Tuesday, April 30, 2019

NPM: Two Poems for Children's Book Week: Post #21



Here are two poems that I wrote about children's books. I wrote A Book and a Chair when my daughter was young. I loved to read to her at night while we sat on a red-cushioned rocking chair in my bedroom. I wrote Things to Do If You Are a Book for my book THINGS TO DO. It was cut from the manuscript--and is not included in the book.
I'm posting the two poems in celebration of the 100th anniversary of Children's Book Week (April 29-May 5, 20190.)

A BOOK AND A CHAIR
A book and a chair
Are nice to share
When the edges of day
Are melting away
Into the night.

A book and a chair
Are nice to share…
Touching and talking,
Reading and rocking
Into the night.


THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE A BOOK

Be filled with words that tell a tale
of a little mouse and a giant whale
of a runty pig and his spider friend
who was true and loyal to the end
of a badger who loved eating bread and jam
of a funky guy, green eggs, and ham
of a spunky girl named Ramona Q.
of a boy and the Jabberwock he slew.
Be filled with words and tell a tale
that will let my imagination sail.
Be a mystery
or a fantasy
or sing with sounds of poetry.
Between your covers
let there be
a story that’s just right for me.

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Click here to download a copy of the 2019 Children's Book Week poster.
 
Click here to download activity sheets.

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BOOK GIVEAWAY
I'm giving away a copy of YOU JUST WAIT: A Poetry Friday Power Book by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. It's would be an excellent classroom resource for teachers of "tweens and teens."
To be entered into the drawing for the book, all you have to do is to comment on any of my Wild Rose Reader posts that I publish from April 23rd through April 30th. I'll announce the winner on Wednesday, May 1st.

 

Sunday, April 28, 2019

NPM: A CHARMING PRINCE HAS SECOND THOUGHTS--A Funny Fairy Tale Poem: Post #20




Nearly twenty-five years ago, I began writing a collection of humorous fairy tale poems. I was inspired to write them after sharing some funny fairy tale poems written by Judith Viorst and X.J. Kennedy with my elementary students during the course of an extensive unit on traditional literature that I did in my classroom. I never submitted my collection to a publisher. Still, I had fun writing the poems--and sharing them with my students and members of my writing group.
 
 

A CHARMING PRINCE HAS SECOND THOUGHTS

By Elaine Magliaro
Listen…Sleeping Beauty snoring
Sounds just like a lion roaring!
If I kiss her cheek, she’ll rise
And look into my deep blue eyes.
She’ll fall in love with me no doubt.
I’m the only prince hereabout.

Should I kiss Beauty? Should I not?
In this dilemma I am caught.
If I wake her now she’s mine—
A roaring, snoring valentine!
I know they say that love is blind,
But it’s not deaf. I’m disinclined
To rouse this maid. I’ll let her snore
And dream of me forevermore.

 ***************
 
BOOK GIVEAWAY

I'm giving away a copy of YOU JUST WAIT: A Poetry Friday Power Book by SylviaVardell and Janet Wong. It's would be an excellent classroom resource for teachers of "tweens and teens."

To be entered into the drawing for the book, all you have to do is to comment on any of my Wild Rose Reader posts that I publish from April 23rd through April 30th. I'll announce the winner on Wednesday, May 1st.

 

Saturday, April 27, 2019

NPM: Two Original Rain Poems & A Book Recommendation: Post #19


We've had a lot of rain lately. I thought I'd post a couple of rain poems that I wrote several years ago.

PUDDLE MUDDLE


I’m in the middle of a puddle…
in the middle…
in a muddle.

The puddle’s much too deep.
It spilled
into my boots.
Now they’re filled
with muddy water
to the brim.
I hope my feet
know how to swim!

