NPM Day 17: The Letter O

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!

Continuing my alphabetic stroll

through National Poetry Month

by sharing five titles I own that

begin with the letter O.

Open the Door:  How to Excite Young People About Poetry

Edited by Dorothea Lasky, Dominic Luxford, and Jesse Nathan

True confession time - this is the only title in my book spine poem

that I haven't read.  I've picked it up occasionally and read some of the

essays (not so exciting).  But I couldn't resist using it in in my poem since it's such a perfect segue into Mary Oliver's book of poetry,

House of Light (which I have read).

Opening a Door:  Reading Poetry in the Middle School Classroom 
by Paul B. Janeczko
I know I shared books by Janeczko on the letter J day.  But I didn't share this one
and it's wonderful!  After a short introduction by X. J. Kennedy, and a brief Part I "Becoming a Teacher of Poetry,  the book moves quickly to the important stuff in Part II "Exploring the Possibilities of Poetry" with fifteen explorations of specific poems.  "All young readers deserve a chance to be touched by a poem," and these explorations will help the middle school teacher do just that.  Finally, the book wraps up with another brief section, Part III Becoming an Active Reader of Poetry:  Advice and Resources.  If you teach middle school, check out this important title published by Scholastic that is only 144 pages long.   Maybe I should replace line four in my book spine poem with this title.  (It took me until day 20, but I finally did put this title in place on my book spine poem.)

One Minute till Bedtime:  60-Second Poems to Send You Off to Sleep 

Selected by Ken Nesbitt

I checked this one out from the library, but knew

right away that I had to have my own copy. 

The book flap refers to it as "...a new bedtime classic." 

I heartily concur.

One Big Rain:  Poems for Rainy Days

Compiled by Rita Gray and illustrated by Ryan O'Rourke

This book strolls through the seasons and includes this invitation:

"As you read about rain, in various poetic forms,

Ripple in it, float in it, boat in it.

Go on, get wet." 

-Rita Gray

Perhaps only those of us who live in the 

Pacific NW can truly appreciate a book 

of poetry about rain for every season.  

One Today:  The Inaugural Poem for President Barack Obama

by Richard Blanco and illustrated by Dav Pilkey

I love this beautiful picture book and the poem written for

Present Obama's second inauguration that celebrates America

from dawn to dusk and coast to coast.  

I'll never forget reading it to an eighth grade class

(when I was substitute teaching)

and having them applaud when I finished the book!

NPM Day 16: The Letter N

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!

Continuing my alphabetic stroll
through National Poetry Month by
finding a picture book of poetry, 
exploring two awards for poetry,
and sharing books by Marilyn Nelson, 
the NCTE Award-winning poet for 2017.

• Night Garden:  Poems from the World of Dreams by Janet Wong and illustrated by Julie Paschkis is my favorite book of Janet's poetry.  When I opened to the table of contents, I noticed that the book is dedicated "in memory of Myra Cohn Livingston."   When I mentioned on Friday that Livingston's book included poems by poets we would recognize, Janet Wong was one of those poets in Livingston's master class at UCLA who contributed to the book.  My favorite poems from Night Garden are "The Ones They Loved the Most," "Turnip Cake," and "Old Friend."  
•  Notable Poetry Books for 2017, selected by NCTE, includes many titles you will recognize and others you may want to explore.  You can access Notable Poetry Book Lists from previous years at this page.
• The NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) Award for Poetry for Children is now awarded every two years.  You can access a flyer from NCTE listing past winners of this award.  One of the books in my book spine poem for NPM 2017, A Jar of Tiny Stars, is an anthology of poems written by NCTE poets and selected by children.  Renee LaTulippe's blog at No Water River includes a Spotlight on NCTE Poets video series with Lee Bennett Hopkins.   
• Marilyn Nelson is the 2017 winner of the NCTE Award for Poetry for Children.  I've read two of her recent books, How I Discovered Poetry and My Seneca Village.  You can learn more about her memoir, How I Discovered Poetry, at this NPR interview and read the poem that became the title of the memoir.  Here's a review of My Seneca Village, Nelson's book that reveals the story of the community that was displaced in order to build Central Park.  

NPM Day 15: The Letter M: Two Poets & Celebrate This Week

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!

Each weekend I join a group of blogger friends to celebrate the week.  I have many celebrations this week.

I've made it halfway through National Poetry Month and my stroll through the alphabet continues.  Today's featured letter is M.

And of course, Eve Merriam comes to mind.  This is a favorite visual poster of Merriam's poem, "How to Eat a Poem" that a parent made for me more than a decade ago.  

Another "M" poet is Lilian Moore.  Her book, Mural on Second Avenue and Other City Poems, includes several favorite poems.  

• "To a Red Kite"
• "Forsythia Bush"
• "Rain Pools"
• "The Tree on the Corner"
• "Winter Dark"

If you've never explored this picture book of Moore's poetry, it's time to treat yourself.  

