Slice of Life: Charles Waters, Visiting Poet!

Today I join my fellow bloggers in "serving up a slice" 

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Melanie, and Lanny

 for hosting this meeting place each Tuesday and nurturing our writing lives.

You'll be happy to know that I've broken my two week streak of writing about the weather. This past week was brightened by a visit from Charles Waters at IMS, the school where I used to teach. I still stay in touch with teacher friends and notified the librarian when I learned via Irene Latham that Charles would be in our area. I was delighted that the librarian arranged for him to speak to our 6th, 7th, and 8th graders.

When I learned that the presentation fell on one of the days that I babysit grandson Jack, I knew I wanted to be there and so the babysitter got a babysitter. I slipped in before the 6th grade assembly to meet Charles and to have my book autographed. 

Ms. Cifu introduces Charles Waters

Even though the day was rainy and gray (as they've all been lately), Charles brought a spot of sunshine, humor, and poetry to an otherwise mundane Friday morning. He shared his journey to becoming a writer and his journey to writing Can I Touch Your Hair? with Irene Latham. Irene visited our middle school in the fall of 2016. How lucky we are to have heard from both of these authors  at IMS!

Here are a few of the nuggets I managed to jot down on my phone. I really prefer to take notes on paper, but somehow showed up without my notebook.

• Poetry is all about putting your own spin on an idea.
• You'll never know when it's time for you to perform a poem (good reason to memorize a few).
• Poetry is all about making the ordinary extraordinary.
• All you need is pen, paper, and your imagination.
• When you have a poetry emergency, go to 811 (in the library).

Charles encouraged us to follow the lead of

Irene and Charles from Can I Touch Your Hair?
 and start the conversation.

To learn more about the book, check  out this Q&A on the Lerner blog from a recent Hornbook webcast with Irene Latham, Charles Waters, illustrator Selina Alko, and moderated by Roger Sutton. You can also find a link to the webcast on the Lerner blog post.

Facts learned about Charles during the Q&A with students:

• Favorite poets - Valerie Worth, Nikki Grimes, and Jack Prelutsky
• Favorite food - breakfast 
• "Breakfast for dinner, Is always a winner." 
• And his closing words: "You all are covered in awesome sauce."             
  
  Charles shows off his poetry themed clothing.