Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by poet Tabatha Yeatts. Here. Thank you Tabatha for hosting. I look forward to what you will be sharing this week.
I received some good news this week I’d like to share. A poem I wrote about the esophagus was just accepted by Little Thoughts Press for the upcoming March issue entitled “Head, Shoulders, Spleen, & Nose.” Poems about body parts don’t easily find a home, so I’m pleased and I’ll share it when it is published.
Now about . . . landforms.
Recently I discovered gorgeous picture book published in 2025 by Clarion Books that has been praised by poets and educators HERE, including Poetry Friday friends. AWESOME EARTH by Joan Bransfield Graham, illustrated by Tania Garcia, is a book full of engaging concrete poems about awe inspiring landforms found on Planet Earth.
I think this book is particularly important because children should be familiar with and might be delighted by landforms. After all, the Earth is full of mind boggling things, like continents, peninsulas, plateaus. The poems and pictures are engaging and so clearly written for 3-4th graders. .
The need to appreciate such wonders is especially so now, as our government is minimizing an unusual and beautiful place called Greenland, calling it just a “piece of ice.” Some say it should– believe it or not– be invaded!
Greenland is of course a glacier that is a home to thousands of human beings. Greenland is also an island. It’s certainly a place worth learning more about and respecting. Respect seems to me to be a critical part of achieving world peace. So I’m writing about this book to help promote respect and world peace. below are two poems and illustrations.
GLACIER
A
mountain,
a river of ice,
I do not race. I
move at a glacial pace,
inching, grinding, picking up
pebbles, rocks along the way.
I do not stay still, I chisel forward,
sometimes leaving in my wake . . .
A GLACIAL LAKE
——————————
Greenland is also an Island:
ISLAND
Water, water, everywhere–
waves lap, leap, encircle me in a river,
lake, ocean, or sea. I might be a continental island,
if you get my drift, or an oceanic island due to lava’s lift, If I’m
small, I can be an islet, moth, or key–that’s a mini-me. Come visit
by plane, bridge, or set sail, discovering dolphins and, maybe –a whale.
—————————————-
I love this book, the poems and illustrations and I think kids will, too. The earth is a fascinating place.
This month I was part of Jone MacCullough’s New Year’s Postcard exchange and sent out this poem. Thank you Jone. I was hoping for good things in 2026 and this resulted.
IF I WERE A MONTH
I would be January.
I would cocoon in my quilt
or even a burlap sack
if that's all I had,
and think for thirty one days,
wrack my brain,
musing over the possibllities,
and the wonders revealed
perhaps
in February.
© Janice Scully
Thank you, Tabatha. Thank you for hosting Poetry Friday. Have a great weekend.
Here’s a couple of free photos of Greenland I found on Pixabay.
