Poetry Friday Roundup -- Happy New Year!

Ahhh...the party is over,
the guests have gone,
we've cleaned up (and found the party favor/bookmark we meant to include yesterday -- thank you to Franki's teen for creating it for us),
and it's quiet again.

We got a couple of inches of fluffy snow in the night, so even the natural world is looking like a blank slate, like a new year fresh with possibilities.

Please leave us a link and a little bit about about your Poetry Friday entry in the comments. We'll be rounding up throughout the day.

Hopes, Wishes, Prayers & Resolutions

Ruth, from There is no such thing as a god-forsaken town, gives us the Kenyan National Anthem as a prayer for the country of her childhood.

Liz, a Texan at Liz in Ink, shares an Irish poem that says much about Iowa.

Becky, at Farm School, gives us a companion poem to the one above, from Liz. (Be sure to check out the sidebar graphics!)

Laura, from laurasalas, has some poetry resolutions.

Sherry, at Semicolon, has a poem for the new year, and for every new day.

MotherReader gives us a New Year wish and a New Year blessing.

Karen, of Karen Edmiston, is Burning the Old Year with Naomi Shihab Nye.

Originals

Cloudscome, at a wrung sponge, shares with us an amazing first sonnet.

Elaine, Wild Rose Reader, wrote a poem about a pencil writing a poem! (You were too subtle about tooting your own horn, Elaine! Thank you for the correction, Tricia!)

Susan, from Wizards Wireless, writes about reading aloud to her son.

Stacey, one of Two Writing Teachers, wrote her poem the day after her wedding. (Be sure to enlarge it and check out the font on the title!)

Laura, at laurasalas, had a great picture this week for 15 Words or Less Poems. Go add one!

Jone, of MsMac and DeoWriter, has two frosty haiku for us today.

Children and Parents

Susan T., from Chicken Spaghetti, has a poem and a meditation on the swiftness of childhood.

Christine, at the simple and the ordinary, has another poem about childhood.

HipWriterMama is wondering how children turn out the way they do.

Sheila, at Greenridge Chronicles, shares a mother and child poem that's also about the river and the sea.

Jenny, from Little Acorns Treehouse, is *travelling* to Pennsylvania with her children this week.

Sarah, at The Reading Zone, used Dylan Thomas for her first Poetry Friday with her students.

Poets and Poetry

Jill, from The Well-Read Child, joins us for the first time for Poetry Friday! Welcome, Jill! We promise not to make any assumptions about you based on where you're from!

Sara, at Read, Write, Believe, savors poetry. How about you? Do you gobble, or savor?

Marci, at World of Words, features a Cybils Nominee.

Tricia, from The Miss Rumpius Effect, keeps us thinking about math with three poems from Sandburg.

Jules, at 7-Imp, shares a favorite from Deborah Keenan, and a bonus extra at the bottom of her post.

Mitali, at Mitali's Fire Escape, ponders her newfound Readergirlz Diva fame.

Little Willow shares some fragments of How to Paint the Portrait of a Bird, newly translated and illustrated by Mordicai Gerstein.

Gregory K., at GottaBook, offers us an invitation to fib!

Freed from the poetry nominations panel for the Cybils, Kelly Fineman lists her top ten poetry books for 2007.

Sylvia also has a list of her top poetry books of 2007.

Annamaria, at Books Together, shares lots of gargoyle-y goodness, along with a gargoyle poem.

The Cole Mine is in with a poem by Maya Angelou.

Winter

Ahoy, S/V Mari-Hal-O-Jen, and welcome to your first Poetry Friday! Hopefully, Key West will warm up very soon!

RM1(SS) (ret), The Old Coot, shares with us The Man from Snowy River by Banjo Paterson.

writer2b, at Findings, brings us Frost's The Road Not Taken, and some personal connections to that poem.

Elaine, at Blue Rose Girls, is relearning winter, like the poet in her poem.

TadMack, from Finding Wonderland, is enjoying the dark, the solitude, and her tea.

Passionately Curious, a second grade teacher, has a snow poem for today.

Suzanne, at Adventures in Daily Living, has a poem about a cat who tracks in snow.

Food

Jama, from jama rattigan's alphabet soup, has quite a bubbly pot on the stove for us!



Here's a New Year wish for you and for our world, from The Dixie Chicks' song, "I Hope":

There must be a way to change what's going on
No, I don't have all the answers, but
I hope
For more love, more joy and laughter
I hope
you'll have more than you'll ever need
I hope
There'll be more happy ever afters
I hope
We can all live more fearlessly
And we can lose all the pain and misery
I hope, I hope

And a reminder to appreciate every moment of this beautiful life you've been given, from Kenny Chesney's song, "Don't Blink":

Best start putting first things first
Cause when your hourglass runs out of sand
You can't flip it over and start again
Take every breathe God gives you for what it's worth

Don't Blink
Just like that you're six years old and you take a nap
And you wake up and you're twenty-five
And your high school sweetheart becomes your wife
Don't blink
You just might miss your babies growing like mine did
Turning into moms and dads
Next thing you know your "better half"
Of fifty years is there in bed
And you're praying God takes you instead
Trust me friend a hundred years goes faster than you think
So don't blink






Some Poetry Friday Trivia from 2007:
In May this year, Poetry Friday got it's official button. Suzanne is kind enough to provide the code for using the button as a link to the week's roundup, Susan has a list of links to all the Poetry Fridays from 2006 and 2007, and Susan T. wrote an article about Poetry Friday for the Poetry Foundation.