Happy Poetry Friday!
This week for Poetry Friday many of us have written poems for our Dear Poet Pied Piper Lee Bennett Hopkins, who we just lost. We have borrowed lines from his poems and then created a new poem using this line. My poem is for Lee.
STORY
for Lee Bennett Hopkins
Worlds of paper disappear…
Worlds of images become clear.
Sagas scribbled across lines
jump to life leaving clues and signs.
Imagination reins this realm,
plot your course steady the helm.
Sail on wherever winds wind,
through tales kindled for kinder-kind…
© 2019 Michelle Kogan
I borrowed this line from Lee Bennett Hopkins poem Storyteller from his book Jumping Off Library Shelves: “Worlds of paper disappear.”
Storyteller, by Lee Bennett Hopkins, from his book, Jumping Off Library Shelves.
And more flowers for Lee, for I think he loved flowers and purple…
Dear Lee,
I will think of you often
when I think of purple,
when I think of flowers,
and when I think of stardust alighting on our thoughts…
Thank you for lighting lights for me and so many others.
Book Bundles of Love, xo,
Michelle
Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at her blog The Poem Farm, is hosting this weeks Poetry Friday Roundup. And you’ll find the celebration of Lee Bennet Hopkins life continues there. Thanks for hosting Amy and for organizing this special Poetry Friday for Lee. And thanks Jone MacCulloch for suggesting the celebration!
Visit Renée LaTulippe’s site No Water River to find out more about what Poetry Friday is.
Michelle Kogan Illustration, Painting, & Writing 
“Imagination reigns this realm,” – gosh, that’s beautiful. And maybe that’s what brings us all together, in celebrating Lee and in celebrating words and beautiful art like yours – the reign of imagination. Happy Poetry Friday, Michelle. xx
“Earth sang softly through her seasons.” If I ever have an all-season gallery, this line of yours would be a beautiful thought to power up writing, Michelle. Your imagination reigns supreme in this beautiful tribute to Lee. Book bundles of love come right back to you.
Wonderful word play and rhyme in your tribute poem. Such a bright light in our kidlit community has gone out. The tributes are inspiring.
I’m sure he’d love your purple flowers! Ruth, thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com
I, like Ruth, love that you shared those purple flowers, too, Michelle, and I do love that line “Worlds of images become clear.” That is what Lee did over and over again, for us readers, for children. Beautiful poem!
Your poem and flowers are so lovely, I’m sure Lee would love them!
Thank you for your flowers, your bee and your poetry. I also appreciated your link to Today’s Little Ditty: Spotlight on Lee Bennett Hopkins.
Beautiful poem and purple flowers! And I love your green herons–we’ve had a pair close to our house this year. I hear their strange call every day, and I’m pretty sure they have a nest, but it’s hidden in “our” swamp.
I love these lines, Michelle:
Imagination reins this realm,
plot your course steady the helm.
It may be stormy seas now, but this is a beautiful tribute to our children’s poetry captain. (I also know he would have LOVED those flowers!)
We’ve all got to “sail on.” That’s the hard part.
There is so much beauty here in words and images. I love those purple flowers!
Imagination does, indeed, reign! Beautiful poem, Michelle, and the purple flowers were a very apropos touch.
Thanks Matt!
Wonderful word play in your poem, Michelle. Sounds “sail on” in those last two lines. Your drawings remind me how proud Lee was of Charles’ wonderful gardening skills.
Thanks Laura, I’m so glad I got to know Lee a bit via Michelle H Barnes site and others. He’s someone I thought and hoped would have been around much longer.