Slice of Life and NPM Day Four: An Afternoon Miracle with Concrete Poetry

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.

If it's Tuesday afternoon, then it's time for our middle school book club Books, Brownies, and Beyond.  Join me for last week's meeting.  We've just concluded a fabulous month of reading books for March Book Madness.  After taking photos of the group with their picks for the championship title, it's time to dive into our focus for April.  

A small group heads off to a corner of the library to explore You Just Wait:  A Poetry Power Book,  by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong.  This group was created last week when I asked the question, "Who loves poetry?"  (Oh, we did gently persuade one member since we had five free books that I won from a blog drawing and no male members in our small group.)  I watch as the group eagerly dives into their free books and love hearing the comment, "We get to write in the books!"  

Meanwhile, on the other side of the room, I'm left with a rag tag band of (you guessed it) THE POETRY HATERS!  They are the ones who bemoaned their fate last week when I mentioned our focus for April.  I press forward courageously with a cart of favorite titles from the poetry section of the library.   I share a favorite poem from each book I pick up and then turn the students loose with this request:  "Find a poem to share with the group at the end of our time together today."  This is met with more groans and sighs of dismay and the oft repeated retort:  "But I don't like poetry!"

Fast forward thirty minutes.  We call our Poetry Lovers over to join the Poetry Haters.  Student after student waves a hand asking to be next.  Several poetry haters ask if they can share a second poem!   You may wonder what magical potion I administered to my rag tag group.  It's a guaranteed success for poetry haters everywhere. It's my focus for day four of National Poetry Month, the letter "C."  It has never failed me!

It's concrete poetry!  It's two slim volumes by John Grandits - Blue Lipstick and Technically, It's Not My Fault.  If you're looking for poetry books to win over your poetry haters, be sure to include these titles in your bag of tricks.  

Here are four additional titles of concrete poetry that you may want to explore:  

Wet Cement:  A Mix of Concrete Poems by Bob Raczka

Ode to a Commode:  Concrete Poems by Brian P. Cleary

A Poke in the I:  A Collection of Concrete Poems selected by Paul B. Janeczko
Flicker Flash by Joan Bransfield Graham (a fusion of concrete poetry and bold graphics)

If you have other favorite titles of concrete poetry, please include them in your comment so I can add to my ever burgeoning bag of tricks.

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!

Slice of Life: Summer Reading

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

to the Tuesday Slice of Life (SOL) community.

Thanks to Stacey, Betsy, Dana, Beth, Kathleen, Deb, Lisa, and Melanie

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

Some weeks I know exactly what I want to write, but some weeks I arrive in search of a slice.  And that's when I rely on a tried and true method to find my slice - begin reading slices from fellow bloggers.  That's what I was doing this week . . . I had jotted down two ideas for future slices (a professional bucket list and neighborhood 4th of July parades).  And then BAM!   This week's slice found me when I read Sally Donnelly's post.  Thank you, Sally!

I'm choosing to spotlight my summer reading in photos.  

(Don't miss the note about my process of writing, also borrowed from Sally).

Books read

Most of the picture books I read are titles recommended by blogger friends.  I remember that Carol recommended 15 Things Not to Do With a Baby and The Boss Baby when she read of my impending status as a grandmother.  Three starred titles from this pic are Bluebird (love oversized books), The Sandwich Swap (how did I miss this one?), and Thunder Boy Jr (delightful!).   Mary Oliver's House of Light was a birthday gift from a friend, and I loved reading these poems.  I celebrated the Fourth by working with my husband to declutter the attic and then rewarded myself with time to finish Raymie Nightingale.  It's overdue at the library, but it was worth paying a few days' fine in order to finish this wonderful tale of three girls who become friends and help each other.   I'm returning it today, so it can continue its journey to readers eagerly awaiting its arrival from the library holds.

 Books in process

In Xandu is my current book club read and The Shepherd's Life was last month's book which I'm still finishing (love the gentle, thoughtful pace of this book).  The Public Library is a delightful coffee table book with wonderful pics of libraries all over the U.S.  I'm thoroughly enjoying the essays interspersed throughout the book.  DIY Literacy is our July book for #cyberPD.  You can read more about this event at Cathy Mere's blog.  And the bottom two books beg to be finished by yours truly.  Enchanted Air is a beautiful novel-in-verse by Margarita Engle.  And I was hooked when I read this Bookseller review on the front of Stonebird by Mike Revell:  

"A really special debut, full of heart, hope and the power of storytelling."

Books I want to read

Books to share at our summer book club meeting of 

Books, Brownies, & Beyond!  

Argos:  The Story of Odysseus as Told by His Loyal Dog and The World Beyond were recommended by Meghan Cox Gurdon in a recent column in the WSJ.  Maybe a Fox and Hour of the Bee are recommendations from my blogger friends, and The Iron Trial was on our list of middle grade books last spring for March Book Madness.  I haven't read any of these books, so they could also be added to my Books I Want to Read pile, but for now I'm making them available to book club members.  

Note about the process of writing this post:  I start way too many books.  I tend to scatter my reading energy, and often feel that I'm getting nowhere.  I take way too many books on vacations, but this post hopefully helped me narrow down the possibilities for my upcoming trip.  When I go to the library today, I will chant this mantra:  "Return books.  Pick up holds.  Step away from the shelves.  No new books needed."

Afternoon Update -  Just home from running errands (and stopping by the library) and here to report on my mantra fail - I'm an incurable bibliophile!

"I returned books.

I picked up a hold- Kate Messner's The Seventh Wish

(which I'm adding to the Books, Brownies, & Beyond stack).

I did NOT step away from the shelves.  

No new books needed, but I WANTED these!"

Today's stack of Want to Read books

Perhaps I can blame my failed effort on the very excellent King County Library system which always has a book or two or more that end up in my Want To Read stack!