April is Poetry Month

 When I lived and worked in New Jersey, one of the (few) things I loved about April was celebrating poetry. 

    Put a Poem in Your Pocket

    a Poetry Assembly

    Reading all the fun, funny, poignant poems shared here and there. 

That and a few forced forsythias kept me smiling through what was often dreary weather.

Fast forward a few years and we've found ourselves back on the East Coast in a more southerly spot, Washington DC.

Where the weather is more agreeable and the flowers are earlier. So April is fast becoming a favorite month. And there's still POETRY to be shared. Now I'm sharing it with one of my dearest friends.

The idea came when Judith Viorst addressed a group I was part of. At the end, a questioner asked her how she kept so sharp. Sudoku? Crossword puzzles? 

Nope, she memorizes poetry!

I was all over that. So now my friend Beverly and I memorize a FEW VERSES AT A TIME of a favorite poem. We both agree that this was something we did in Mrs. Glassco's senior English class, from Robert Burns to William Wordsworth, and a lot in between (not so much after, however). 

Her first poem contained many stanzas. Christopher Marlowe! She learned them all!       (But I have too much fluff in my brain! Like how to drive to the nearest CVS, or the library, or Beverly's house! Driving directions, among many other new things, are clogging my brain.)

So mine was a more modest attempt, Mary Oliver.

 

My new choice is a short, wonderfully metered Emily Dickinson verse.   

(Note to self. Easier to memorize poems that rhyme.)

Oh, and I didn't find this week's selection, "Hope is the thing with feathers" this way but I loved reading this, about her poetry just now in Publisher's Weekly.

It's been a long time and not-so-many words since I last blogged. But I want to keep up with these poems so I'm going to attempt to track them here. Stay with me if you'd like and tell me your favorite poem. 

Have you memorized anything lately? 

Do kids even do this in school? 

Poetry By Heart

My writer friend Caroline Starr Rose and I bonded over our books way before they were published. Perhaps it was their similar names, GLORY BE and MAY B., that brought us together. Maybe her having lived and taught in Louisiana. Whatever, I'm glad we found each other. 

Since she's a poet, she's really doing April up right!
Yes, it's Poetry Month. Caroline celebrates poetry all the time. But this month, she's invited her friends to share her terrific blog.

Today is my day.

Read what I have to say about memorizing poetry.  ☜  RIGHT THERE.

(I hear there are giveaways. And who knows? You might even find a funny verse to share at the dinner table.)

Poem of the Day

Maybe I just need an excuse, but my favorite thing about April is that I remember to read more poetry.

I bought Mary Oliver's new book: A THOUSAND MORNINGS, tucked it beside a comfy chair, and promised to open it often.

Here's a start. Page 19.

This reminds me of the conversation at my wonderful Writers Group meeting this week.



Three Things To Remember

As long as you're dancing, you can
    break the rules.
Sometimes breaking the rules is just
   extending the rules.


Sometimes there are no rules.

Caroline Starr Rose-- and a Giveaway!

    Caroline Starr Rose's MAY B. has been compared to the Little House books. As a young reader, she was a big fan, and it will appeal to readers of Laura's adventures. But May B.'s appeal, I believe, is going to reach into the upper age bracket of middle grade. May's is a survival story, told in starkly beautiful words.

    The book's gotten some terrific reviews, including a star from Kirkus. Which is saying something. And now I get to chat with Caroline.

     Pull up a chair. Caroline has something to share. 
                           (unintentionally poetic!)

Augusta:  Can you give us your quick definition of a novel-in-verse, for those who may not be familiar with the genre?

Caroline:
A novel-in-verse is a story told through poetry. I use free verse (no rhyme -- or at least not much -- and no consistent meter), though there are other authors who use specific types of poems (sonnets, for example) to forward the story.

Augusta: Was writing in this style completely new to you? How did you prepare to write? Do you sit at your desk and wait for the muse? Journal? Write a detailed outline? Read similar books? Read a lot of poetry?

Caroline:
Writing May B. felt like delving into uncharted territory. Though I’d published two children’s poems previously, I was by no means any sort of expert. Add to this the fact I’d only read two verse novels before beginning May, and I truly was out there on my own.

Because I was teaching at the time (and was creatively spent by the end of the day), most of my drafting took place during holidays. I made myself sit with the story, trusting that the time spent playing with May’s character and creating a loose story arc would get me through. While drafting, I imagined a quilt with each poem standing in for a different square of fabric. As I moved from poem to poem, I trusted certain themes and story strands would unfold, just as patterns form on a quilt. It was a very organic way to write, one that involved a lot of faith in the process of experimenting with words and structure.

