!
In books new or old, there is an endless number of poems for those charmed by weather. Here’s a gentler poem by Langston Hughes:
Langston Hughes 1901-1967
April Rain Song By Langston Hughes. Let the rain kiss you Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops Let the rain sing you a lullaby (The rest HERE)
And other by Elizabeth Coatsworth who was born the same year as my grandmother:
Elizabeth Coatsworth 1893-1986
SUMMER RAIN by Elizabeth Coatsworth What could be lovelier than to hear the summer rain cutting across the heat as scythes cutting across grain? Falling upon the steaming roof with sweet uproar, Tapping and rapping wildly at the door? (The Rest HERE)
Even with the inconvenience, I love the changes in weather within each week and within each day.
Below is a poem I wrote last year. An earlier version was published in an on line journal. But that version seemed overdone to me. I really didn’t like it. I have since cut most of it, eighty percent!, realizing that shorter is in this case much better.
AFTER THE RAINSTORM MATINEE We stand in the quiet, shivering, awed, as high in the balcony rainbows applaud. © Janice Scully (draft)
Have a wonderful weekend!