Poetry Musings

 Today my friend Elder and I walked to my local bookstore, POLITICS AND PROSE.

The wind almost swept us off our feet! But it is a gorgeous fall day, with just a hint of orange in the maple trees, and Elder and I have known each other since college (Go Tarheels!) so the walk was a delight.

The bookstore is always a delight. And I was on a mission to buy a book.

My other long-time DC friend, Beverly, and I are still trying to keep up our poetry recitations. The poem I shared on Sunday is from James Crews' new book, UNLOCKING THE HEART.  

The poem is titled "Note to Self," and it really touched both of us. 

Now I'll brew a cup of tea, dig into my new book, and watch the trees sway in the wind.

A perfect day, no?

Poetry and Other Distractions...

As previously noted, my friend Beverly and I memorize poems. Her choices are better/ harder/ longer than mine. But that's the way my mushy brain is working these days. Beverly understands and lets me delight over Mary Oliver, stumble over Wordsworth, laugh when Billy Collins makes fun of torturing a confession out of a poem.

This week she chose "The World is Too Much With Us."  And how prescient of my friend to recite that this sad week. 

So, what have I been reading to share on this Monday, Memorial Day?

 I've mostly been reading grownup poetry, but I pulled this one off my shelf and delighted in it all over again.

I'm going to link to THIS because it says so much about the book, and the poet.

Much more than my mushy brain (see above) can articulate this morning.

As always, middle-grade novels continue to (mostly) hold my attention.

This might be one of my favorite book cover images in a while.  (Except the author makes a point that the narrator is slightly overweight, maybe she used the word dumpy. I'm going to overlook that in favor of the notebook paper filled with words.)

It says a lot about the story. True confessions, I haven't finished WORSER but I'm going to make it my number one To Do thing today- finish WORSER. I'm getting close and loving almost every word.

Yesterday I had a conversation with a retired school counselor who believes, not surprisingly to anybody working in education today, that bullying is a huge issue, maybe the issue. I'm going to keep reading this one before I comment more. Bullying, so far, is not the theme, but it is prevalent and the kids in Worser's world are slightly on the fringes, susceptible to all sorts of teasing.

 

My life is kind of complicated lately, but reading makes me happiest so although I continue to retreat from sharing too much, frequent blogging, posting meaningless trivia, I'll stick to poetry, mysteries, middle-grade novels and puppies.

 Cheers to all the teachers pushing through these days,  holding their students in the light. 

 

And, on this Memorial Day, bless the families whose soldiers have died fighting for our country.

 

 

 

 

Poem of the Day

This morning I woke up determined to get more accomplished than a jigsaw puzzle (no judging! It's keeping us sane.) or baking cookies (ditto).

Outside my window the rain is drizzly and grey, but after weeks of temps in the 80s and high humidity, I welcome the rain. 

A perfect day to dust, right? 
So I'm dusting and tidying up my bookshelves.
And I ran across this gem. A skinny book, it was hiding between my thick Flip Dictionary and a very old guide to using Scrivener. 

I rescued GETTING THE MAIL by Cathy Cultice Lentes to read again.

And I found the perfect poem for today.

The first line made me put away my dust cloth: "I will never have clean windows."

The last lines made me roll up my sleeves:
"I dry my hands, reroll my sleeves, for the real work to be done."

And Cathy isn't talking about washing windows. 
She has the heart of a poet. 
 
Here's the book:

 (note my dust cloth, at rest)

GETTING THE MAIL, published by Finishing Line Press. You may order from your favorite independent bookstore.

Take time to enjoy a poem today.  After all, it's April and that's Poetry Month, you know.


 

Monday's Reading

This is the book I've been reading all week.
I want to encourage my teacher and librarian friends everywhere to rush right out and get your own copy. I can practically hear the discussions, the projects, the thoughtful poetry it will inspire!

There are so many memorable moments in the exchanges between these two poets that it's hard to single out one line, one verse, even one poem. But there was something about Charles's words in DINNER CONVERSATION, that really made me smile. Perhaps it was that wink from Grandma. 


Irene's poem, APOLOGY, tugged at my heart. 

I swallow.
I want to say
I'm
          sorry,
but those words are so small for something so big.

If you haven't listened to the podcast, you must!  Here's a link to Travis Jonker's excellent interview via his School Library Journal podcast. (You can also find the Teachers' Guide on this site.)

And the Kirkus review= a star!

A word on the paint, pencil and collage illustrations by Sean Qualls and Selina Alko.
Perfect.

 

Things We Save

I've been thinking about Christmas wrapping paper. And ribbon. And tape.

My husband's aunt saved her ribbon, ironed and reused it. Her children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews were fascinated and in awe when they received gifts with NO TAPE! Not a piece of it. Gifts were beautifully wrapped using that ironed ribbon.

She was a Quaker lady who'd lived through the Depression and managed just fine and dandy.




I always save ribbon.
And sometimes get made fun of.

I also save boxes from year to year.

(The challenge is making sure the tags have the right names on them when I "wrap" and reuse those Christmas boxes.)





Stick with me. This is going to be about writing, soon.

This week I had a chance to re-read FREDERICK by Leo Lionni. Several times.

"...I am gathering words. For the winter days are long and many, and we'll run out of things to say."

I adore that sentence.

Even if there's not much to winter in Florida, writers always need to think about choosing the right words for our stories and our characters. It's hard work! We can't run out of things to say!

Here are a few helpful writing links, some about words, for the new year.

The Emotion Thesaurus creator, on character flaws.

Excellent example of explaining to kids why we can cut the adverbs and adjectives!

