Welcome to where I am, where my kitchen's always messy, a pot's (or a poet) always about to boil over, a dog is always begging to be fed. Drafts of poems on the counter. Windows filled with leaves. Wind. Clouds moving over the mountains. If you like poetry, books, and music--especially dog howls when a siren unwinds down the hill-- you'll like it here.


MY NEW AUTHOR'S SITE, KATHRYNSTRIPLINGBYER.COM, THAT I MYSELF SET UP THROUGH WEEBLY.COM, IS NOW UP. I HAD FUN CREATING THIS SITE AND WOULD RECOMMEND WEEBLY.COM TO ANYONE INTERESTED IN SETTING UP A WEBSITE. I INVITE YOU TO VISIT MY NEW SITE TO KEEP UP WITH EVENTS RELATED TO MY NEW BOOK.


MY NC POET LAUREATE BLOG, MY LAUREATE'S LASSO, WILL REMAIN UP AS AN ARCHIVE OF NC POETS, GRADES K-INFINITY! I INVITE YOU TO VISIT WHEN YOU FEEL THE NEED TO READ SOME GOOD POEMS.

VISIT MY NEW BLOG, MOUNTAIN WOMAN, WHERE YOU WILL FIND UPDATES ON WHAT'S HAPPENING IN MY KITCHEN, IN THE ENVIRONMENT, IN MY IMAGINATION, IN MY GARDEN, AND AMONG MY MOUNTAIN WOMEN FRIENDS.




Friday, March 20, 2015

HOW DO THE ANIMALS CELEBRATE SPRING? Prompt #2

Too often we forget that we share these mountains with others, the wildlife that our Native American neighbors have often called our brothers and sisters.  How would a bear, a salamander, or a raven celebrate spring?  Here are a few poems by Bill Griffin to help us begin to imagine some answers to that question.  This would be a great exercise for K-12 science teachers to use to stretch their students imaginations.   








BILL GRIFFIN is a family doctor in rural North Carolina, where his ‘writers’ group’ is a hawkswept footpath that wanders the crest of the Blue Ridge. His poems have appeared in many regional and national journals, including Tar River Poetry, POEM, NC Literary Review, Pembroke Magazine, and Illuminations. He has two chapbooks in print: Barb Quill Down (Pudding House 2004) and Changing Woman (Main Street Rag 2006).

Every summer Bill assists Mike Barnett with High Adventure Camp, leading a small crew of teenagers on their first backpacking experience in the southern Appalachian wilderness. They hope to instill in the young people not only a greater sense of self-reliance and teamwork, but also a deep sense of connection to earth, water, sky, and all life. For a week in 2007 Bill and Mike hiked Snake Den Mountain and its connecting trails; they encountered most of the creatures that speak in this collection (especially Mouse!).

Bill and his wife Linda have collaborated on plenty of creative endeavors during their 35-year marriage (including raising their two children, creative in their own right), but Snake Den Ridge: A Bestiary is their first book project undertaken together.









RAVEN

Listen.
I’m not going to say this twice.
The sum and product of words
is no mark of intelligence.
Case in point – cousin Crow,
not half as smart as all his talk.

So listen,
I know three things:
Sky, that small kiss of warm air
that rises through my primaries;

the Water on its breath, ridgeblown mist
that bathes us all and makes springs
overflow into Inadu Creek;

and Earth, slope and cup of cove,
the steep that gathers with wide black wings
to draw down Sky,
draw Water up,
that sets free all things green
into a world first fledged.

But listen.
I know from twenty circles
of snowdeep and hungry moons
and twenty circles of fresh shoots
that Sky . . . Water . . . Earth . . .
none of them are mine.

And I know none are yours.




SALAMANDER

This is my gift –
to change.
From Inadu Creek I leave behind
my frilly gills and climb
the spire of blue-eyed grass.
Having become a creature of air bathing
myself in dew, am I not still
a creature of water?

I invite you to discover
in each of my family our variations,
discern that every runnel, every spring,
every palm-sized cup of moisture
holds its lithe expectation, for this
is my gift to you –
to notice changes.

I will let you lightly touch
the welcome of my smoothness
while I drink a little warmth
from your hand. Now count
the dapples down my length,
measure the blush of my cheek,

then find when you descend
the eastern face of Snake Den Ridge
those subtle alterations my cousins
are accumulating until finally
they acquire a new name.

And when you have returned me
to my bed of blue-bead lily, then touch
a smooth place within yourself
and carry with you into the world
your own changes.




