Passages: Antoine de Saint-Exupéry (1900–1944)

 

 

 

Antoine de Saint Exupéry

(June 29, 1900 – July 31, 1944) 

 

"My life is monotonous. I hunt chickens; people hunt me. All chickens are just alike, and all men are just alike. So I'm rather bored. But if you tame me, my life will be filled with sunshine. I'll know the sound of footsteps that will be different from all the rest. Other footsteps send me back underground. Yours will call me out of my burrow like music. And then, look! You see the wheat fields over there? I don't eat bread. For me wheat is of no use whatever. Wheat fields say nothing to me. Which is sad. But you have hair the color of gold. So it will be wonderful, once you've tamed me! The wheat, which is golden, will remind me of you. And I'll love the sound of the wind in the wheat . . . "

 

From The Little Prince, first published in 1943 by Reynal & Hitchcock.

 

 

Time Well Wasted

gelai red

“It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.” 
                     ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince

Yes, my friends, you're right. It *has* been a long time.

What have I been doing since November?

Basically a whole lot of everything and an equal amount of nothing. I'm trying to stay flexible and find comfort in going with the flow, but living with uncertainty is not easy for an established control freak like myself. I'm embracing the challenge.

I was going to post a poem by e. e. cummings for my birthday last month, but never got around to it. Still worthwhile advice, I think. Make sure you click on the link to read the second and third stanzas.

may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old

                   Read the rest HERE.

Michael Levine-Clark

They say that with distance (and age) comes clarity, but the only thing I can truly say with confidence is that, like the little prince, I've missed my rose.

The pull to come back to Today's Little Ditty has been strong, but I needed to make sure that when I came back it would be with an open mind and more realistic expectations of how much time I can spend here whiling away the hours. The Ditty of the Month Club kept me on such a tight schedule, I'm excited to try out some things I never had time for in the past.


National Poetry Month 2019

One of those new things I've been eager to try out is hosting a National Poetry Month program based on Classroom Connections—the series I introduced with Nikki Grimes about a year ago.

There are SO many new poetry books being published recently, I thought it would be useful to show how they can be put to use as mentor texts, with classroom exercises suggested by the authors. I'll be featuring some old friends next month, a few new friends, and several authors I've had my eye on to feature for some time now—I'm delighted to finally have the chance!

In the next couple weeks I'll have a schedule for you, but in the meantime, I hope you'll mention the series to your friends who are teachers. It's going to be a fabulous resource for bringing poetry into the classroom. And giveaways? Oh my, yes. A dittyload of giveaways.

"Birdhouses" by julie (modified)

I've missed you, Poetry Friday!

It's great to be back in the neighborhood.

Heidi Mordhorst is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at my juicy little universe. There will be many poems relating to the Youth Climate Strike taking place today. Although my post is not applicable, I look forward to lending my support to this inspiring and worthwhile endeavor.