From Lizards, Frogs and Polliwogs
By Douglas Florian
The Red-Eyed Tree Frog
Tomato eyes.
Catches flies.
Orange toes.
Loves to pose.
Matchstick legs.
Hatches from eggs.
Swallows bugs.
Lives on T-shirts and coffee mugs.
The Komodo Dragon
I am komodo.
I’m gruesome and gray-
The most massive lizard
That’s living today.
Birds and boars
For me are a meal,
Plus all those who don’t think
That dragons are real.
The Tortoise
I wear a helmet
On my back.
It’s hard
And guards
Me from attack.
And if I wheeze,
Or sneeze,
Or cough,
The shell I dwell in
Won’t fall off.
It’s glued without
A screw or mortise.
I’m born with it,
For I’m a tortoise.
The Chameleon
Chameleon, comedian,
We never know which skin you're in.
Sometimes you're yellow,
Then you're green,
Turquoise blue, or tangerine.
Chameleon, you're hard to find.
Comedian, make up your mind!
My son was doing a report on this poet for school, and I was so charmed I decided to post some of his poems, though they're really much better with the illustrations. Here is my son's brief biography:
"Douglas Florian was born in New York. When asked, 'What was your childhood like,' he replied in his own words, 'I grew up surrounded by landscapes, seascapes, and portraits covering the wall. You could always smell linseed oil in the nearby air.' He had great and challenging teachers when studying at Queens College and The School Of Visual Arts. The first book he ever wrote was called A Bird Can Fly, and he is still improving upon it today. His father is an artist who is still alive. Douglas himself is still a poet. Today he can be found living in New York and writing poems."
And now a whole bunch of links and spam. First, from
Meanwhile
So, some fic recs. First, Keiko's "More Certain in Affection", a M&C story not connected to her other M&C stories, Post Captain-era AU. It's full of little period detail, which is marvelous, but that's not what captures me about her writing. A decent number of people do O'Brian well stylistically, but she just writes these men with such a wealth of emotion, subtly yet directly expressed, with so much respect and affection. And she and I see the characters so similarly as well, glossing over the same things and highlighting the same characteristics...this one didn't make me cry the way "The Glass Portrait" did, but it's still wrenchingly lovely.
I am reading very little LOTRfic at the moment; am overwhelmed by the sheer volume of it, distracted by the amount of angst and not even sure which characters really rouse my empathy at present. But I did read
And then I stumbled across
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I'll stop now. Really I will. No, I swear. At least until next time.
Ahem! Also gacked from
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