Poetry Friday: Ruth Stone

Ruth Stone, who won the National Book Award for Poetry at the age of 87, died on November 19th at the age of 96. She was a proof positive that creativity knows no age limits. Here's a poem of hers I like - hope you do, too.

"POEMS" by Ruth Stone

When you come back to me
it will be crow time
and flycatcher time,
with rising spirals of gnats
between the apple trees.
Every weed will be quadrupled,
coarse, welcoming
and spine-tipped.
The crows, their black flapping
bodies, their long calling
toward the mountain;
relatives, like mine,
ambivalent, eye-hooded;
hooting and tearing.
And you will take me in
to your fractal meaningless
babble; the quick of my mouth,
the madness of my tongue.

I hope you will also look at the post just below this, dated November 25, announcing the release of Sylvia Vardell's and Janet Wong's new eBook Gift Tag, which I'm proud to have a poem in.

I join an impressive list of poets: Jeannine Atkins, Jen Bryant, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Margarita Engle, Douglas Florian, Helen Frost, Joan Bransfield Graham, Lorie Ann Grover, Avis Harley, David L. Harrison, Sara Holbrook, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Bobbi Katz, J. Patrick Lewis, Pat Mora, Ann Whitford Paul, Laura Purdie Salas, Michael Salinger, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Charles Waters, April Halprin Wayland, Carole Boston Weatherford, Robert Weinstock, Steven Withrow, Allan Wolf, Janet Wong and Jane Yolen.

You can download the book straight to your computer, even if you don't have a Kindle or other electronic reader.
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You'll find the Poetry Friday round-up this week over at Carol's Corner.  Head over there to see what other people have posted.