I absolutely avoided verse novels while drafting and even convinced myself I wasn’t really writing poetry (which, in my mind, was a lofty, intimidating thing I wasn’t yet ready to claim). My fear was reading a verse novel would reveal how flawed my own writing was.

Augusta: What a terrific image, the quilt!
Tell us a little about your process for creating May B.

Caroline:
May B. didn’t start as verse. What I first wrote very much frustrated me, as it felt so distant from what I’d imagined. I set my writing aside and returned to my research. In reading first-hand accounts of midwestern women in the late 1800s, I picked up on the similarities their journals and letters contained -- terse language stripped of emotion and verbose description. I returned to my drafting, trying to mirror the style of these women. This was the key in discovering May’s voice and most honestly telling her story.

Augusta: Research is crucial, of course. But I love how it took you from the original sources, right to your own writing.
Where do you do your best writing and musing about writing? Different spots? A quiet and orderly writing cottage? Walking the dog?

Caroline:
I have an office I love, though I’m not good at a desk for long. I prefer my couch, with my laptop on my knees and my dog at my feet. Believe it or not, I also enjoy writing in my car. Oftentimes I’ll take the hour before school lets out and sit in the library parking lot with some research or some writing.

Walking the dog is a great way to let my brain both wander and create without the pressure my official writing time sometimes brings. When I get stuck, Boo and I head out the door. My editor once joked that Random House should get an office dog: he’d get lots of exercise, and a lot of out-of-the-box thinking would happen.

Augusta: Well, I just love that! I also write in my car, parked of course. And what a visual- All those NYC dog-walkers? They could be editors, thinking outside the box!

  Do you think certain subjects lend themselves more to novels-in-verse than others?

Caroline:
I do. For me, the form lends itself to historicals (at least in my writing life). I can’t imagine writing a contemporary this way (though life has taught me to never say never). I have two other historical verse novels on my mind -- one I’m drafting now and one I hope to get to sometime in the future. I also have a book in me about a Gitana, a Spanish Gypsy girl. I’m not sure yet when it will take place, and I don’t even have a story line, but I know the color and movement and rhythm of the culture for me, at least, must be told through verse.

Augusta: I know you also write picture books. Did your writing style or thoughts about writing picture books change after you finished May B.?

Caroline:
I’m not sure my thoughts and style have changed much, but I’m more fully aware of how verse and picture books compliment each other. Brevity is king in both genres. I’ve learned the importance of making every word count.

Augusta: Make Every Word Count. We should all needlepoint that on a pillow.

When I was a school librarian, during the entire month of April, we encouraged our students to "Keep a Poem in your Pocket" and share them with others.

Since it's April and Poetry Month, would you share a favorite poem with us?

Caroline:
This is a poem I absolutely adore. I memorized it and recited it one year during my classroom’s end-of-our-poetry-unit Coffee House celebration:

If I Were a Poem

~Sara Holbrook

If I were a poem,

I would grab you by the ankles

and rustle you up to your every leaf.

I would gather your branches

in the power of my winds and pull you skyward,

if I were a poem.

If I were a poem,

I would walk you down beside the rushing stream,

swollen with spring, put thunder in your heart,

then lay you down, a new lamb, to sing you to softly sleep,

if I were a poem.

If I were a poem,

I wouldn’t just talk to you of politics, society and change,

I would be a raging bonfire to strip you of your outer wrap,

and then I would reach within and with one touch

ignite the song in your own soul.

If I were a poem,

I would hold my lips one breath away from yours

and inflate you with such desire as can exist

only just out of reach, and then I would move

the breadth of one bee closer, not to sting

but to brush you with my wings as I retreat

to leave you holding nothing but a hungry, solitary sigh,

if I were a poem.

If I were a poem,

my thoughts would finally be put to words

through your own poetry, I would push you that far,

if I were a poem.

Thanks for this opportunity, Augusta!

Augusta: Inspirational- both you and the poem. We loved having you! 

Now, it's one reader's lucky day. I'm sharing my copy, sent to me by the publisher. Leave me a comment, please. The GIVEAWAY will last a week.

Welcome to April

Let's start National Poetry Month off right. I always love this month, for many reasons. When I lived in the frozen climes, it meant the possibility of a jonquil sighting (even though I learned to call them daffodils, jonquil always pops up first in my brain). When I was a school librarian, it meant the annual Poetry Assembly. Now that I sit in front of my computer and write all the time, I think it must mean I need to think POETICALLY.







