Jonas Salk: An Original Poem

Yikes! I haven't posted at Wild Rose Reader in over a week! I've been really busy lately. My attention has also become more focused on family—especially my little granddaughter Julia. I so enjoy being her “nanny granny.” Watching her change and grow is such a joy for me. I had the BEST Mother’s Day ever this year because I’m a grandma now. 

 Julia on Mother's Day

Here’s a picture of me on Mother’s Day with my daughter, my granddaughter, and my mother.

I’m still doing revisions on my Things to Do manuscript. I have a few more “things to do” on the collection. I think “final” revisions can be the most difficult. I sometimes find that I have to step away from a poem for a day…or two…or more before I can look at it with new eyes and make the changes that are needed. Can't wait until I'm done!

I also went through an extended rewriting process last year when I was working on a poem about Jonas Salk for an anthology titled Dare to Dream…Change the World.  (The book will be published by Kane Miller this coming fall.)

JillCorcoran is the editor of the anthology. Here is her synopsis of the book:

Dare to Dream … Change the World pairs biographical and inspirational poems focusing on people who invented something, stood for something, said something, who defied the naysayers and not only changed their own lives, but the lives of people all over the world.

Last November, I posted the first draft of my Salk poem. You can read that poem here.

Working on revisions for my Things to Do manuscript gave me the idea of posting another draft of my Jonas Salk poem for Poetry Friday. The following draft was dated July 21, 2011.

Jonas Salk

Becoming a lawyer was not for me.

I had been captivated by atoms and molecules,

By the world of science.

I was interested now in the laws of nature—

Not the laws of man.

I would become a medical researcher,

Learn how the human body fights infection,

Discover cures for illnesses,

Find ways to prevent diseases.

I would be a problem solver.

That excited me!

The laboratory became my home.

Finding a way to immunize people against polio,

The disease that had crippled so many, became my passion.

I spent years experimenting, searching for an answer.

In 1953, we inoculated our first “polio pioneers.”

The vaccine worked!

Now no more children would have to walk

With metal braces on their legs…

No more children would be paralyzed or trapped inside iron lungs.

No more parents would live in fear of the word “polio.”

President Eisenhower said he had no words to thank me.

I needed no thanks.

I had lived my dream to help mankind.

I was asked who owned the patent on my vaccine. I replied,

"There is no patent. Could you patent the sun?"

It belonged to the people.

 ********************

Katya has the Poetry Friday Roundup at Write. Sketch. Repeat.

Here & There—May 7, 2012

SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL

Going Places: Amazing Journeys by John Peters

“Here is a mix of odysseys real and imaginary, published for the most part within the past decade, that will captivate readers with both the lure of new and exotic locales and the hazards and rewards of the journeys themselves.”

It Takes Two: SLJ’s first public library spendingsurvey uncovers an opportunity for tighter collaboration between school andpublic librarians by Rebecca T. Miller and Laura Girmscheid

 BOOKLIST

Top 10 Crime Fiction for Youth: 2012 by Daniel Kraus

Books and Authors: Talking with Sy Montgomery by Cyndi Giorgis

THE HORN BOOK

Cleveland and Pittsburgh Create a Profession:Early children’slibrarianship in two cities ofthe industrial heartland by Barbara Bader

We Belong Together: What will it mean to promote reading in apost-book world? by Roger Sutton 

No Joke! Humor and Culture in Middle-Grade Books (Yes, multicultural fictioncan be funny)  by Uma Krishnaswami

BCCB (Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books)

MAY’s DOZEN—Musings with Mom: A Mother-Daughter BookClub Dozen selected by Kate Quealy-Gainer

Bulletin Stars for May

PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

Children’sGalleys to Grab: BEA 2012 compiled by Carolyn Juris

Fall 2012 Sneak Previews compiled by Shannon Maughan

The Final Days of NaPoMo…And the Winner of “I Am the Book” Is…

I am happy to announce that Tara of A Teaching Life is the winner of I Am the Book—with poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrations by Yayo.

Congratulations, Tara! Please email me your snail mail address so that I can send you your book.

Poetry Friday is Here!

The Poetry Friday Roundup is here this week. Just leave the URL of your post in the comments. I'll continue adding links throughout the day.

MORNING EDITION

Linda has a poem for us by Mary Oliver titled I Worry over at Write Time.

Kerry Aradhya Is featuring the rhyming picture book WHO LIKES RAIN? by Wong Herbert Yee at Picture Books & Pirouettes.

Renee LaTulippe ended her Poetry Month celebration with a video interview of Children's Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis—which includes his poem Mosquito.

Fuse #8 has a review of the new poetry book The President's Stuck in the Bathtub by Susan Katz.

Carol has three poems today that celebrate “the ordinary.”

Linda at TeacherDance is sharing an essay that tells of the personal importance of poetry--and a Mother's Day poem by Ted Kooser.

Steve Withrow is sharing two original poems this Poetry Friday—one inspired by a great painting and one that is “a bit of zoo-illogical nonsense.

Katya has a couple of spring haiku over at Write. Sketch. Repeat.

Liz Steinglass has a silly original poem titled Detour at Growing Wild.

Jama Rattigan asks if we like “obscene words.” If we do, she says we’ll like a poem she shares that was written by Diane Lockwood.

