I’m so happy to feature Irene Latham today in celebration of her new book, This Poem is a Nest, illustrated by Joanna Wright and published by Boyds Mills & Kane. It’s a wonder: a collection of 161 “found” or “blackout” poems she has created all drawn from one central poem. Amazing!
Irene was kind enough to create a short video with a bit of background about this book and featuring three (of the eight) 3-word poems in the book: "Mad,""The Story of the Egg in Three Parts," and "Last Poem." Enjoy!
Irene Latham is the author of novels, picture books, and poetry books and winner of the 2016 ILA Lee Bennett Hopkins Promising Poet Award. Her poetry books include:
Dear Wandering Wildebeest: And Other Poems from the Water Hole. Ill. by Anna Wadham (Millbrook/Lerner, 2014)
Fresh Delicious: Poems from the Farmer’s Market. Ill. by Mique Moriuchi (Highlights/Wordsong, 2016)
When the Sun Shines on Antarctica: And Other Poems About the Frozen Continent. Ill. by Anna Wadham (Millbrook Press, 2016)
Nine: A Book of Nonet Poems. Ill. by Amy Huntington (Charlesbridge, 2020)
And her collaborations with Charles Waters:
Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship (Millbrook Press, 2017)
Dictionary for a Better World: Poems, Quotes, and Anecdotes from A to Z (Carolrhoda Books, 2020)
This Poem is a Nest is rooted in one original “nest” poem which features four parts: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter—each written in three stanzas of three-lines (or tercets). It begins (and ends) with:
“This poem has twigs in it, and little bits of feather-fluff.”
It envisions a nest in a tree that houses young robins, weathers the seasons, and is then adopted by a mouse for its own young, coming full circle. Then, Latham harvests more poems from this poem and gathers them along the themes of
It envisions a nest in a tree that houses young robins, weathers the seasons, and is then adopted by a mouse for its own young, coming full circle. Then, Latham harvests more poems from this poem and gathers them along the themes of
- Time
- Color my world
- Animals among us
- Only human
- For the love of words
- Places seen and unseen
- (Out) of time
She also provides “Tips from a Nest-Builder” in the back for the budding poet. It’s a beautiful model of what is possible with poetry and how one poem can lead to another and another and another. One of my favorite pages features “alphabet poems” complete with a note from the writer:
Now head on over to The Opposite of Indifference where Tabatha Yeatts is hosting our Poetry Friday gathering.