 Join us each weekend for Celebrate This Week with Ruth Ayres.

When we pause to celebrate, we find the joy.

 

   A week filled with moments to celebrate and remember.

While I was busy writing my daily posts, an important number passed me by.  I completed my 700th post when I saluted 
Irene Latham (for the letter I), poet extraordinaire,

on my Tuesday slice of life post.  

I received a free book from Irene.  Out of her abundant spirit, she offered one of her books of poetry free during NPM if you emailed her.  I did and she sent a book to me and one for a friend,

both inscribed.

Both sets of grandparents and friends

gathered in celebration for Jack's blessing

at church on Sunday. 

Jack went to his first story hour at

Island Books, our indie bookstore,

and even stayed awake the whole time.

Teddy officially began walking this week. 

He's a big fan of swinging too!

Love this springtime pic 

and Teddy's charming smile!

And in honor of Easter weekend, here's an acrostic I wrote for Spiritual Journey First Thursday earlier in the month.

Everlasting joy
As we praise the God who
So loved the world 
That He sent His son.
Every soul has cause to 
Rejoice!  He is risen!

-Ramona Behnke

Happy Spring!

NPM Day 14 & Poetry Friday: The Letter L

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!

Continuing my alphabetic stroll
through National Poetry Month 
Three "L" Poets 

George Ella Lyon - "Where I'm From" Poem

Be sure to check out the poet's site with many resources and examples of "Where I'm From" poetry, including an audio clip of her reading the poem.   I loved sharing this poem with my students and watching their creative "Where I'm From" poems emerge.  

Myra Cohn Livingston, editor of
I Am Writing a Poem About . . . A Game of Poetry

Someone recently mentioned this book on a blog post (Was it you, Linda Baie?).  I remember thinking, "I own that book."  I pulled it off the shelf this week and was totally surprised by the children's poets who were in Myra Cohn Livingston's master class at UCLA.  Take a look, you'll recognize many familiar names who participated in this game of poetry.  

J Patrick Lewis - US Children's Poet Laureate 2011-2013

Three favorite books:

Please Bury Me In the Library

Monumental Verses

The National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry
a beautiful anthology, edited by JPL

Head over to Doraine Bennett's blog, 

Dori Reads for this week's

round-up of poetic goodness.  

Thanks, Dori for hosting this week!

NPM Day 13: The Letter K

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!

I'm really trying hard to keep my posts succinct, but if you give a teacher a poet whose last name begins with "K," chances are she'll want to share some favorite poems by him, and then she'll want you to know about the project he started when he was poet laureate, and then she'll want to share a favorite poem she discovered in the newspaper while reading poems from that project, and finally she will want to share her blog post about the evening she spent in the company of the poet.  

A poet:  Ted Kooser, US Poet Laureate, 2004 - 2006

     A favorite poem:  "Dishwater" 

         Another favorite poem:  "Christmas Mail"

             A favorite project:  An American Life in Poetry

                 A favorite poem from the project:  

                  "What I Learned from My Mother"

                                   A blog post:  My evening with Ted Kooser

An anthologist I love:  Caroline Kennedy

    Favorite anthologies:  A Family of Poems

                                       Poems to Learn by Heart

                                       She Walks in Beauty

A favorite picture book:  Knoxville, Tennessee by Nikki Giovanni

    Teach This Poem:  "Knoxville, Tennessee" by Nikki Giovanni

NPM Day 12: The Letter J - Paul B. Janeczko

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!

I heard Paul Janeczko speak at NCTE 2014, my first and so-far only NCTE conference.  The session title was"The Lessons Poetry Teaches: A Doorway into Writing"  and included Georgia Heard, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, and Paul Janeczko as presenters.  I actually found my notes from this session and this quote from Paul's part of the session:  "Unless we read poetry, we will never have our hearts broken by language."  

I pulled four books by Paul B. Janeczko from my shelf to share for today's post.

1.  Scholastic Guides:  How  to Write Poetry Things I love in this book include the sections on Poetcraft, Try This . . . invitations, and Writing Tip From A Poet which are scattered throughout the book.

2.  Poetry from A to Z:  A Guide for Young Writers  Originally I thought about using this book as a guide for my writing during NPM, so I've avoided looking at it once I settled on an alphabetic theme for my posts. The book includes 72 poems arranged alphabetically by subject or theme, 14 poetry writing exercises, and advice from 23 poets whose works are in the book.

3.  Seeing the Blue Between:  Advice and Inspiration for Young Poets  I checked this out from the library each year for my classroom.  This year I gifted myself a used copy from Amazon.  There are letters of advice from 32 poets written to student writers.   Each letter ends with the poet's signature and includes poems by the poet.  There's a poet in our after school book club that I plan to share this book with next week.  