TROUT

Today Inadu Creek’s so clear
it’s like swimming in the sky.
Oh yes, sky . . . for even Trout
look up, if usually for the hopeful
rainfall of Mayflies, then again sometimes
to dream of discovering
a hatching out of stars
that sprinkle down the stream of night
between the blackgum leaves.
Heaven isn’t the other side
of darkness, it’s here
above the rocky spray that holds
piscivorous Brown and Rainbow down
in Cosby Creek, and here below
the love embrace of shade
that drips manna
every morning from its leaves.
Look closely. Learn heaven’s language
scripted on my sides –
ripple shadow of pure water,
lace of insect wings,
gold and silver speckle stars –
kisses of God.





BEAR

If you hear me, it will be a nut falling
from the buckeye. If you hear me,
it will be a dry branch
seeking earth,
it will be slender fingers
of mountain ash waving praises
to the ridgelined sky.

If you see me, it will be a shadow
only one breath deeper
than twilight.
If you see me, it will be the twist
of heart that skips
a beat, the stark
of pupils gone abruptly wide.

I am mist that enfolds the laurel.
I am stone that reclines beneath black hemlocks.
I am a rumor at Maddron Bald,
a tremor at Mt. Guyot.

Raven is mistaken – this Ridge is mine.

And if you hear me, it will be the rising chest
of the mountain and its timeless slow
exhale,
and if you hear me
it will only be because
I didn’t hear you first.


Wednesday, March 18, 2015

BRING ME ALL OF YOUR GREEN DREAMS, springboard # 3

This poem by Langston Hughes has inspired poets, especially young ones, by the dozens. If you go to my October post on The Basketball Poets in Supply, NC, you will find Alyssa Miller’s poem inspired by this particular piece. ( http://ncpoetlaureate.blogspot.com/2008/10/springboards-for-students-and-teachers.html. )I suggested students take this poem as a model and see what they themselves could bring to their own poetry. Liz Cronan’s 5th Graders at Sugar Loaf Elementary School in Taylorsville accepted the invitation and soon I received 48 poems in response. Here as one long post are their poems, preceded by Hughes’ poem.  And a poem I just this minute wrote, using Hughes' poem as a springboard.  I hope to see some poems using this prompt in our Greening Up the Mountains gathering of poems.

Bring me all of your dreams,
You dreamer,
Bring me all your
Heart melodies
That I may wrap them
In a blue cloud-cloth
Away from the too-rough fingers
Of the world.

--by Langston Hughes

Bring me all of your heavenly scent
Lady Lilac
Bring me all your new buds
about to unfold
another spring shivaree,
follow me everywhere when
I walk out to the garden,
and wrap me in your all too
ephemeral negligee,
lavendar lace round the edges,
let me dream I wake up
swathed in sunlight and silk.

KSB











Thought keeper
Bring me all your thoughts,
you thinkers.
Bring me all your brain storms,
that I can put them in a safe.
Only for you to see. -SD


Moon keeper
Bring me all your craters.
Keep away all the cold memories
So I can be free of nightmares,
That haunt me at midnight. -AB


Bring me all your happiness,
you happy people.
All your happiness will come to me.
I will wrap it in a green cloth,
So I can keep it away from the hands of the sad. -LS


Bring me all of your beliefs
Bring me everything you believe in.
So I may wrap them up in a green cloud cloth,
Away from the bad minds of the world. -ES


Bring me all your madness.
Bring me all your bad memories.
So I can lock them in a dark jail cell.
So you can carry on with your life. --DS


Faithkeeper
Bring me your faith,
You religious people.
So I can put them in a box.
Where only God can see. -MW


The Laughkeeper
Bring me all of your warm laughs,
You laughers.
Bring me all of your feelings,
So I may wrap them in a soft yellow cloth
Where only hearts who see happiness may see. -LW

Bring me your happy thoughts,
Bring me the fun times.
So that I may wrap them in cool feelings
and be in peace from the world. -PT


Bring me all your faithfulness,
Bring me all your warm memories,
I may take them away to a
World of freedom so you may keep all. -MC


Bring me all your beliefs,
you believers.
Bring me all your desires,
so that I can soak them up with a gentle touch of feeling
and no enemies will lay eyes on these faithful gifts. -KC

Bring me all your braveness,
Bring me all your good times,
So I may wrap them in a brown cloth
and keep them away from the darkness. -ZD


Bring me all your hopes,
you hopers.
Bring me all your heart beats of hope.
That I may wrap them in a deep red cloth,
Away from the rejecting souls of the world. -CB


Bring me your courage,
The fall of your faith,
The wish of your commands,
however the small act of kindness.
I shall wrap them up in the crystal cloth
And they shall stay mine. -KL


Bring me all your thoughts,
Bring me all your ideas,
So I can put them in a box
Away from the evil world. -SW


The Wishkeeper
Bring me all of your wishes,
Bring me all of your hopes,
So I may pack them in a small brown box,
Where only the person who seeks them may see. -HF


