Filling the Well: Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Joyce, and Brandon Oldenburg

 

Samuele Di Blasi

 

Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.

 

– Ralph Waldo Emerson

 

 

 "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore"

(Oscar winner for best animated short 2012)

Written by William Joyce

Directed by William Joyce and Brandon Oldenburg

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ad3CMri3hOs

Thank you for coming along on my Filling the Well journey for National Poetry Month. I've appreciated the company, as well as all the comments, emails, and poems these posts inspired! I hope you are feeling refreshed and have found something beautiful, interesting, joyful, or curious to take with you. If you missed or would like to revisit any of this month's posts, you'll find them listed below. Browse through all of the Filling the Well posts from the last two years by clicking on "Filling the Well" in the sidebar list to the right.

 

Be well and be kind to yourself. 

          –Michelle

April 1: Michelle H. Barnes and Cosmo Sheldrake

April 2: Hans Christian Andersen

April 3: Guy Finley, Anneke van Giersbergen and Árstíðir 

April 4: Joseph Campbell and Fabien Weibel

April 5: Salvador Dalí and Pilobolus

April 6: Jacob Nordby and Talking Animals

April 7: Aileen Fisher, XTC, and Takarazuka Ballet

April 8: Amit Ray and Yehuda Amichai

April 9: Frances Hodgson Burnett

April 10: Frank Lloyd Wright, Stéphane Grappelli, and Django Reinhardt

April 11: John Burroughs and Stunts Amazing

April 12: Beverly Cleary

April 13: Lee Bennett Hopkins and Judy Collins

April 14: X. J. Kennedy, Godfrey Reggio, Philip Glass, and Ron Fricke

April 15: Lucille Clifton, Anthony Howe, and Akeboshi

April 16: Donna Tartt and Micah

April 17: Kobayashi Issa

April 18: Yasunari Kawabata and Alexander Mercks

April 19: Marcus Aurelius, Odilon Redon, Garip Ay, and Vincent van Gogh

April 20: Shannon L. Alder, Randy Hilliker, and Marina and the Diamonds

April 21: Hayao Miyazaki and Huang Yi

April 22: Emily Dickinson and Louie Schwartzberg

April 23: William Shakespeare, Marc Colagiovanni, and Peter H. Reynolds

April 24: Victor Hugo and Eugène Carrière

April 25: Romain Rolland, Georges Lemmen, NASA, and The Jive Aces

April 26: Edith Wharton and Valérian Desterne

April 27: Rumi and Paul Smith

April 28: Nellie Bly, Pufferfish, and Danny Macaskill

April 29: Jennifer Clement, Henry Cuyler Bunner, and Tori Amos

April 30: Ralph Waldo Emerson, William Joyce, and Brandon Oldenburg

 

 

Filling the Well: William Shakespeare and Alice Tzue

 

Myriams-Fotos

 

How far that little candle throws his beams! 

So shines a good deed in a weary world.
 

– William Shakespeare, from The Merchant of Venice

 

 

"Soar"

An animated short film by Alice Tzue

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDkpVwrhYfo

 

 

 

April 1: John Muir

April 2: e.e. cummings and enra

April 3: Edith Wharton and Henri Matisse

April 4: Cesare Pavese 

April 5: Anton Chekhov and Cat Stevens

April 6: Ray Bradbury and... cats 

April 7: Oliver Wendell Holmes and Hanjin Song

April 8: Albert Einstein and John Bohannon

April 9: Florence Parry Heide and Andres Amador

April 10: Zelda Fitzgerald and Arvo Pärt

April 11: Elinor Wylie

April 12: David Ault and Imogen Heap

April 13: William Shakespeare and Alice Tzue

 

 

Two Line Tuesday: Dr. Seuss

How did it get so late so soon? . . .

Angela Marie Henriette

My goodness how the time has flewn.

– Dr. Seuss

Reflections of Flight

"South for the Winter" by tdlucas5000

This year has flown by, hasn't it?

It certainly has for me.  

I announced my intentions and defined my plans at the beginning of 2014. My goal: to fly. Revisiting these posts, I respect their honesty and love them for their hopefulness.  Fast forward to today, and I'm touching down to reflect on the year's journey. 

"Bird landing on balcony, Barbados" by Berit Watkin

As I predicted back in January, it hasn't always been easy. I've had my share of botched take-offs, miscalculations, fatigue... I've even crashed into a few window panes. But with the help of family, friends, and writing partners, I've managed to shake out my wings and keep going.

I've also had my successes. Looking back on the places my "one little word" has taken me, I'm especially proud of the way Today's Little Ditty has soared and inspired.  I'm grateful for the insight of my TLD contributors, for my featured guests in the Haiku Garden and Limerick Alley, for the outstanding authors who trust me with their interviews and book reviews for the Ditty of the Month Club, for the lively bunch of DMC participants and commenters, and for my silently supportive followers as well. I'm also thankful for Poetry Friday, the KidLitosphere, and my growing flock of poetry-loving friends – those I've found and those who have found me.  

Today's Little Ditty will be taking a brief hiatus for the rest of December, but don't fret, DMC fans! I have more fabulous children's poetry and picture book stars lined up for next year, beginning in January with...

                                     wait for it...

                                                   Joyce Sidman!