And here are some excellent tips for writers and readers of poetry. For kids and grownups. For reviewers of books. (Hint: I plan to review MAY B., Caroline Starr Rose's new book, a novel in verse, and interview the author, very soon. Stay tuned!)

CLICK here for those excellent tips I mentioned.

Here's the first one.

1. Don’t be chained to rhyme. Rhymes drastically reduce word choices and can send poems in nonsensical directions. Think about what you really want to say in your poem and if you can’t say it with rhymes, ditch them.

I seem to have written a lot about poetry, in past Aprils.
For a few other posts, many with poems, type Poetry Month in my search box.
Or click here, for just one.

April is Poetry Month

 

Check it out! (http://www.poets.org/index.php)

 And I almost missed it. (Though I did post this great link, filled with ideas for teachers, from the School Library Journal Blog onto my Facebook status. Does that count?)

Luckily for me Greg Pincus didn't forget that April is Poetry Month. He's been posting a Poem A Day over on his blog. I caught up with a few today.


Click here for one of my favorites.
Who could resist that title?
Here's a taste:

The Playroom Floor Writes a Novel
by
Heidi Mordhorst

Chapter One: A Fine Day for an Outing

a cozy Kleenex box

a stuffed caterpillar

a plastic slice of cucumber

three pennies

and a Spiderman motorcycle

 Go ahead. Click that link up there and keep reading! And Happy Poetry Month everybody.

A Poem to End Poetry Month

Just because April has ended, we don't have to stop reading poetry. And because I like the poems of Wallace Stevens, and because talented kids' book writer Jo Knowles wrote such a thoughtful blogpost about this one, I'll share it here, putting an exclamation point at the end of Poetry Month. Vowing to read more, all year round.



The House Was Quiet And The World Was Calm
By Wallace Stevens

The house was quiet and the world was calm.
The reader became the book; and summer night

Was like the conscious being of the book.
The house was quiet and the world was calm.

The words were spoken as if there was no book,
Except that the reader leaned above the page,

Wanted to lean, wanted much to be
The scholar to whom his book is true, to whom

The summer night is like a perfection of thought.
The house was quiet because it had to be.

The quiet was part of the meaning, part of the mind:
The access of perfection to the page.

And the world was calm. The truth in a calm world,
In which there is no other meaning, itself

Is calm, itself is summer and night, itself
Is the reader leaning late and reading there.

Put a Poem in Your Pocket today

Did you know today is National Poem in Your Pocket Day, something that was such fun to celebrate when I was surrounded by enthusiastic kids in my days of school librarianing. Have you shared a poem this month? Do you have a poem in your pocket today?

If I were still strolling the school hallways, carrying a favorite short poem in my pocket, ready to read or share at a moment's notice, this is what it would be, the final verse from So Much Happiness

Since there is no place large enough

To contain so much happiness,

You shrug, you raise your hands, and it flows out of you

Into everything you touch. You are not responsible.

You take no credit, as the night sky takes no credit

For the moon, but continues to hold it, and to share it,

And in that way, be known.

~ Naomi Shihab Nye ~


But if I should need a poem to inspire me today, though I hardly need inspiring on a day like this, I might choose this one, from e.e. cummings, to put a thoughtful end to Poetry Month:

may my heart always be open to little
birds who are the secrets of living
whatever they sing is better than to know
and if men should not hear them men are old

may my mind stroll about hungry
and fearless and thirsty and supple
and even if it's sunday may i be wrong
for whenever men are right they are not young

and may myself do nothing usefully
and love yourself so more than truly
there's never been quite such a fool who could fail
pulling all the sky over him with one smile

~ e.e. cummings ~

April is Poetry Month!

Oh, my. What fun! Poems out of book spines. Almost makes me wish I were still a school librarian.

Remember those Poetry Magnets? Creating poems out of your book collection is just as much fun. Check out this blogpost and make a few of your own. Feel free to send/post your pictures in my comments or email.

And for all you teachers and librarians reading this- Make it a fun project and click here to post your kids' / library Poetry Spines to the 100 Scope Notes blog.

Or do one yourself. Here's my first effort. (I see myself rearranging all my bookshelves if I'm not careful...) And you thought you weren't poets? Hah. Wait till you get started.



Have fun- it's National Poetry Month!