Hello dear readers. It’s Poetry Friday, collected by My Juicy Little Universe
to consider climate change, posts I am eager to read.
First – on Friday, March 15, the winner of a charming picture book,
BOOM! BELLOW! BLEAT! by Georgia Heard and Aaron DeWitte,
from Boyds Mills Press
Today I’m celebrating international women, a potent theme
Two women I want to celebrate
Betty Mae Tiger Jumper, of Florida and Jennifer Worth of England.
Both were book authors and both were nurses. I am intrigued with each of their stories,
encapsulated here today.
[Important – if you know a fantastic book for any age student which illuminates
the path of a girl or woman whose legacy deserves wide attention,
will you please consider nominating it for honors of ALA’s Amelia Bloomer List (March-October nomination period 2019.] Thank you!
Betty Mae Tiger Jumper
Think of a gigantic place near the end of land
A mamma alligator floats babies on her back
And itchy black bear takes a palm tree scratch
Leaving soft fur tufts for mice to fetch
©2010 all rightsreserved
-Jan Godown Annino
I came to know Betty Mae Tiger Jumper after our first conversation at a Florida festival.
Eventually with her agreement, I wrote a book for young readers about her, She Sang Promise.
Raised outdoors in the late 1920s/early 1930s, she helped her midwife mother and grandmother deliver babies in South Florida – when still a child. A teenager on her first day of kindergarten, she couldn’t read or write English. This path-setting nurse, newspaper editor, author and legendary storyteller’s many honors include her traditional singing recorded on two Smithsonian music CDs. She served a U.S. President on an advisory committee. In 1967, she was the first woman elected a leader of the Seminole Tribe of Florida. And, she also wrestled alligators.
The international? A fascinating aspect of federal and tribal relations involves the fact that federally recognized tribes, such as the Seminole Tribe of Florida, are considered sovereign nations.
Jennifer Worth
Wind your way through the dockland, stenchland, fight land
Bandage the sad hand, worn hand, burned hand
Lift up the glad hand, smile hand, tiny hand
©2019 all rights reserved
-Jan Godown Annino
I came to know Jennifer Worth through a recent need to escape temporary
small miseries now past (loss of dear old pet, a despised nasty molar pulled.)
I found her through Call The Midwife, her first book,
also the name of the BBC series about her.
Jennifer Worth was a financially secure young woman who chose to study
how to deliver babies for impoverished families. In the 1950s she selected
wretched areas in the East End of London for her work. Her careful telling
of poignant stories about the bravery of women and older children living in
near-scavenger conditions is a movie series from her three nonfiction books.
Writing Room
For some bit of time this season, this will be one of very few posts here, as I pull back from social media & its affiliates to focus on writing projects.
I will miss this community in-between-time & look forward to more connectivity later. And there is always email, snail mail, the phone & perhaps we will bump into each other at an event. I hope so.
