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Thursday, August 1, 2024

you *are* here

Happy August to All!  When this time of year rolls around, I always think of one of the great openings of children's literature, the Prologue to TUCK EVERLASTING by Natalie Babbitt:

"The first week of August hangs at the very top of summer, the top of the live-long year, like the highest seat of a Ferris wheel when it pauses in its turning. The weeks that come before are only a climb from balmy spring, and those that follow a drop to the chill of autumn, but the first week of August is motionless, and hot. It is curiously silent, too, with blank white dawns and glaring noons, and sunsets smeared with too much color. Often at night there is lightning, but it quivers all alone. There is no thunder, no relieving rain. These are strange and breathless days, the dog days, when people are led to do things they are sure to be sorry for after."


I'm dropping in again during this, my Summer of Submission, to participate in the Inklings monthly challenge, which piggybacks on my "wish you were here" postcard poem challenge from July.  Catherine wrote to us from the Library of Congress website:

Ada Limón’s project as Poet Laureate is “You Are Here.” “This project is for everyone, and I hope people of all ages—poets and nonpoets—will feel moved to write their own response to the “You Are Here” prompt. It’s simple: What would you write in response to the landscape around you? You can share your response if you choose using the hashtag #youareherepoetry. Here is a link to the website: https://www.loc.gov/programs/poetry-and-literature/poet-laureate/poet-laureate-projects/you-are-here/

Very very cool, with the National Parks connection!  I copped out a little but I'm pleased with my effort, which surprised me.





I'm excited to see what others have come up with--sometimes we're able to share and critique each other's efforts ahead of posting, but not really this time. I can make a better effort to get around and comment this weekend too!

Check out the other #youareherepoetry offerings here, and thanks to Laura Purdie Salas, new book birth mom, for rounding us up here at the top of the Ferris wheel! (I hope you don't have Covid, Laura.)

Mary Lee Hahn @ A(nother) Year of Reading

Catherine Flynn @ Reading to the Core

Molly Hogan @ Nix the Comfort Zone

Linda Mitchell @ A Word Edgewise
Margaret Simon @ Reflections on the Teche


10 comments:

  1. Heidi, what a wonderful idea this is on a trip when you are somewhere:
    "We reach out for a spot, a point to put our finger on, the locus of our being..."
    I love the deliberateness of stating "We are here." Your poem is a gem. Right now I'm touching that warm "worn down spot on [my] sternum," thinking about me. Thank you.

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  2. I enjoyed your poem especially after I visited a national park this summer and located my place on the "you are here" maps. The ending of your poem is so personal, leaving the reader finding the place on their sternum, "the symbol for YOU." The opening lines of Tuck Everlasting do perfectly describe the first week of August, the apex of summer. I loved reading it again. Thanks!

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  3. Heidi, what a good poem you created from this prompt! I like the way it moves from the park to the personal. My favorite line is "all of them seeking confirmation that they/are here." That's exactly what we do.

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  4. Oh, that Natalie Babbitt passage - magic from a magical book. And your poem has magic, too, connecting us all to communal places and to our heart centers! Happy Dog Days.

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  5. Thank you for sharing Natalie Babbitt's opening lines from "Tuck Everlasting." Perfection. I haven't thought about that book in a while, but you've started the wheels turning, so to speak! And I love the way you have connected our physical location to our emotional center. So wise!

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  6. Ooh, Heidi, I know you feel like you copped out by doing the literal You Are Here button, but I think you worked magic with it. I love how you turn at the end and direct the reader to touch there own center...lovely. Also, I was negative last night. Will be retesting again tonight/tomorrow. Thanks for the good wishes!

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  7. Natalie Babbitt describes that first week in August so well—she had her finger on that special spot, like your "worn-down spot on your sternum." Thanks for "Wayfinding", and yes I feel it!

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  8. Thank you for Natalie Babbitt. I think that book deserves a reread.
    As for your poem, not a cop out at ALL. Just because the rest of us went with the "here" doesn't mean you shouldn't have attended to the "you." After we center and acknowledge ourselves, we are better positioned to witness and advocate for the rest of the natural world (the part outside our self).

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  9. Thanks for the reminder of Tuck Everlasting. It makes me want to start the year with it as a read aloud. Your Wayfinding is just right for the You are Here challenge. I love the worn down spot...

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  10. Heidi, your poem offered time to pause and reflect in a touching way. Thanks for emphasizing the you we sometimes forget

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Thanks for joining in the wild rumpus!