Friday, April 7, 2017

NPM 2017 Day 7: Three F's for Poetry Friday

My book spine poem for NPM 2017:

She walks in beauty
A jar of tiny stars
Awakening the heart
Open the door
House of light 
Pass the poetry, please!

For day seven (and letter f) of my alphabet stroll for National Poetry Month, I dip into my poetry collection to share a haiku of three favorite poetry books.

Falling down the page
for the good of the earth and sun
firefly July.

  • Falling Down the Page:  A Book of List Poems edited by Georgia Heard - An invitation from the introduction, "After you read a few of these list poems, I bet you'll feel inspired to write one of your own.  Think about your day.  Jot down what you notice.  And let your (list of) words fall down the page."
  • For The Good of the Earth and Sun:  Teaching Poetry by Georgia Heard - From the back cover and Lucy McCormick Calkin's forward, "This book is deep and alive and important because it comes not from desk work and dusty theories, but from childhood worlds, love affairs, lifetime fears, long summers in a New Hampshire cabin, and Saturday mornings in sunny New York bookstores.  It has grown, layer by layer, out of all (of Georgia's) life."
  • Firefly July:  A Year of Very Short Poems selected by Paul B. Janeczko and illustrated by Melissa Sweet - My much-loved copy was autographed by illustrator Melissa Sweet when she spoke at Western Washington University's 2016 Children's Literature Conference.  This anthology of poems features poems through the seasons, beginning with spring.  It includes poets writing today for children as well as poems by older poets who wrote mostly for adult audiences showing that good poetry has no age boundaries .  A delightful collection, my copy is filled with sticky notes that peek out the top and sides of the book.  
There's a lot to think and write about this month and I had totally forgotten that today is Poetry Friday.  
Head over to Irene Latham's blog, 
Live Your Poem for this week's
round-up of poetic goodness that includes
Irene's line for the progressive poem
and her Artspeak:Portraits poem.  
Thanks, Irene, for hosting this week!

7 comments:

  1. All wonderful, and that autograph by Melissa Sweet is quite wonderful, too, Ramona. Georgia's books are treasures, too. I'm glad you can continue to share with your book group. I miss doing that. Happy Friday!

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  2. I love, love, LOVE those three books to teach poetry! I printed out many of the list poems and would hide them around my classroom during our unit. The "Under My Bed" one underneath a table was always a favorite.

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  3. That book from Georgia Heard speaks to me - I wish we could break away from "dusty" theories and embrace poetry as a living, breathing, vibrant creative form!

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  4. Way to surround yourself with beauty, Ramona! Thank you for sharing it with us. (I totally need that LBH book!) xo

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  5. I love Falling Down the Page, and the other two volumes look good, too. Even better--creating more poetry from poetry books. Don't you love how one poem leads to more?

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  6. Beautiful poetry - and some good books to look out for. :)

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  7. Love your choices -- Favorites all!

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