DAISY: An Original Acrostic

I love daisies. They seem unpretentious flowers to me. I also love how the name for the daisy comes from the term "day's eye." That is what gave me the idea for the following acrostic.

Day’s eye, wide
Awake, standing
In a meadow
Staring at the sky—its bright
Yellow face turned toward the sun.

Photograph by Ian Britton

EASTER SUNDAY: An Original Poem

Here is an Easter poem from A Home for the Seasons, my unpublished collection of memoir poems about happy times I spent at the home of my maternal grandparents.

Photograh by Ian Britton

EASTER SUNDAY

A large open kitchen is the heart
of my grandparents’ house.
It is in this sunny yellow room
that our family celebrates
the “special” days of the year.
After church on Easter morning,
everyone gathers here for a holiday breakfast
of Polish ham and fresh kielbasa,
hardboiled eggs and cheesecake.
And there is always Babci’s homemade horseradish
guaranteed to burn our tongues and make our eyes water.
When we finish eating,
we play our game of dueling eggs.
The winner gets to joust again.
The loser has to eat her egg.

Happy Easter!!!

Knock Poetry Off the Pedestal by Marilyn Singer

Knock Poetry Off the Pedestal: It's time to make poems a part of children's everyday lives
by Marilyn Singer – School Library Journal, 4/1/2010

Excerpt:
It was last October, and I was feeling self-congratulatory. I had already booked the 11 participants for the next “Poetry Blast,” the reading by children’s poets at the American Library Association’s annual conference. Once again, we were going to spread the good word that poetry is an aural art.

Then I got an email from Richie Partington, friend, critic, and kids’ lit missionary. He’d been invited to teach a class on children’s and young adult poetry at San Jose State University’s School of Library and Information Science. “What important concepts about poetry would you like library school students to learn about?” he asked.

“Well, Richie,” I started to reply, “as I’ve always said, to appreciate poetry, you have to hear it.” But then all of my assurance went out the window. Surely, I thought, that isn’t the only concept that future school librarians need to embrace. I know firsthand that most kids seem to like poetry. But something amiss happens along the road to adulthood, and many of those same students end up actively disliking poetry or not relating to it. And who can blame them? Poetry is often presented as a rarefied thing that exists only to be analyzed by professorial types or as greeting-card sentiments to be enjoyed by love-struck girls (and the guys who hit on them). So, I mulled, what can librarians do to buck this trend? I know! I’ll ask some other poets who write for young readers.

One of the first to respond was poet-photographer Charles R. Smith, Jr., whose latest book, My People (S & S/Atheneum), nabbed the 2010 Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award, thanks to his stunning photos. He immediately came up with a grand mantra: “Poetry needs to be taken off the pedestal.” He adds, “While poetry month is a good idea in theory, it ultimately confines poetry to that one month. As a black poet, I’m busy in February [Black History Month] and April [National Poetry Month], but I’m still a black poet the other 10 months of the year!” The solution? “By exposing students to poetry on a daily basis, by connecting it with their everyday lives, they begin to see the beauty and value in words,” says Smith.

Yes! I agree. And so does Julie Larios. Perhaps “librarians don’t use more poetry because they’re afraid of it,” and some believe it’s “nowhere near as sturdy as fiction or nonfiction… or it’s too cute, maybe, for kids,” says Larios, winner of the 2006 Pushcart Prize for poetry and a teacher in Vermont College’s Writing for Children program. “That’s why poetry comes out for only one month of the year and at holidays. I would love to have librarians stop thinking poetry should only be about snowmen, hearts, dancing flowers, bunnies, ice cream, witches, pumpkins, turkeys, jingle bells, and the wind.”

Read the rest of the article here: http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/article/CA6724230.html

The Great List Poem Post & An Invitation

Sometimes the beginning lines of a poem just pop into my head. There’s no advanced warning. I haven’t prepared the way for them. They just come—and I’m always happy to welcome them.

The first few lines of the following list poem about April arrived without an invitation. I hadn’t thought: I’ll sit down now and write a list poem about April. Let’s see—I’ll speak to my muse and get her advice. No, I just listened to the words whispering in my mind and let the poem take me where it wanted to go.

April: A List Poem

April is showers
and blossoming flowers…
their fragrant perfume.
It’s fruit trees in bloom.
It’s cold days adjourning
and robins returning
and swift rivers running…
my dog outside sunning.

