books to love from Kathryn Erskine, Georgia Heard & Irene Latham

My Thoughts Are Clouds is the poetry collection that cozies up to my heart this summer more than other beauties I cherish. Whatever a temporal worry – health, family, climate, political,societal –  anxiety fades within the pages of Clouds, byGeorgia Heard with art fromIsabel Roxas.

“A flower doesn’t need to count up the raindrops it sips

add up the number of bees tickling its petals’

 lines of Georgia Heard from My Thoughts Are Clouds, Poems for Mindfulness:

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::National Book Award winner Kathryn Erskine raises her own author bar with each book. She is known for criss-crossing oceans to lunch with children and listen to the stories of their lives, worldwide, with sensitivity and kindness thru all her years – child and adult days. Her uni-verse (one song) perspective seamlessly weaves wonderful results in a domestic USA school story where bullying invites timid new pals to stand up for The Good. I especially love the way we see how the beautiful variety of cultures is nourished in  some schools, in this case a public school. Lily’s Promise is a peace-bringer.

“Algebra began in Babylon, which is modern-day Iraq!” from Lily’s Promise by Kathryn Erskine.

I nominate this author and this book for the Jane Addams Peace Prize, if the committee is listening.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Do you want a page-turning doorstopper delight? D-39 A Robo Dog’s Journey is told in free verse by the always inventive Irene Latham. I bought it because I love Irene’s themes and words in books such as Dictionary for a Better World (with Charles Waters.) and Cat Man of Aleppo (last year’s Caldecott winner.) I can’t remember the last time a dystopian novel held me. Maybe never. I’m converted to this dystopian. It’s a father-daughter journey with heart tugs. It’s also an unexpected tale of an older girl protecting a younger kid, who’s not part of her birth family. And there is an unusual dog tale. And lots of gizmos and gadgets. And underground nooks & crannies the characters explore with us.

Here’s opening lines ©Irene Latham in D-39 A Robo-Dog’s Journey

“Hey Hi Ho There

/It’s me, Klynt Tovis, coming to you live/  from a looganut farm in the Worselands./ I click the button on the ham, ears alert/ for a reply. I’m not supposed to talk to/ strangers, even on an old ham radio-/ unlicensed broadcasts are against the law. “

In fact, as I type this, seeing D-39 scenes in my mind’s eye, I feel D-39 would look brilliant on the screen, like a Hugo meets Up.Or something like that. Did I mention the brilliant glossary of the tale’s inventive words? A favorite O’ mine is *jinglesnap* but I know you will select (and want to create) your own.

::::::::::::::::

As with the best kids’ books, these three shared here will please a caring adult. I’m lucky to know these brilliant and sensitive authors through workshops and in the case of Irene, also via Southern Breeze/ SCBWI.

SCBWI

https://southern-breeze.scbwi.org

Georgia Heard                             Isabel Roxas

https://www.georgiaheard.com       https://studioroxas.com/about

Kathryn Erskine

https://www.kathyerskine.com

Irene Latham

https://www.irenelatham.com

Bookseedstudio is happy to be part of the #PoetryFriday community. For an unusual take on Wakulla Springs at Tallahassee, please see Laura Shovan’s poetry post. She is also this times 4th of July weekend host. Appreciations to Laura, whose poem about an overlooked Hollywood studio artist has won recognition!

Poetry Friday from the Black Lagoon

Read a poem every day. Help a child memorize one for Life.

And if you like poetry, literature & mindfulness caring about our Uni-Verse, consider looking at this new blog on WordPress by two wise ones I know through #PoetryFriday – MaryLee & Franki – who I found here on WordPress at A(other) Year of Reading ::: https://ayearofreading.org/blog Yay !for the next 15+ years of blogging to them.

Everywhere Blue by Joanne Rossmassler Fritz

Do you love blue as much as I do?

Is it a codeword for depression or is blue

sky high beauty, to you?

Cover art by Elena Megalos

As soon as next week on June 1, EVERYWHERE BLUE,

Joanne Rossmassler Fritz’s debut book, appears. Everywhere.  

This amazing Pennsylvania author bested two brain aneurisms.

She collected a crackerjack medical healing team, supported in

her unexpected journey by hubby and two clever sons who,

 tho grown, provide her with hijinks. After serious health

trauma, she completed her first-ever novel, in verse, and is

now at work on her second verse novel where a character

 may have an experience with aneurism; there’s not a hint

 of aneurism in the first, but the important topic of mental

illness plays a key role.

Joanne’s career life is also fascinating to any writer.

And I know she is a craftful poem maker because I’m fortuante to have met

Joanne at a Highlights Foundation workshop. Let’s take a ramble with Joanne:

Q WHAT PARTS OF YOUR PAST PROFESSIONAL JOBS ARE A FIT WITH BEING

A NOVELIST FOR MIDDLE GRADE?