Speaking of words, I've been reading poetry lately. Two novels-in-verse. A quick poem here, another there. I like this post about writing and sharing poetry with young readers. 

And if you're still reading, a very special treat.

Poetry Sunday

As we pack up to head south, I look forward to my Florida birds.
Thank you to my friend Joan who gave me a book I love dipping into:
Mary Oliver's What Do We Know: Poems and Prose Poems

 If you click on that link, you can read a selection, from Google books.

From "Summer Poem"

...the white heron
like a dropped cloud,
taking one slow step

then standing while then taking
another, writing

her own soft-footed poem
through still waters.


"S





Sadly, my earliest attempts at poetry share none of her beauty and lyricism.

While packing, I uncovered this in a very old scrapbook. It was published in The Commercial Appeal when I was eleven. I share so no one reading this blog should be afraid to share, no matter how embarrassing your early efforts might be. It's all about revision, which I (obviously) didn't understand at age eleven.

I've learned a lot. Maybe not about poetry. But certainly about revising.


More Mary Oliver?
http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/2013/04/poem-of-day.html

http://ascattergood.blogspot.com/2011/05/writing-inspiration-bit-of-poem.html

brown girl dreaming

What I'm Reading Now.

I read Jacqueline Woodson's new memoir-in-verse because smart people said I would love it.
Then I read it again to write a review, because I did indeed love it.
Then I read it again because I loved it so much I wanted to share a poem to inspire a Writing Workshop.

So believe me, I was delighted to hear the author say she reads slowly.
And sometimes more than once.
When I'm reading for pleasure, I don't always do that. But now I will try harder.
She advises kids to do the same. Even with a book that's easy to speed through- like this one- sometimes you need to slow down, savor the words. Read it again.

Here's the author talking about her path to becoming a writer.




(You can see the link and read Betsy Bird's comments about the book HERE.)

This quote reminds me of someone. Maybe a lot of someones. So I love it (and I paraphrase):
When I was growing up, I told lies all the time. And I had a teacher who told me to write it all down. Because if you write it down, it's no longer a lie. It's fiction.

Inspiration

I wish I knew the origin of this. 

Obviously, it was a list of writing inspiration ideas. I wish I had the rest of them.
Anybody out there have a clue?

This was tucked away in an email from myself to myself!
May, 2008. 
Which is embarrassing to admit.
(Yes, I'm deleting old emails as fast as I'm tossing out old journals and scribbles.)

I already keep a weather journal and a name journal and a journal about writing. But I love the other thoughts. 

"No snow today" sounds downright poetic!






30. Structure a poem or prose writing according to city streets, miles, walks, drives. For example: Take a fourteen-block walk, writing one line per block to create a sonnet; choose a city street familiar to you, walk it, make notes and use them to create a work; take a long walk with a group of writers, observe, make notes and create works, then compare them; take a long walk or drive- write one line or sentence per mile. Variations on this.

31. The uses of journals. Keep a journal that is restricted to one set of ideas, for instance, a food or dream journal, a journal that is only written in when it is raining, a journal of ideas about writing, a weather journal. Remember that journals do not have to involve "good" writing-they are to be made use of. Simple one-line entries like "No snow today" can be inspiring later. Have 3 or 4 journals going at once, each with a different purpose. Create a journal that is meant to be shared and commented on by another writer--leave half of each page blank for the comments of the other.
Meditate on a word, sound or list of ideas before beginning to write.

42. Take a book of poetry you love and make a list, going through it poem by poem, of the experiments, innovations, methods, intentions, etc. involved in the creation of the works in the book.

47. If you have an answering machine, record all messages received for one month, then turn them into a best-selling novella.

Seen on a Bumper Sticker

At my local fish market parking lot just now.

The Library

Some of my Facebook and Pinterest friends may have surmised from my many postings that I'm cleaning out very old files this week. 

Just as some of my teacher and librarian friends ready their rooms for a new school year, I suppose I'm organizing my office for a new writing project.

I found this gem, from one of my students, upon my leaving a treasured library career after a whole lot of years.

 The note on the back says 

"From Suryea, 2nd grade- I don't know exactly what it means but it's about the library."

Here's the entire poem, in case you can't read the fabulously illustrated copy from Suryea.

library
No need even
To take out
A book: only
Go inside
And savor
The heady
Dry breath of
Ink and paper,
Or stand and
Listen to the
Silent twitter
Of a billion
Tiny busy
Black words.

From All the Small Poems and Fourteen More by Valerie Worth
(New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1994)

Time for a Poem

When a whole bunch of people tell you You Need to Read This, I've learned to listen.

That's why I put my librarian skills to work to find Kathi Appelt's poem,
ODE TO MY SOUTHERN DRAWL.

It's in a book, POETRY AFTER LUNCH, that I borrowed from the library.
I've now renewed it the maximum time. It needs to go back.

I'll share just a little bit of the Southern Drawl poem here. I love it.

Here in the south
we treat words like wine
letting them rest in our mouths
until they are ripe and
have soaked into the sides of our cheeks.
And sometimes they get so warm,
we have to cool them
off with iced tea
or Coca Cola

You can find other poems by Kathi on the Poetry Starter page on her website. Like this one about tomato sandwiches and FIGS. (You never saw that coming, did you. But you know I'm going to love a poem that even mentions figs.)
Here's the link to Tomato Sandwich, and some great ideas about teaching and using poetry in the classroom:
http://www.kathiappelt.com/poetry/ps1.html


PS: I have a really terrible, but readable, scan of the entire ODE TO MY SOUTHERN DRAWL poem which I'll send anybody who leaves me a comment and lets me know where to send it.