April is warmer,
a springtime performer...
delivers bright days
when forsythia blaze
and I hear the sun say:
“You can go out and play—
No wool coat required.”
'Cause winter’s retired.


Here are two more list poems that I posted previously at Wild Rose Reader (I’ve made a couple of small changes in April.) These poems didn't just "pop" into my head. You’ll notice that the spring poem is an also acrostic.

APRIL

Days crackle with sunlight.
Tree buds burst tight jackets,
Stretch awake.
Jaunty daffodils announce
Spring’s return.
Birds string themselves
Like beads along branches.
Windows yawn open
And houses breathe deep
Warm green air.


Soft, scented breezes, kite-catching winds, the
Pitter patter of warm rain on the
Roof, daffodils and daisies and lilacs
In bloom, apple trees wearing snow-white crowns.
Now the sun lingers at the edge of day and
Green…lovely green…has come home to stay.


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Last Sunday, I met with my good friend Brad. Brad also writes and has a passion for poetry. He is a master of haiku. He also loves list poems. I asked if he’d be willing to share some of his original list poems with us. He was most accommodating.

Here are three list poems written by Brad Bennett.
(Each Animal Knew One Word, Vocations, and Spelling List © Brad Bennett. All rights reserved.)

Each Animal Knew One Word

mouse: nibble
rat: gnaw
crow: quibble
bear: thaw

seal: bask
buffalo: wallow
chameleon: mask
python: swallow

eagle: soar
butterfly: flit
squirrel: store
camel: spit


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Vocations

The job of the sky?
To blanket the hills.
The job of the hills?
To cushion the sun.
The job of the sun?
To wake up the trees.
The job of the trees?
To embrace the lake.
The job of the lake?
To mirror the sky.


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Spelling List

1. I’ve
2. always
3. loved
4. learning
5. new
6. words
7. especially
8. when
9. they
10. organize
11. themselves
12. into
13. an
14. unexpected
15. poem

About Brad Bennett: Brad is a third grade teacher at the Thoreau School in Concord, Massachusetts. He is also a published poet. We met in 2001 at the First Annual Summer Poetry Institute—an institute for teachers sponsored by the Favorite Poem Project and the School of Education at Boston University. Brad and I have remained friends since that summer. We get together several times a year to talk about poetry, religion, teaching, and life.

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If you’d like to read more list poems, I recommend Falling Down the Page: A Book of List Poems. It was edited by Georgia Heard. The book contains thirty-two poems—many written by some of America’s most highly regarded children’s poets, including Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Marilyn Singer, Kristine O’Connell George, Naomi Shihab Nye, J. Patrick Lewis, Jane Yolen, Bobbi Katz, and Patricia Hubbell.
In the book’s introduction, Georgia Heard explains that “Falling Down the Page sketches the cycle of a school year from summer’s end in Eileen Spinelli’s “Good-byes” to a no school snow day in "Winter’s Presents" by Patricia Hubbell. The poems also trace the arc of an entire school day from “Ways to Greet A Friend” by Avis Harley to end-of-the-day rituals in “Things to Do Today” by Liz Rozenberg.

Here's an excerpt from Eileen Spinelli's Good-byes, the first list poem in the anthology:

It's really hard
to say good-bye
to twinkling beach,
and golden sky,
to castles rising
from the sand,
to Annie's caramel
popcorn stand.

You can read the rest of Eileen’s poem here: http://www.amazon.com/reader/1596432209?_encoding=UTF8&ref_=sib_dp_ptu#reader_1596432209

The poems in this collection take on a variety of forms and subjects. Avis Harley writes about how to say hello in different languages in Ways to Greet A Friend. Her poem begins…

Hola is the Spanish Hello,
Italians go for Buon giorno

Konichiwa is Japanese,
Bon dia is the Portuguese,

It ends…

Shalom would be the Hebrew tongue….
So many ways Hello is sung!

Jane Yolen’s poem In My Desk is told in the voice of a child who is upset because recess has been canceled so that students can clean out their desks. The child thinks she has only junk in her desk—and says: “So let them clean it/I don’t care.” The child then lists the pieces of junk--and then has second thoughts about them:

No—wait—
each piece
can tell a tale.
It’s not just
junk
that’s old and stale.
I’ll do that
cleaning out,
you see
each piece of junk’s
my history.

