This has been a great mail week!
Incoming
The mysterious postcard from North Carolina at the top above was fun because I have no idea who sent it. Is the "L" for the first or last name? There is really no hint at all and no return address--so I can't mail a reply! But it is addressed to Jenny Claire which is what my my father used to call me and what my grands still call me. I checked with the Lamkins, but not them. Curiouser and curiouser.
On the back of Teresa's envelope, she included a pic of ratatouille and a poem she wrote with the lovely line "okra chortle a ruffled message in their pods" -- that makes me smile!
Here is the postcard TES enclosed with an excerpt from a poem.
the other side...
this poem makes my mouth water
I didn't move the pot with the cherry tomatoes on to the shelter of the patio when we had a really cold morning. I meant to. I knew I should. I forgot. So damage to the leaves and the flowers that hadn't set, these little guys were OK.
If there is anything I love more than juicy, ripe tomatoes, it is fried green tomatoes. Cherry tomatoes won't do for that, so when they ripen they go into salads.
I used to collect poems on various subjects for comparison, just to show students different ways to approach a topic not normally thought poetry worthy. It started with poems by Plath and Hughes, but then I was amazed at how many famous poets had written poems about pigs. Here are a few of the ones I collected.
Sylvia Plath -- The Sow
Ted Hughes -- View of a Pig
Claude McKay -- If We Must Die
Denise Levertov -- Her Secret
Galway Kinnel -- St. Francis and the Sow
P.S. "L" if you will email me your address, I will send you a postcard back!
Good stuff Jenny, isn’t it fun to get mail that isn’t a bill!
ReplyDeleteI know! Sometimes the trip to the mailbox provides real adventure!
DeleteI'm glad the tomato poems were a hit. My cousin Mariflo is very talented, and a lot of us cousins like to write, too. My mother wrote a two volume memoir after she retired from the US Forest Service where she worked in the office of the Jefferson National Forest in Virginia. She wrote of her little nephew's death from polio, which upset her greatly. I had been playing with him shortly before his symptoms appeared, and she feared that I, too, would get polio. She also had an infant, my sister, to care for. Mother said she sent me to stay with my grandmother for a few days until she could emotionally get herself under control. I really enjoy your blogs, Jenny. I love seeing your creativity in action. I know you were an awesome teacher. Thanks for calling my attention to national poetry month.
ReplyDeleteYes, the tomato poems were such a great surprise, and I loved them! It is wonderful that you have the things your mother wrote, especially during such a stressful and personally heartbreaking time. I'd love to see Mariflo's complete anthology sometime. Thanks so much for sending me some beautiful poems, Teresa!
DeleteSuch a fun mystery. Proof that you touch many hearts.
ReplyDeletexx, Carol
I would love to reply if I had an address, but I have enjoyed pondering such a nice comment from a mysterious sender. :)
DeleteI think a pig may have had a walk-on part in a Kipling poem...
ReplyDelete"the pig returns to his mire" from "The Gods of the Copybook Headings." The four things certain in Social Progress. Kipling may have used pigs in other poems, but this one I know well.
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