Poetry Friday -- If

photo via Unsplash

If it weren't for the fireflies'
Nightly silent
Fireworks
I might have forgotten how much we
Need even tiny sparks of magic
In our lives
To remind us of the size of
Eternity.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2020

It has been so delightful to spend the week with the word IF! Thank you, Charles and Irene for the call for poems using IF as the first word of the first line.

I have poem notes and drafts in my writer's notebook between notes from Phil Bildner's talk on BookLove, Dr. Paul Thomas' NCTE/LLA talk "Teaching Without a Deficit Lens," Kelly Gallagher and Julia Torres' talk on BookLove, Cornelius Minor's NCTE Member chat, and April Baker Bell's NCTE talk about her book Linguistic Justice: Black Language, Literacy, Identity and Pedagogy. It's been the kind of week that has needed poetry woven throughout.

This poem got a lot of love when I polled adults and former students. But the more I thought about Heidi's feedback, the more I realized that it was the other one that needs to be submitted...after I revise the ending. Thanks, Heidi!

Linda has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at A Word Edgewise. She's got an In One Word Poem for us today.

Poetry Friday -- Constellations

summer has arrived

chicory is blooming

bright blue roadside stars

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2019

Summer is well and truly here when the chicory and Queen Anne's Lace bloom. Besides which, we have heard the first crickets, seen the first fireflies, and eaten the first pesto. 

We Poetry Friday peeps also know summer is here when the call goes out for Poetry Friday Roundup Hosts for July - December! Choose your date...they go quickly! 

Michelle Kogan has the roundup today. 

Poetry Friday -- Fireflies

If You Catch a Firefly
by Lillian Moore

If you catch a firefly
          and keep it in a jar
You may find that
          you have lost
A tiny star.

If you let it go then,
          back into the night,
You may see it
          once again
Star bright.


Want to learn more about fireflies? Click here.
I've featured fireflies for Poetry Friday two other times!

I didn't grow up with fireflies.
Did you?
Do you have them where you live now?
Do you call them fireflies or lightning bugs?


Karen has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at Karen Edmisten*.

Poetry Friday -- That Moment

That Moment When Summer Arrives, 
Whether or not the Solstice Has Occurred

The peonies are blown.
Rain knocked the petals off
the last poppy
and laid the daisies down on the lawn.
The first fireflies
sparkle the humid night.
You can smell
the grass growing.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2016


Jone has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at Check it Out.

The call for roundup hosts July-December went up yesterday. You can find it here.

Poetry Friday--Fireflies

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by davedehetre

Hundreds of Fireflies

BY BRAD LEITHAUSER

Sky yet violet,
shadows collecting
under the trees

and first stars wan
as night birches, the fireflies
begin: from the first,

the night belongs
to them.
Darkness brightens
them: from our screened porch

we watch their blinkings
sharpen: three, four of them
lighten nightfall of all

solemnity; ten or twelve
and the eyes are led
endlessly astray;

and in deeper night
it’s twenty, fifty, more—a number
beyond simple reckoning—

and still they keep
coming.

(the rest of the poem is at the Poetry Foundation)

I didn't experience fireflies until I grew up and moved to Ohio. It's too dry for them back home. I would have loved to have met them as a child. 

It's magical the way the light goes out of the summer sky and becomes condensed in those small green flashing lights that lift up out of the grass. They keep us grounded in the mystery that exists before our very eyes. Everyday magic. Everyday mystery. All we have to do is pay attention; it's there all the time.

Carol has the round up this week at Carol's Corner, and she's also got a poem about paying attention to the ordinary beauty of the world.

The Poetry Friday Roundup Schedule for July-December is complete! Kidlitosphere Yahoo group members, I added a file with the html code for the schedule so you can put it in your sidebar if you so choose. If you aren't a member and would like the code, email me through our blog email and I'll send it to you! Thanks, everyone!!

Poetry Friday Round Up Schedule Post