IT'S RAINING

It’s raining…
Raining all around.
It’s raining puddles
On the ground.
It’s raining
On my booted feet.
It’s raining
Rivers in the street.
It’s raining cats.
It’s raining dogs.
It’s raining ponds
For polliwogs.
It’s raining
Drop by drop by drop…
A billion trillion—
It won’t stop!
It’s raining buckets
From the sky.
Don’t think the earth
Will EVER dry.
***************
More poems about rain can be found in ONE BIG RAIN: Poems for Rainy Days, which was compiled by Rita Gray and illustrated by Ryan O'Rourke.
 
One Big Rain is one delightful little anthology of poems about rain that takes readers through the year. Its twenty poems are divided equally among the four seasons. Most of the poems are brief; many paint vivid images with their words.

Gray selected several fine haikus for her book—including this one by Sora:

stars on the pond—
again, a pitter-patter
of winter rain
In One Big Rain, Gray includes works by well-known poets like Lilian Moore, Eve Merriam, Robert Frost, and Carl Sandburg—as well as works by poets whose names may not be familiar to many readers. The book also contains two poems translated from other languages (Norwegian and Spanish): Rain by Sigbjorn and The Sower by R. Olivares Figueroa. One of the things I like best about the One Big Rain is finding a few of my favorite weather poems that I haven’t read in anthologies in a long time.

One of those “favorite” poems is Eve Merriam’s Summer Rain. Here’s an excerpt from it:

A tickle, a trickle
A million-dot freckle
Speckles the spotted rain.

Like a cinnamon
Geranium
Smells the rainingest rain.

And here’s an excerpt from another “favorite”— Lilian Moore’s
Weather Report:

Ice-bearing trees,
a glass
orchard,
blinking
sunwinking.

A noonwind will
pass,
harvesting the brittle crop,
crashing
clinking.
 ***************
 
BOOK GIVEAWAY
I'm giving away a copy of YOU JUST WAIT: A Poetry Friday Power Book by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. It's would be an excellent classroom resource for teachers of "tweens and teens."
To be entered into the drawing for the book, all you have to do is to comment on any of my Wild Rose Reader posts that I publish from April 23rd through April 30th. I'll announce the winner on Wednesday, May 1st.

 

Friday, April 26, 2019

NPM: Rhyming Acrostics: Post #18


I dug up some old poems that I wrote about a decade ago when I was working on a collection of rhyming acrostics. Here are seven of them:

Changes suits to suit
His locus. Abracadabra! Hocus-pocus! He’s
A clever
Master of disguise…a trickster who can fool the
Eyes! This
Lizard with a fashion flair takes his wardrobe
Everywhere. Predators don’t stop
Or stare.
No one even knows he’s there.
 
Fiery flowers bloom
In the night:
Roses, carnations…chrysanthemums, too,
Emerald green, red,
White, and blue. Silvery fountains spill
Out of the sky.
Rockets of gold sizzle and sigh.
Kaleidoscope colors cascade in space,
Showering glitter all over the place.
 
Cans of people,
Automobiles
Roaring down roads on
Silver-capped wheels.
 
Claw-handed critter
Races sideways, skitters
Across sea-washed land…
Beachcombing in the sand.
 
Dawn, dressed in a bright blue robe
And golden slippers,
Yawns awake. Stars scurry away.
Breaking into song, birds
Rouse the sun,
Eager to start
A new day. Morning bounds out of bed with delight,
Kicking off the dark cover of night.
 
Silent sidekick, shape shifter who
Hides in the darkness…
A copycat mimicking everything you
Do. Sunny day playmate frolics in the light.
Oh, where, oh,
Where does it go at night?
 
Words
Hushed
In soft velvet
Sounds
Patter into your
Ear
Revealing deep secrets that no one
Should hear.
 

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 Wild Rose Reader Posts from Earlier This Week



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BOOK GIVEAWAY
I'm giving away a copy of YOU JUST WAIT: A Poetry Friday Power Book by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. It's would be an excellent classroom resource for teachers of "tweens and teens."
To be entered into the drawing for the book, all you have to do is to comment on any of my Wild Rose Reader posts that I publish from April 23rd through April 30th. I'll announce the winner on Wednesday, May 1st.
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Carol V. has this week's Poetry Friday Roundup at Beyond LiteracyLink.

