Footprints on the Roof: Poems About the Earth
Marilyn Singer
Language: English
Pages: 8
ISBN: 0375810943
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Contributor note: Illustrated by Meilo So
Publish Year note: First published in 2002
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This provocative collection of poems ranges from such lofty subjects as an astronaut’s view of Earth to the burrows of worms and little creatures within the earth, “where I try to tread softly: a quiet giant leaving only footprints on the roof.”
Marilyn Singer’s lilting free verse offers visual images that give us fresh new insights and respect for the mighty power of volcanoes, fens, islands, deserts, dunes, and natural disasters. Singer’s easily accessible poems also include some of the lighter moments of childhood, such as sliding on ice and playing in mud. Meilo So’s distinctive india ink drawings on rice paper provide an especially handsome showcase for these buoyant nature poems.
From the Hardcover edition.
Contents Home Burrows Dining Out Go-Betweens Summer Solstice Natural Disasters Dormant Dragons Caves Prehistoric Praise Back to Nature Mud Winter Solstice Ice Islands Fens Desert Dunes Patience Early Explorers Burrows Out in the country I walk across towns I'll never see: mazy metropolises under the earth where rabbits hide from foxes foxes hide from dogs full-bellied snakes sleep snugly worms work uncomplaining Where what you see is nothing— what counts is what you smell or
Hearing lectures in the wind and waterfalls Stretching my mind broader than Grandpa's tall stories multiplied by ten I thought I would be taller braver wiser in the mountains And I wasn't But I am more patient in the mountains And l can wait Early Explorers No place on earth is ever undiscovered Even in Antarctica where whole mountains are hidden under ice penguins already laid shambling tracks in the snow before we traveled there The hottest desert the deepest jungle where none of us have
ever been all have been crossed and crossed again by wings whirring or silent feet furred or scaled hoofed or bare By adventurers we will never know explorers who will never tell us what wonders they have seen For Walter Mayes and Valerie Lewis THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF Text copyright � 2002 by Marilyn Singer Illustrations copyright � 2002 by Meilo So All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. Published in the United States by
conversations of vireos and star-nosed moles of eagles and worms Trees know the soft secrets of clouds the dark siftings of soil They hear the high keening of squalls the deep rumbling of rocks Trees whisper for the sky's damp blessings and the earth's misty kisses They issue warnings They offer praise This is trees’ work and they do it with such uncomplaining grace it never seems like work at all Summer Solstice Amid the scent of roses and the lulling hum of bees comes a cloud scudding briefly
conversations of vireos and star-nosed moles of eagles and worms Trees know the soft secrets of clouds the dark siftings of soil They hear the high keening of squalls the deep rumbling of rocks Trees whisper for the sky's damp blessings and the earth's misty kisses They issue warnings They offer praise This is trees’ work and they do it with such uncomplaining grace it never seems like work at all Summer Solstice Amid the scent of roses and the lulling hum of bees comes a cloud scudding briefly