hot air balloon ride anyone?

In grade six I read a novel about a utopian community of hot air ballooners and theirs was a magical fantasy land I dreamed of often in the years afterwards. I recall many books from my childhood but I did not own this one and cannot recall the title or author.

I chose today's poem called who know if the moon's? by e.e. cummings for three reasons: due to its transportive visual imagery; because it reminds me a lot of that partly forgotten grade six novel I read; as well as due to it reminding me of a childhood dream.

In that dream I flew high over my side yard to get away from a bad guy, swooping low when it was safe to do so to grab a flower sucker to keep my energy up. (incidentally in that dream my side yard was filled with flowers that were big, round rainbow lollipops--a great energy source!) That dream is still so vivid to me today. Hot air balloon ride anyone?

who knows if the moon's?

who knows if the moon's

a balloon, coming out of a keen city

in the sky--filled with pretty people?

(and if you and i should

get into it, if they

should take me and take you into their balloon,

why then

we'd go up higher with all the pretty people

than houses and steeples and clouds:

go sailing

away and away sailing into a keen

city which nobody's ever visited, where

always

it's

Spring) and everyone's

in love and flowers pick themselves.

e.e. cummings

Today's poem is taken from a lovely hardcover collection of children's poetry called Sing a Song of Popcorn: Every Child's Book of Poems selected by Bernice Schenk de Regniers, Eva Moore, Mary Michaels White and Jan Carr and stunningly illustrated by nine Caldecott Medal Artists including Marcia Brown, Leo and Diane Dillon, Richard Egielski, Trina Schart Hyman, Arnold Lobel, Maurice Sendak, Marc Simont and Margot Zemach.

Dreaming of a better tomorrow land but tethered to the here and now.

Yours in warmth,

Jill