Ed DeCaria says he’s back in action today! He’s introducing his new branch of applied statistics ... POEMETRICS! He’d like everyone to come by to share their opinions before he starts to lay down some facts!

Doraine Bennett asks, “Twitter sonnets??!!” I dunno. You’ll have to check out her Poetry Friday post.

Here at Wild Rose Reader, I'm sharing an original acrostic about about the month of MAY. (Note: It is also a mask poem.)

Diane Mayr has a look at New Hampshire poets at Random Noodling. Diane says he war is over, and so is the book, at Kids of the Homefront Army.

Kurious Kitty recommends The Poets Laureate Anthology.

At Kurious K's Kwotes', Richard Eberhart describes poems.

Author Amok is working on Fibonacci poems with third graders this week. Check out her lesson and some student poems at her blog.

David Elzey is “finishing up” National Poetry Month with the final roundup of tweeted haiku.

They’ve had “a rather horsey week” at The Write Sisters. They’re that theme with girl (three) and the black horse by Rg Gregory.

Over at A Teaching Life, Tara is sharing a collection of poems about manners, which—she says—are actually a lot of fun to read. 

Andi Sibley has a haiku/renku Daisy Chain done by the Poetry Sisters that she is sharing at her blog A Wrung Sponge.

Mary Lee Hahn has “some thoughts on tigers, teaching, and the amazing connections kids make to poetry...sometimes without us ever knowing.”

Robyn Hood Black joins the Poetry Friday posters with acelebration of May Day with Edmund Spenser. She says, “Bring your eglantine!”

Laura Salas is in the the Poetry Sisters' Daisy Chain Haiku. Check out her Poetry Friday post here. Take a look at this week's poems of 15 Words or Less.

Sara Lewis Holmes joins with Andi and Laura in the daisy chain! Her post on the haiku game is here.

Jim Hill offers us a poem today titled The Empty Juice Box Blues. He says it’s “a daycare delinquent's lament.”

Liz Scanlon invites us to check out her Poetry Sisters Renku post.

PaperTigers is in with a post on a book of poems about Old Order Mennonite children.

Gregory Pincus shares an original poem titled A Note for My Grandma (Left in her Kitchen) at GottaBook. It’s a poem about food and family.

Violet says that she read her first verse novel this week. She shares her impressions of Stop Pretending by Sonya Sones at her blog.

Charles Ghigna presents his new A Poem Is a Painting poem at his blog Father Goose.

LITERARY LUNCH BUNCH

Over at Teaching Authors, April Halprin Wayland has three different versions of an original poem for us. She’d like our advice and suggestions about them. BTW, the Teaching Authors blog is celebrating its third blogiversary! Find out how to enter their Blogiversary giveaway contest to win one of THREE $30 gift cards from Biblio.com.

Today at The Poem Farm, Amy has the complete Dictionary Hike from April...with audio. She said she just added an audio introduction the other night, for any students who might listen in a computer lab.

Lorie Ann Grover has A Perfect Pause for us at On Point.

Lorie Ann Grover has A Perfect Pause for us at On Point.

At Readertotz, you can go Around the Block with Sesame Street.

And at Mainely Write, Donna Smith has a poem that she wrote for her daughter on her birthday—which is today!

Jone shares two student poems with us at Check It Out.

Julie Larios says she is taking a break from The Drift Record this week—but over at Books Around the Table, she takes a look at idioms in different languages as a source for poetic images.

It’s nice to have Tricia posting again at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Today, she gives us “her take” on the daisy chain haiku.

EVENING EDITION

Tabatha Yeatts joins us poetry posters with with Dana Gioia's Pity the Beautiful.

Ruth has a poem by Jane Yolen for us today at There Is No Such Thing as a Godforsaken Town.

Joyce Ray has a review of Won Ton: A Cat tale Told in Haiku.

You’ll find a post about A Pocketful of Stars: Poems about theNight at Books 4 Learning.

SATURDAY MORNING ADDITIONS

Betsy of Teaching Young Writers got herself a new notebook and wrote on the first page of it yesterday...finally!

At Beyond Innisfree, Shawn shares his original poem titled Friday’s Resolve.

Myra Garces-Bascal has a poetry offering this week at GatheringBooks. She says it’s “a poem from the beautiful and controversial Anais Nin - alongside photos of lovely flowers from the Singapore Botanical Gardens.”

Mary Lee Hahn said the following link was left in the “comments” on her Poetry Friday post.
I posted lyrics from Matt Nathanson's song All We Are today at Bildungsroman:
http://slayground.livejournal.com/699647.html

(NOTE: I apologize for the delay in posting the Saturday Morning Addtions. I was out last night.)

MAY: An Original Acrostic

Me? I’m the month when spring is in full swing...when the sun batters up

And hits a home run nearly every day…when

You find summer in the bullpen warming up.

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REMINDER

Win a Poetry Book!

I’ve decided to extend National Poetry Month until May 5^th at Wild Rose Reader. That means if you leave a comment at any of my poetry posts (except for the Poetry Friday Roundup) that I publish from Sunday, April 29^ththrough Saturday, May 5^th—I’ll enter your name in the drawing to win a copy of I Am the Book—with poems selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrations by Yayo.

I'll announce the winner of I Am the Book on Sunday, May 6th.

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The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Wild Rose Reader today.