 

 

Wednesday, April 24, 2019

NPM: THERE WAS A WITCH-An Original Poem: Post #17

I originally posted There Was a Witch on this blog years ago. Quite some time after that, the poet and anthologist John Foster told me he'd like to include it in a book of space poems that he was compiling. I've sold poems that I've posted at Wild Rose Reader to publishers in New Zealand and the UK. Later this year, an educational publisher in the Republic of Ireland plans to publish a book that will include two of my poems about asteroids. I was told that my poems "would be reproduced in full and followed by activities for students to complete. The publication is strictly intended for educational purposes and is aimed at students aged 11-12 at primary level."

There Was a Witch can be found in A ROCKETFUL OF SPACE POEMS.
 
THERE WAS A WITCH
By Elaine Magliaro
 
There was a witch who liked to race
Her supersonic broom through space.
At six o'clock last Friday night
She blasted off at speed of light.
She whizzed past Mercury and Mars...
Then headed off toward distant stars.
Across the galaxy she sped,
A black peaked helmet on her head.
An interstellar traveler, she
Explored the Milky Way with glee.
She chased swift comets here and there.
She watched bright supernovae flare.
She zipped through clouds of cosmic dust...
A witch bewitched by wanderlust.
There was a witch, I'm sad to say,
Flew near a big black hole one day.
It sucked her in just like a bean.
You won't see HER on Halloween!

 **********
 
BOOK GIVEAWAY
I'm giving away a copy of YOU JUST WAIT: A Poetry Friday Power Book by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. It's would be an excellent classroom resource for teachers of "tweens and teens."
To be entered into the drawing for the book, all you have to do is to comment on any of my Wild Rose Reader posts that I publish from April 23rd through April 30th. I'll announce the winner on Wednesday, May 1st.

 

Tuesday, April 23, 2019

NPM: TOO LITTLE!-An Original Poem: Post #16

 


Last week, I posted a poem titled SO SMALL that was told in the voice of a young child who was tired of being smaller than everyone he/she knew. Today, I have a poem titled TOO LITTLE! that is a good companion for TOO SMALL. In this poem, a young child wishes to be bigger so he/she can do more things that most little kids aren't allowed to do.

TOO LITTLE!
By Elaine Magliaro

THEY say
I’m TOO LITTLE for this…
I’m TOO LITTLE for that.
I’m too little to do SO MANY things.
DRAT!
I wish I were big like my sister and brother.
I wish I were big like my father and mother.
I wish I were BIG—as be as can be…
Like the giant blue whale who lives in the sea.
There wouldn’t be ANYTHING bigger than me!
Then I’d shout and I’d spout, “Make way, make way!
I’m going to go where I want today.
I’m going to do what I want to do.
And you can’t say no ’cause I’m bigger than you!”
 
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BOOK GIVEAWAY

I'm giving away a copy of YOU JUST WAIT: A Poetry Friday Power Book by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. It would be an excellent classroom resource for teachers of "tweens and teens."
To be entered into the drawing for the book, all you have to do is to comment on any of my Wild Rose Reader posts that I publish from April 23rd through April 30th. I'll announce the winner on Wednesday, May 1st.
About the Book

YOU JUST WAIT: A Poetry Friday Power Book for tweens and teens, features 12 PowerPack sets that contain five elements: 1) a PowerPlay prewriting activity; 2) a previously-published Outside Poem (in this case, from The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School); 3) a new original Response Poem; 4) a new original Mentor Text poem; and 5) a Power2You writing prompt. PowerPacks = a fun and inspiring approach for a wide variety of readers and writers. Curious? Take a look!
The twelve Outside Poems from The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School (an NCTE Poetry Notable) were written by Robyn Hood Black, Joseph Bruchac, Jen Bryant, Margarita Engle, Julie Larios, Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, Charles Ghigna, Avis Harley, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Charles Waters, and Virginia Euwer Wolff. The way they are joined together here with twenty-four new poems by Janet Wong, they form a story featuring Paz, an Asian-Latina soccer player with dreams of stardom in college, the Olympics, and ultimately the World Cup; Lucesita, her feisty movie-loving cousin; and Joe, an older brother with dreams of the NBA. Sylvia Vardell’s inventive PowerPlay activities make it easy for writers to get inspired, while her Power2You writing prompts extend learning. Vardell also created extensive back matter resources for readers and writers.

