Julie Larios - No Strings Attached

NO STRINGS ATTACHED
Julie Larios


If I were a kite
with no strings to hold me,
I 'd let the wind take me –
I'd let the crows scold me,
I'd float through the sky
with the sun on my shoulders.
The clouds would all bite
at my ears. I'd be bolder
than bold, I’d dance, I'd go soaring—
a life in the sky could never be boring.

I'd fly over houses then over the tops
of skyscraping buildings
but I wouldn't stop there, I'd sail over sailboats
and islands
and oceans.
I’d drive the world loco with my locomotion.

Diving and squawking,
The seagulls would show me the migrating whales
as they spouted below me.
Over Kansas and Kashmir,
the hot sands of Cairo,
Mt. Fuji, Mt. Everest –
higher and higher—
wheatfields would wave to me,
deserts would sigh.
Icebergs would stare as I rose in the sky.

The sun would be one friend,
the bright moon another.
And what would the stars be
but sisters and brothers?

I'd know all the secrets the sky's never told me
if I were a wild kite
with no strings to hold me.


©2009 Julie Larios. All rights reserved.

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Julie Larios writes poetry for children and adults, teaches at the Vermont College of Fine Arts, and blogs, to boot! You really should be reading her blog, by the way, as she often tosses up her own poems there (and tosses out prompts and the like). Good stuff.

I love the way Julie Larios plays with words in her poems - sometimes funny wordplay, sure, but often just mixing words together to create something that makes me think or wonder in a new way. She has said she likes to create mystery in her poems, and that's certainly something else that I really enjoy when reading her work. But to make it really simple, anyone who can write I'd know all the secrets the sky's never told me is gonna have me as a reader! Indeed. I'm really looking forward to seeing her next book of poetry for kids, but in the meantime, I'm very happy to have a poem of hers here at 30 Poets/30 Days.

Yesterday gave us J. Patrick Lewis's The Poet of the World. Tomorrow... I am the Poem by Joan Bransfield Graham!