In Clay Play, Kristine O’Connell George talks about some of the different things one can do to and with clay. For example, one can…

Pound it, round it,
stretch it, roll it,
braid it, bowl it,
mold it, fold it.

Press it flat
and very thin
for daisy petals—
fishes’ fins…

In her “recipe” poem, Georgia Heard lists the ingredients one requires for writing an autumn poem. Avis Harley lists the different places one can read books in her rhyming poem Booktime. In J. Patrick Lewis’s poem What is Earth?, different animals are asked the same question—but respond with different answers:

What is earth, whale?
A sea where I sing.
What is earth, robin?
A thing I call Spring.
What is earth, python?
A space to squeeze in.
What is earth, penguin?
A place to freeze in…

The book’s final poem, Things to Do Today by Liz Rosenberg, ends like this:

Brush teeth, spit. Say good-night
To that girl in the mirror.
Get feet back into bed.
Check for moonlight. Starlight. Weather.
Read before sleep.
Remember a good thing that happened.
Forget a not-so-good one.
Tomorrow you get to do it all again.
Lucky you! Don’t watch the clock. Just
Dream.

And finally, here’s the poem that I contributed to Falling Down the Page:

THINGS TO DO IF YOU ARE A PENCIL

Be sharp.
Wear a slick yellow suit
and a pink top hat.
Tap your toes on the tabletop,
listen for the right rhythm,
then dance a poem
across the page.


An Invitation
Are you feeling inspired to write a list poem? I hope so. If you do write one, leave it in the comments or email it to me and I’ll post it next week.

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Addendum
More List Poems from Wild Rose Reader and Other Kidlit Bloggers

From Cloudscome at A Wrung Sponge: What I Would Photograph

From Tiel Aisha Ansari at Knocking from Inside: Things I’m Grateful For

From Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect: How I Write

From Wild Rose Reader: Things to Do: List Poems

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The Poetry Friday Roundup is at Book Aunt this week.

Daffodils: An Original Poem to Welcome National Poetry Month

We’ve had so much rain where I live lately that I was inspired to write a poem about RAIN the other day--but I decided not to post it on the first day of National Poetry Month. Instead…I wanted to welcome April with a bit of color in a poem I wrote about daffodils—one of my favorite spring flowers.

I saw my first spring daffodil in my mother’s side yard a few days ago. It seemed a brave soldier—weathering the torrential rains and adding a spot of bright yellow to the drab scenery.

Daffodils
by Elaine Magliaro

Daffodils…
dipped in sunlight,
dusted with gold—
brassy blossoms
trumpeting their color
in April gardens

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Two More Daffodil Poems

To an Early Daffodil
by Amy Lowell

Thou yellow trumpeter of laggard Spring!
Thou herald of rich Summer's myriad flowers!
The climbing sun with new recovered powers
Does warm thee into being, through the ring
Of rich, brown earth he woos thee, makes thee fling
Thy green shoots up, inheriting the dowers
Of bending sky and sudden, sweeping showers,
Till ripe and blossoming thou art a thing
To make all nature glad, thou art so gay;
To fill the lonely with a joy untold;
Nodding at every gust of wind to-day,
To-morrow jewelled with raindrops. Always bold
To stand erect, full in the dazzling play
Of April's sun, for thou hast caught his gold.

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The Daffodils
by William Wordsworth

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Continuous as the stars that shine
And twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
Along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
Tossing their heads in sprightly dance.

The waves beside them danced, but they
Out-did the sparkling leaves in glee:
A Poet could not but be gay,
In such a jocund company:
I gazed—and gazed—but little thought
What wealth the show to me had brought:

For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.



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Win a Poetry Book!
Every week during April, I’ll be giving away a children’s poetry book at Wild Rose Reader. If you leave a comment at one of my poetry posts this week, I’ll enter your name in the drawing for a poetry book. If you leave comments at two posts, I'll enter your name twice...and so on.

This week’s prize from Wild Rose Reader will be a copy of Falling Down the Page: A Book of List Poems edited by Georgia Heard.

Book Giveaway Schedule

- First Week of National Poetry Month: April 1-7 (Winner announced on April 8th)
- Second Week of National Poetry Month: April 8-14 (Winner announced on April 15th)
- Third Week of National Poetry Month: April 15- 21 (Winner announced on April 22nd)
- Fourth Week of National Poetry Month: April 22-28 (Winner announced on April 29)
- Final Days of National Poetry Month: April 29-30 (Winner announced on May 1st)