I'm delighted that Joyce will be joining me next month, and look forward to seeing you all as well, rejuvenated from the holidays and ready to spread ditty joy.

Thanks again to Bob Raczka for being my featured author in November and to everyone who participated in his fun haiku challenge!  For those who missed last week's wrap-up, you can find it HERE.  Random.org has determined that the winner of SANTA CLAUSES: Short Poems from the North Pole, by Bob Raczka and illustrated by Chuck Groenink is:

CAROL WILCOX – congratulations Carol!

I'd like to leave you today with the Golden Shovel that I wrote in response to Laura Shovan's invitation this past October.  The Golden Shovel is a poetic form that takes a line from a favorite poem and uses those words, in order, as the end words of a new poem.  I based mine on a line from Adelaide Crapsey's "November Night": "Like steps of passing ghosts." I then superimposed my poem onto a public domain image I found on pixabay.com so that Carol Varsalona could include it in her Finding Fall Gallery.  Keep your eyes peeled for Carol's gallery opening in the next week or two.

(click on image to enlarge)

Wishing you the gift of poetry this holiday season, beginning with today's Poetry Friday roundup. Anastasia Suen is our host at Booktalking #kidlit.

Five for Friday: Defining Flight

Owl Flying against a Moonlit Sky, Caspar David Friedrich

"Flying" is my One Little Word for 2014.  

I didn't choose it, though.  It chose me.  From the moment it escaped from my fingers and flew onto the computer screen last week, Flying made itself at home, nesting prominently in my thoughts.

This week I've been exploring what, to me, the act of flying means.  On a practical level, it means loading up my schedule with goals and challenges like Shannon Abercrombie's Start the Year Off Write and Julie Hedlund's 12x12 to keep me motivated and writing.  I'm also pleased to have been accepted into the Poets' Garage this month, and am quite excited about the heights that could take me to as well.

All of these challenges require hard work, however, and I'm fairly certain that I've loaded up on more than I can handle in a calm, rational way.  But who said flying was easy?  My theory is that birds just make it look that way.

Sandhill cranes flying into the sunset at Bosque del Apache, New Mexico

Today's little ditty is a suite of five definitions of "flight" from a poetic standpoint, or, as I like to call it, my bird's eye view.

Finding

Lightness

In

Goals,

However

Tedious.

Forgive

Let go

Inspire

Glow—

Heavens’

Tidal flow

Fearlessly

Launch

Into

Greatness.

Harness

Transcendence.

Forgo

Life’s

Insanity:

Grow

Heal

Thrive

Freedom

Lies

In

Going

Here

To there 

© 2014 Michelle Heidenrich Barnes. All rights reserved.

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I bet you can come up with your own interpretation of flight.  If you feel like it, I invite you to do so and share it with me in the comments.  At this point, I'm not sure where my One Little Word will take me this year, but I think I'm on the right track.

Heaven knows I'm by no means perfect, but I am perfectly me.  If it takes me some time to earn my wings, all I have to do is trust the socks on my capable feet.

With thanks to Santa and the notes to self elves

Now may I suggest you take your feet walking over to Mainely Write?  Unless, of course, you're able to fly there.  Thank you, Donna, for hosting today's Poetry Friday roundup!

Secret Superpowers

“While we try to teach our children all about life,
  our children teach us what life is all about.”
         - Angela Schwindt

The Flying Dream, Richard Wilkinson

2014.  This is the year I intend to fly.  

Care to join me?

To prepare for takeoff, I'd like to share the poem I received from the talented Tabatha Yeatts during last month's Winter Poem Swap.  It was the first time I participated in one of Tabatha's poem swaps and now I'm hooked!

Besides Tabatha's inspiring poem (unveiled shortly), she sent me several goodies, including Horror Refrigerator Word Magnets, "perfect for leaving a final message before that thing standing behind you swallows you whole...."  But, well, that's a post, and a limerick, for another day.

Today's little ditty is meaningful to me on a deeper level.  It's symbolic of why I choose to write for children, because of their inherent powers to inspire and live life in the moment, to enjoy each day with unequaled exuberance, and to absorb and reflect the world's goodness like sunlight.
 

         Secret Superpowers

          Drawing places no one’s ever seen –

                Turning a bed into a trampoline –

          Not getting sick no matter how much I spin –

                Finding the only mud puddle to step in –

          Imagining stories about people I see –

                Thrilling my dog at the sight of me –

          Sensing when I am near ice cream –

                Sleeping upright once I’ve run out of steam –

          Catching a leaf before it hits the ground –

                Creeping up behind you without making a sound…

            © 2013 Tabatha Yeatts.  All rights reserved.

So here's my gift to you: a magic toolbox. . .

Today I urge you to collect and fill your toolbox with your own secret superpowers.  May you use them with wild abandon each day of 2014... and beyond.

At I Think in Poems, Betsy is also sharing poetry magic.  Please join her for today's Poetry Friday roundup.

And another opportunity to help you take flight in 2014:

Join me and other picture book, middle grade, and young adult writers this month who are embracing Shannon Abercrombie's challenge to Start The Year Off Write.  For each of 21 days, established authors will present unique writing exercises to inspire, motivate, hone your skills, and help you soar in the new year.  You may even win a prize!  Do check it out!