I’ve been continuing to keep up with the Sealey Challenge, finding so much inspiration in rereading old (and new) favorites. This week I revisited Joyce Sidman’s and Rick Allen’s Winter Bees and Other Poems of the Cold. There are so many delicious words and phrases in Joyce’s poems, I found myself lingering and rereading.
“born with eyelash legs and tinsel wings”
“the cold came creeping
came prickling into our hearts”
One of the poems which has inspired me before is “What Do the Trees Know?” The first stanza includes:
To bend when all the wild winds blow.
Roots are deep and time is slow.
All we grasp we must let go.
I have several poems that use this structure, some that have already appeared on this post. But this morning I found this one:
What the Night Knows
the creep of the cat
the flap of a bat
the deep of dark
the tide’s high mark
the hush of birds
a time without words
the moon’s give and take
the sun as it wakes
Draft, 2023RoseCappelli
In addition to Winter Bees, this week I also read:
Night Wishes – selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins/illustrated by Jen Corace
Hi, Koo!A Year of Seasons – Jon J. Muth
Stitchin’ and Pullin’: A Gee’s Bend Quilt – McKissack/Cabrera
Secret Places – poems selected by Charlotte Huck/illustrated by Lindsay Barrett George
Sky Scrape/City Scape – Selected by Jane Yolen/illustrated by Ken Condon
With My Hands: Poems About Making Things – Amy Ludwig VanDerwater/Fancher and Johnson
Linda has the round up today at Teacher Dance. Be sure to stop by for her thoughts on transitions and lots more poetry fun.
Imagine the Possibilities 
Ooh, Rose! Your poem is all kinds of perfection! You captured so much about night in such a small space. This is my favorite line: “a time without words.”
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Thank you, Mary Lee! I think it was you who first clued me in to this structure.
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Rose, I’m inspired to listen to the night tonight.
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Thank you, Joyce!
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Lovely ode to the night. I love this form and how your rhymes are so seamless.
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Thanks, Margaret.
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That is gorgeous, Rose! I love the creepy-peaceful blend that you created.
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Thaks, Tracey.
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This is a very cool What the ___ Knows poem, Rose. “the deep of dark” — yes!
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I adore what you wrote, Rose, in eight brief lines, that is night–‘the moon’s give and take”! Love the form, too, and yes, Winter Bees is lovely.
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You’ve shared some of your “what the ____ knows” poems with us and I’ve loved each of them. May be time for a collection? I will sit with “a time without words/the moon’s give and take”. Thank you, Rose. (This is Patricia)
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A collection? Maybe someday. Thanks for the idea!
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Rose, I love the original “What the _____ knows” and I do remember some of your other poems. Thanks for this new one. I love the idea of thinking about what something knows–favorites in your night poem include: “the deep of dark” and “a time without words,” which makes me feel a bit melancholy.
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Thanks, Denise.
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Well-done, Rose. Mentor texts provided just the right amount of thoughts for your poem.
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Your poem is a lovely description of night. “Creep of the cat/ flap of the bat.” I love considering the sun as it wakes. Nice Work!
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I love the ending, Rose: “the moon’s give and take/ the sun as it wakes”
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