4.  A Kick in the Head:  An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms  Illustrated by Chris Raschka, this book has 29 poetic forms for students to explore with additional notes on the forms at the back of the book.  Also don't miss A Poke in the I and A Foot in the Mouth.
I love that these titles are all marvelous ways to entice students to write and join us on the poetry playground.  

As I was working on this post, I discovered many other well-loved books of poetry that are anthologies compiled by Paul.  Here are just a few of those additional titles:  Firefly July, Dirty Laundry Pile, Strings:  A Gathering of Family Poems, Pocket Poems, and Hey You!   

Please leave a comment sharing your favorite title, an encounter with the poet, or how you've used Paul Janeczko's books in your classroom.  (Fighting with blogger this morning!  She absolutely refuses to allow me to switch back to black ink, in spite of repeated attempts to update.  I surrender.  She wins!)

Progressive Poem, NPM Day 11, & SOL - Tipping my Hat to Incredible Irene!

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, Lisa, Melanie, and Lanny

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

For my alphabetic National Poetry Month stroll, I have arrived at the letter I.  Incredible Irene Latham blogs at Live Your Poem and hosts the yearly Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem.  She writes poetry for children & adults and writes novels.  I'm so excited that her middle grade novel, Leaving Gee's Bend, is coming out in paperback.  Her most recent picture book of poetry, Fresh Delicious, is a delightful stroll through the farmer's market.  Both my grandsons have autographed copies of this book.  She continues her Artspeak! poem-a-day project for National Poetry Month with a focus on Portraits this year.  And she does school presentations!  This past year I hosted her when she spoke at the middle school where I taught before retiring.  She even agreed to a small group meeting with my after school book club.  And she resurrected the Spiritual Journey (first) Thursday group.  Feel free to join us to write about a designated topic and our spiritual journey on the first Thursday of each month.  Irene's OLW for this year is abundance and she's giving away copies of her book, The Sky Between Us, for National Poetry Month.  So it's easy to see why on Day 11 of my alphabetic journey through poetry that I'm compelled to tip my hat to incredible Irene who makes such a contribution to the poetic fun  in the blogosphere.  

After meeting Irene at NCTE 2014, I received a twitter invite to join the Progressive Poem.  In a moment of weakness (or insanity), I agreed.   Every year I tell myself, "Don't do it again." But something about playing with words entices me back onto the playground!  And it allows me to check the box, "Do something that terrifies you!" And this is my third year to be terrified.       

Here's our fearless leader Irene's invitation and explanation of the progressive poem:  "Poetry Friday Friends and other poetry lovers are invited to join the fun as a poem travels daily from blog to blog, with each host adding a line, beginning April 1." 

Here's the poem as it was handed to me yesterday by Penny at a penny and her jots who added line 10.  And my addition, line 11, is the one in blue.  

I’m fidget, friction, ragged edges—
I sprout stories that frazzle-dazzle,
stories of castles, of fires that crackle,
with dragonwords that smoke and sizzle.

But edges sometimes need sandpaper,
like swords need stone and clouds need vapour.
So I shimmy out of my spurs and armour
facing the day as my fickle, freckled self.

I thread the crowd, wear freedom in my smile,
and warm to the coals of conversation.
Enticed to the stage by strands of story,

So how did I arrive at my line?  I knew that I wanted to return to the stories of that first stanza.  I love what's happening as our freckled, smiling child threads the crowd and warms to the coals of conversation.  Linda's use of the word thread in line 9  interested me and so I spent a little time meandering through several definitions of thread until I discovered one I liked - "to move or cause to move in a sinuous, spiral, or circular course."  And so I thought about where our child's spiral course might be leading and how he or she might be warmed by conversation.  And now it's time to pass the fun to Janet F. who will be posting her line Wednesday on Irene's blog, Live Your Poem. Take it away, Janet!  I can't wait to watch this poem weave its wonder through the remainder of the month.

Below is a list of participating poets with links to their blogs so that you can follow  the 2017 Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem. 

April
1 Heidi at my juicy little universe
2 Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference
3 Doraine at Dori Reads
4 Michelle at Today’s Little Ditty
5 Diane at Random Noodling
6 Kat at Kat’s Whiskers
7 Irene at Live Your Poem
8 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
9 Linda at TeacherDance
10 Penny at a penny and her jots
11 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page
12 Janet F. at Live Your Poem
13 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche
14 Jan at Bookseedstudio
15 Brenda at Friendly Fairy Tales
16 Joy at Poetry for Kids Joy
17 Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect
18 Buffy at Buffy’s Blog
19 Pat at Writer on a Horse
20 BJ at Blue Window
21 Donna at Mainely Write
22 Jone at Jone Ruch MacCulloch
23 Ruth at There is no such thing as a godforsaken town
24 Amy at The Poem Farm
25 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge
26 Renee at No Water River
27 Matt at Radio, Rhythm and Rhyme
28 Michelle at Michelle Kogan
29 Charles at Poetry Time
30 Laura Purdie Salas at Writing the World for Kids