Bring me all your wisdom,
Bring me all you know.
So that I may hide them from the world,
so no one else can see. -LO



Bring me all your courage,
Bring me all of your braveness,
that I can cover them,
away from evil. -NR


Bring me all your knowledge
Bring me all your wisdom,
So I may wrap them up in bly sky cloth
Away from those untrusted. -TS



Bring me all your worries,
Bring me all the bad ones,
So I may wrap them up in a light blue cloth and replace
Them with good thoughts. -AB


Bring me all your warm memories of your hearts’ desire.
Bring me all the sweet melodies
That I may wrap them in all the hearts’ love
Where no one will see. -AM



Couragetaker
Bring me all your courage,
Bring me all your bravery
So you can have it when you need it,
To climb a tree. -MC


Bring me all your love,
Bring me all your sadness,
Bring me all your hopes,
Bring me all your failures,
So I can lock them all away,
From the negative world around. -KB

Bring me all your beliefs in politics,
So that I may fix them to be right
And cast the wrong ones in fiery depths
So the world can be fresh with Republicans. -CGN


Bring me all your knowledge
Bring me all your wisdom
So I can wrap them in a cloud cloth,
Away from the hands of the world. -CR
November 12, 2008 11:54 AM





Bring me all your happiness,
Bring me all your laughter,
So I may wrap it in peacock feathers,
Where good people can see it. -JF

Bring me all your love,
Bring me all your kindness,
So I may wrap it in soft black and white cloth,
Where only people that deserve it can see. -JC

Bring me your beliefs,
Bring me your faith,
So I may keep them in my heart,
Where only I can see them. -TD


Bring me all your secrets,
Bring me all your thoughts,
So I may lay them in a pink blanket,
Where only worthy ears can hear them. -KB

Bring me all your happiness,
Bring me all your joy,
So I may keep it safe,
Where I can listen to them. -JL

Bring me all your respect,
Bring me your honor,
So I may respect other people,
Where I can be respected too. -DD


Bring me all your memories,
Bring me the best memories you've ever had,
So I may keep them in a little box,
Where no one will ever see them. -KC



Bring me your memories,
Bring me your thoughts,
So I may wrap them up
Where I can keep them safe. -MF


Bring me the memories of your heart,
Bring me all your happiness and all your sadness,
So I amy wrap them up in a red cloth,
Where I will keep them for all my hearts desire. -MF


Bring me all your hopes,
Bring me all the things you are dreaming of doing,
So I may lock them away in my heart,
Where only I can see them. -JeF


Bring me all your angry feelings,
Bring me all you madness,
So I may wrap them in a black cloth,
Where no one can touch them. -HD


Bring me all of your sweet love,
Bring me all of your lost love,
So I may spread it throughout the world,
Where everyone can experience it. -KE


Bring me all your feelings,
Bring me all your happiness and sadness,
So I may wrap them up in a purple silky cloth,
Where others can't get to them. -CB



Bring me your feelings,
Bring me your sadness, happiness and love,
SO I may wrap them in soft yellow sun,
Where only you may seee. -AC



Bring me all your happy thoughts,
Bring me all your memories,
So I may keep them warm and safe,
Where anyone can't see them. -MM


Bring me all your sadness,
Bring me all your bad feelings,
So i may make them into great feelings,
Where only happiness can grow. -JacB


Bring me all your love,
Bring me your heart,
So I may respect you,
Where ever you are. -CD



Bring me happiness,
Bring me all your joy,
So I may wrap them in an orange cloth,
Where I can give it to Jesus. -HB


Bring me all of your sunlight,
Bring me all of your warmth,
So I may keep it
Where I like best, in a blanket of safeness and warmth. -DB

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

WRITING KWANSABA POEMS, student prompt # 4

First daffodil in my front yard!

My friend Lenard Moore, one of this year's North Carolina Awards
winners in Literature, introduced me to the Kwansaba poetry form.  Go to this link on my laureate blog, My Laureate's Lasso, to read more about Lenard and the the http://ncpoetlaureate.blogspot.com/2009/05/kwansaba-poems-by-lenard-moores.html

The Kwansaba came into being as a praise song.
The Kwansaba is a poem consisting of seven lines. Each line has no more than seven words. Each word has no more than seven letters. Thus, the form, revolving around the number 7, adding up to 49 words, is based on the seven principles of the Kwanzaa celebration.

Here is a Kwansaba I just wrote, after looking up at the leafless trees outside my window,  waiting to turn green again.

March 18

Spring is almost here. I can smell
it in the wind. See my dog's 
nose twitch! He sniffs the valley air
and dreams the red fox we saw
last spring runs again along the ridge
where green gets ready to leaf out
and we get ready to sing praise!