Click here for resources you can use with YOU JUST WAIT: A Poetry Friday Power Book.

Sunday, April 21, 2019

Announcing the Winner of A SUITCASE OF SEAWEED & MORE by Janet Wong


I am happy to announce that Cheriee Weichel of Library matters is the winner of A Suitcase of Seaweed & More by Janet Wong. Congratulations, Cheriee! Leave me a message in the comments so that I know you heard the news that you've won the book.

Friday, April 19, 2019

NPM: SO SMALL-An Original Poem: Post #15



I went looking through my poetry files this morning. It's funny how I often forget about poems that I've written. Here's one of my forgotten poems titled So Small. It's told in the voice of a young child who doesn't want to be smaller than everyone else she knows. Her wish is to be BIGGER than everyone!

SO SMALL
by Elaine Magliaro

I’m small…so small
Not tall at all.
I’m smaller than everyone else I know.
Wish I could grow…
Could sprout so high
I’d stand like giraffe with my head
In the sky.
I’d be taller than tall…
The tallest of all.
I’d tower above
Everyone that I know
Then I could look down
Guess what I’d see?
Everyone LOOKING UP AT ME!!!

 **********
 
BOOK GIVEAWAY
I'll be giving away an autographed copy of A Suitcase of Seaweed & More by Janet Wong. It's not only an excellent poetry book--it's also an excellent classroom writing resource, which could inspire students to write poems about their own life experiences.
To be entered into the drawing for the book, all you have to do is to comment on any of my Wild Rose Reader posts that I publish from April 14th through April 20th. I'll announce the winner on Sunday, April 21st.
Amy Ludwig VanDerwater has the Poetry Friday Roundup at The Poem Farm.


 

 

 

Thursday, April 18, 2019

NPM: What Is Supposed to Happen by Naomi Shihab Nye: Post #14

I'm posting one of my favorite poems by Naomi Shihab Nye. I included it in a memory book that I made for my daughter as a high school graduation gift. The book was filled with poems, photographs, and memorabilia from her childhood and high school years. She loved it so much that she took it with her when she went off to college.

WHAT IS SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN
by Naomi Shihab Nye

When you were small,
we watched you sleeping,
waves of breath
filling your chest.
Sometimes we hid behind
the wall of baby, soft cradle
of baby needs.
I loved carrying you between
my own body and the world.

Now you are sharpening pencils,
entering the forest of
lunch boxes, little desks.
People I never saw before
call out your name
and you wave.
Click here to read the rest of the poem.
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BOOK GIVEAWAY
I'll be giving away an autographed copy of A Suitcase of Seaweed & More by Janet Wong. It's not only an excellent poetry book--it's also an excellent classroom writing resource, which could inspire students to write poems about their own life experiences.

To be entered into the drawing for the book, all you have to do is to comment on any of my Wild Rose Reader posts that I publish from April 14th through April 20th. I'll announce the winner on Sunday, April 21st.




Wednesday, April 17, 2019

NPM: An Original Cricket Acrostic: Post #13


Years ago, I began work on a collection of acrostic poems titled What's in a Word. I never submitted the manuscript to a publisher. Fortunately, Kenn Nesbitt selected one of the poems from the collection for his anthology One Minute till Bedtime: 60-Second Poems to Send You Off to Sleep. The book was published by Little, Brown in 2016.

