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Robyn Hood Black - children's author, poet, artist

Life on the Deckle Edge

Poetry Friday - Poetry & Art: "Liberty" & Our 250th

April 24, 2026
Tags: -Poetry Friday, National Poetry Month, Poetry Month Project, artsyletters, NPM project, 250th Birthday, USA Birthday
(Link to journal listing in my Etsy shop.)

 

Greetings, Poetry Lovers!

 

It's the last Poetry Friday of Poetry Month already.  But you've still got several days to peruse all the NPM projects in the Kidlitosphere rounded up by Jama here, and you can follow today's line of the Kidlit Progressive Poem here.

 

I've enjoyed making "Poetry and Art" videos each Friday this month to celebrate April, with a word for the week and a piece of mixed media art exploring that word.  This week, I decided to look ahead as we march toward summer, and our nation's 250th birthday. This week's word is "LIBERTY," and I've had fun making another journal with antique ephemera bits and nods.  Click here for the video. 

 

In this video, I feature a few ending lines from a poem by Sarah Jane Lippincott (1823-1904), found in CROWN JEWELS or GEMS of LITERATURE, ART, and MUSIC by Henry Davenport Northrop, D. D., Mutual Union Publishing Co., St. Joseph, Mo., 1888.

 

from "FREEDOM IRREPRESSIBLE"

 

...

 

Thus, thus, defeat and scorn, and shame,

  Is his, who strives to bind

The restless, leaping waves of thought,

  The free tide of the mind.

 

Sarah Jane Lippincott (Grace Greenwood)

 

Thanks so much for the feedback on these videos (and the time spent watching them as I learn how to make them!).  This has been a good training ground as I plan to launch bite-sized versions each week through artsyletters this year.

 

Here are links to a couple of things I mention in the video: Jenna Bush Hager Sits Down With 4 Former Living Presidents Bush, Clinton, Obama, Biden and The American Revolution by Ken Burns on PBS.

 

Big thanks to the oh-so-imaginative Irene Latham for hosting us all this week at Live Your Poem.  Be sure to read about her intriguing new book! 

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Poetry Friday - Shakespeare, and a Peek at April!

March 26, 2026
Tags: -Poetry Friday, Shakespeare, Poetry Month Project, Poetry and Art

 

Greetings, Poetry Lovers!  Spring has covered everything around here with powdery gold, so Poetry Month is on our doorstep. 

 

But first, a sonnet from the Bard....

 

Sonnet 98

 

From you have I been absent in the spring


By William Shakespeare


From you have I been absent in the spring,

When proud-pied April, dressed in all his trim,

Hath put a spirit of youth in everything,

That heavy Saturn laughed and leaped with him.

Yet nor the lays of birds, nor the sweet smell

Of different flowers in odour and in hue,

Could make me any summer's story tell,

Or from their proud lap pluck them where they grew:

Nor did I wonder at the lily's white,

Nor praise the deep vermilion in the rose;

They were but sweet, but figures of delight

Drawn after you, – you pattern of all those.

    Yet seem'd it winter still, and, you away,

    As with your shadow I with these did play.

 

This is one of dozens of sonnets our dear William penned for a "Fair Youth," whose identity scholars continue to debate.  Were these sonnets platonic? Romantic? Cases have been made for both.  I wondered, having recently watched Hamnet, if some might have been for Shakespeare's lost son, but those in the know don't think that was the case, though others have wondered, too.

 

(Did you see the film?  I was determined to watch it before the Oscars, and managed to squeak it in that Sunday afternoon after our kiddos left from a visit.  I knew it would be devastating and also brilliant, and I thought it was both.  I first saw Jessie Buckley in Wicked Little Letters and have loved watching her this year in interviews.  What an extraordinary talent, and she seems to be a down-to-earth and super smart human as well.)

 

For proud-pied Poetry Month April, I think I'll dip my toe in the Poetry Friday projects this year! I will offer short studio videos each week featuring a word to ponder with poetry and some original mixed media artwork. Plans are to launch an artsyletters® series along these lines down the road.  Looking forward to all the happenings everyone is conjuring up!  Be sure to visit Alphabet Soup for Jama's Roundup - and endless cheers to Jama and all the bears for this labor of love. 

 

Margaret is once again organizing the Kidlit Progressive Poem ("founded" by Irene Latham several moons ago); you can see the weekly hosts here.  And, sign up for one of the last few spots if you haven't already! It's a lot of fun, and all are welcome. And, while you're there, celebrate Margaret's brand new book, What's That Sound? Birds of the Bayou!

 

Marcie Flinchum Atkins is kindly hosting our Roundup this week. And, while you're there, celebrate Marcie's's brand new book, When Twilight Comes - The Animals that Bring Dawn and Dusk to Life! ("Crepuscular" has always been one of my favorite words.)

 

Wishing you a lovely end 0f March/beginning of April, and special gratitude for all who are marching Saturday in this 250th year of our country.  

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