A: All of them! I worked the longest in an indie bookstore (ten years in the Children’s Department), but I also worked for four years in a school library, and for two and a half years in the Children’s Department of a major publishing company, as an editorial assistant (back when I was young!

Q HOW DID YOU PREPARE TO WRITE A FIRST VERSE NOVEL?

A: Over the space of about 20 years, I wrote at least a dozen picture books, which I never managed to get published. I believe that experience helped me hone my writing down to the essential words, although I never thought of writing a verse novel at that point. Then after my first brain aneurysm rupture (in 2005), I started writing novels. Between 2007 and 2013, I completed four novels in prose. I was getting frustrated at not finding an agent or getting any nibbles from publishers, so I started submitting poems and flash fiction for adults to literary journals. I managed to get a few of these published in 2013 and 2014. Then, hoping to get another poem published, I started writing one about taking oboe lessons when I was in junior high. I loved learning the oboe, but I hated getting out of the lessons after dark on winter afternoons. I didn’t realize it at the time, but that was the beginning of EVERYWHERE BLUE. I never submitted it anywhere. Instead, in early 2015, I wrote three chapters of a new novel about a girl who plays the oboe and whose brother vanishes. I immediately realized that it wasn’t working in prose and it needed to be in verse. That’s when I went back to my poem about the oboe lesson and started over again right there. From then on, it flowed.

Q. CAN YOU SHARE SOMETHING ABOUT HOW THE INDIVIDUAL POEMS AND FORMS DEVELOPED OVER TIME?

A:  I started out writing only in free verse. But after much revision, it was actually my agent, Barbara Krasner, who suggested I add some formal poetry. I wrote a few couplets and tercets, and then spent three weeks in August 2019 writing a villanelle. That was a real challenge for me, but I loved it! I will definitely add one to my next book. After my editor, Sally Morgridge, read the manuscript, she had me add quite a few more brief poems, and even add some stanzas to existing poems.

Q WHAT’S NEXT IN WRITING FOR YOU?

A: I’m working on another novel in verse. This time it’s YA. I can’t say too much about it because it’s not finished! And the way I write, it will change quite a bit. 

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Readers, I hope you will ask your library to order EVERYWHERE BLUE & to learn more:

Poet Jone Rush MaCullouh’s wonderful blog.

Across the Big Pond at the blog of a teen London journalisthttps://livswonderfulescape.wordpress.com/2021/05/19/interview-with-joanne-fritz/

WoW! The publisher’s lovely brag page includes cheers from National Book Award winner Kathryn Erskine (MOCKINGBIRD) & poem samples from the advance reader copy. Not. To. Miss!

JRR on twitter @JoanneRFritz

Her website

Bookseedstudio is part of #PoetryFriday hosted today by the creative visual artist & poet, Michelle Kogan.

#MarvelousMaryLee #PoetryforMaryLee

Hello and Happy Poetry Friday. Today’s connecting hearthoughts are 

#MarvelousMaryLee #PoemsforMaryLee

because, we are lucky to celebrate the joyful 37-year teaching career of a Poetry Friday icon,

Mary Lee Hahn, my poetry pal.

Brown fur on green canvas – poem for Mary Lee Hahn

Brown fur on green canvas

Floppy fountains of spring grass on public

school lawn can’t hide hop hop hop!

Free-range bunnies garden as intently

as bigger bent bodies groom their Beacon Hill patches.

[Mary Lee left carrots for bun-buns]

Harriet Tubman – poem for Mary Lee Hahn

Harriet Tubman

Hello, Ms. Tubman! In awe we share your memory at

streetside sculpture park, a reflection upon 13 bold trips from 

Maryland, secretly walking BeLoveds out of cruel bondage 

that never ever should have been.

[Mary Lee left flowers for Moses, Harriet Tubman]

Surprise! Mary Lee Hahn, writer, reader, poetry-pusher &

educator extraordinaire, recently, mysteriously, invisibly,

imaginatively [as storytold in poem + fotos above] joined in

on select sojourns in at BostonTown, where

I’m temporarily in residence for great food &

expert health care.

YEAH! HAPPINESS ALWAYS dear MARY LEE!

I salute the singular Mary Lee, retiring soon after 37 years.

She incomparably devotes & dedicates her energy to

providing abundant time needed for uplift of children. Her

inventive & brilliant wings-bringing to each 

student, is the school experience 

every child should have. 

 Applause, applause applause, dear Mary Lee!!!

Here is chalk poster, from this year’s earlier fun frou! frou!

for Mary Lee’s 60th birthday. Mwah! to Mary Lee from someone feeling

joy to be part of Mary Lee’s Poetry Friday hoopla.

I also wish a boisterous Happy Birthday to today’s other marvelous

P.F. birthday person, Christie Wyman, of Wondering and Wandering fame.

who is graciously our Poetry Friday hostess –  many appreciations, Christie.

Please visit her site to find more links for this celebratory MLH week.