 
Here's CRICKETS--my acrostic that appears in Kenn's anthology:

 
Chirping in the dark, their song

Resonates

In the still air. A

Chorus of summer night strummers in concert with

Katydids

Entertaining warm evenings with

Their

Symphony of wings.

 **********

BOOK GIVEAWAY
 


I'll be giving away an autographed copy of A Suitcase of Seaweed & More by Janet Wong. It's not only an excellent poetry book--it's also an excellent classroom writing resource, which could inspire students to write poems about their own life experiences.
 
To be entered into the drawing for the book, all you have to do is to comment on any of my Wild Rose Reader posts that I publish from April 14th through April 20th. I'll announce the winner on Sunday, April 21st.

 

Monday, April 15, 2019

NPM: Acupuncture Poem and A Personal Story: Post #12



I LOVE Janet Wong's new edition of A Suitcase of Seaweed. It contains all of the thirty-six original poems--and so much more. The best addition to this new edition are the "snippets of story" from Janet's own life that describe the events/incidents that inspired her poems.

Click here to read my post about the "snippet of story" that inspired Janet's poem A Suitcase of Seaweed.

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Today, with Janet's permission, I'm sharing her poem Acupuncture--in which Janet's mother talks to her about her own experience with this ancient Chinese form of "alternative medicine."

ACUPUNCTURE
By Janet Wong

"Chook! Chook! Chook!"
Mother says each time
she digs her finger
into my skin
to show where
the doctor stuck
hundreds of needles
in her swollen, still,
fever-filled body,
when she was twelve.

I have a picture
in my mind
of how she looked--Chook!
My mother, once
a porcupine.

 **********
Janet's inspiration for this poem: When Janet was a teenager, she sprained her ankle. Her mother decided to take her to a Korean acupuncturist in Los Angeles for treatment. Janet had never had acupuncture before. She was little afraid even though her mother had told her how acupuncture had healed her when she was a child.

Janet Wong: The needles hurt, maybe because I was so tense. (I've had acupuncture many times since then, and usually the needles don't hurt at all.) Between the acupuncture and RICE (Rest, Ice, Compression with a bandage, and Elevation), I got better in a few days.

It's possible that my ankle would've healed just the same without all that, too. Some people say acupuncture only works if you believe it will.

**********
MY CONNECTION TO THIS POEM

More than a decade ago, I began having a physical problem that caused me great pain and discomfort. After dealing with it for a period of time, I went to my primary care physician. My doctor sent me to the hospital for a battery of tests--including a CT scan. The tests provided no answer for what was causing my pain and discomfort. Both my primary care doctor and my gastroenterologist thought it might be adhesions. I wasn't so sure about that. The only suggestion I got from the gastroenterologist to try to remedy my problem was to take probiotics.
The probiotics did help to alleviate my pain and discomfort. Then, I got a bad respiratory infection and had to take an antibiotic. That set me back to where I had been before I went to the doctor.
Living with constant pain was draining and depressing. That's when I decided to try acupuncture. A good friend who had helped to set up a health clinic in our area recommended an acupuncturist who had a practice less than five minutes from my house. A French immigrant, he had trained in the United States and Beijing.
After half a dozen treatments and a Chinese herbal remedy, I felt like a new person! Following that, I'd have flare ups every five or six months. One or two visits to my acupuncturist would free me from my pain. The best news is that I haven't had to have a treatment in well over a year.  
NOTE: I have found acupuncture to be painless.
ANOTHER NOTE: My acupuncturist now works with patients at a hospital in Massachusetts to relieve the side effects of cancer treatments and various symptoms associated with cancer.
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BOOK GIVEAWAY
I'll be giving away an autographed copy of A Suitcase of Seaweed & More by Janet Wong. It's not only an excellent poetry book--it's also an excellent classroom writing resource, which could inspire students to write poems about their own life experiences.
To be entered into the drawing for the book, all you have to do is to comment on any of my Wild Rose Reader posts that I publish from April 14th through April 20th. I'll announce the winner on Sunday, April 21st.