[I expect to return here before the month’s out, with a Bookseestudio

splash for my Highlights Foundation Novel in Verse workshop pal, 

Joanne R. Fritz, who has created a brilliant MG novel, EVERYWHERE BLUE.]

37 Days at Sea: new MG verse novel

[#PoetryFriday is hosted today and all week by Margaret at REFLECTIONS on the TECHE!]

Ruthie Arons is a curious kid who has known recent horror, including Nazis brutally ransacking her beautiful home. Yet, she is still is a sprite who ponders all that crosses her path aboard the M.S. St. Louis, sailing from Germany to Cuba. Ruthie pranks passengers in an inventive way. She initiates shipboard friendships with all ages and cheers each of her parents as they fall ill. She is a companion to cherish.

Cover art by Kelly Murphy

Q. I am a Ruthie Arons fan. Please share something of Ruthie’s arrival in your author-mind. Is it possible she is modeled on strong or fun-loving young girls you know today or in family history?

BK: I did not base Ruthie on any girl I know today. I did interview a St. Louis survivor in 2010 who had shown a lot of spunk and I had her in mind a bit.

Q. It’s clear that Ruthie not only admires her father, who becomes a shipboard leader on this troubled voyage. But also, Ruthie discovers the German captain is decent, too. She finds out that others of the crew don’t know the word, decency. Why is it important reveal the kindness of German Capt. Schroeder?

BK: Passengers of the St. Louis nominated Captain Gustav Schroeder for his Yad Vashem World Holocaust Remembrance Center recognition as Righteous Among Nations. The captain was most decidedly not a Nazi and he truly cared about the passengers. One man I interviewed, who had been about ten years old on the ship, said the captain was “a peach.” I wanted to show that not all Germans were Nazis, not all Germans hailed Hitler, not all believed in or adhered to the Nazi ideology–at great risk to themselves.

 Q. Ruthie and her parents leave the MS St. Louis in Belgium knowing they will journey to England, after being turned away by Cuba and the United States. What do you think they experienced in England that we don’t see in the story? 

BK: Once in England, Ruthie’s father would have been interned on the Isle of Man as an enemy alien. In Germany, he was a Jew. In England, he was a German. Ruthie would have been evacuated out of London during the Blitz. So “safe haven” was only temporary.

 Q. In your acknowledgements, there is summary of what feels to me like years of perseverance in research, especially with your careful speaking to trip survivors found by the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. How do you approach a survivor, who may not want to discuss such a time?

BK: I first contacted Scott Miller of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. He co-authored Refuge Denied: The St. Louis Passengers and the Holocaust. He gave me a list of survivors in the NJ-PA-NY area. I already knew that most of these people had been working with the museum as spokespeople about their experiences. I read as much as I could about the St. Louis experience before meeting with these survivors in their homes. The issue was not so much whether they wanted to talk. Rather, it was a challenge for me to get them to go beyond their usual spiel, to get underneath the narrative they typically shared so it would relate to kids. I learned so much from these people. Nothing fazed them, not a locked gate to their senior living community after 8 or a dishwasher that flooded the house while the family was away.

Q: Let’s speak about creating a story in verse. Is writing in verse something you’ve always gravitated to? What in your child days, career or study prepared you for writing poetry and especially a verse novel? What makes a story ideal to be presented in verse to young readers? And do you have preferred poetry forms to read or to write, other than free verse?

BK: I began writing poetry after I received my MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from the Vermont College of Fine Arts in 2006. When I first drafted this narrative about the St. Louis, it was middle-grade nonfiction. After hearing a panel at the 2012 Association of Writers & Writing Programs conference about historical sources and contemporary poetry, I rewrote the book as adult poetry in several voices. I workshopped and workshopped. Then I attended two Novel in Verse workshops at the Highlights Foundation and the story finally took shape as a fictionalized account with a single narrator for middle grade. I did take a post-graduate semester at Vermont in poetry with David Wojahn and read Holocaust poets in particular. What makes a story ideal to be presented in verse–that’s a great question. Trauma narratives lend themselves to verse treatment. I’ve also seen novels in verse feature many narrators which would be unwieldy in prose. I like to use certain repetitive forms at particular points of the narrative. For instance, I use villanelles at moments of great despair.

Q: Who are the poets you read frequently or especially feel drawn to? 

BK: I’m always learning about poets and their craft. I appreciate in particular Paul Celan, Miklos Radnoti, Wislawa Zymborska, Theodore Roethke, Dylan Thomas, and Elizabeth Bishop. I also like reading Nikki Grimes, Jacqueline Woodson, Richard Blanco, Mark Doty, and many others. I attend poetry readings on a regular basis and invest in literary journals.

 Q. Can we hope for another verse novel from you, now that your first is birthed? If so any early details?

BK: I do have a young adult biography in verse I’ll be able to talk about soon. That book, too, underwent a long process starting as nonfiction prose. I’ll just say it reflects the early Cold War period. My agent is shopping around a contemporary YA novel in verse, and I’m working on a new one–a narrative of a 16-year-old who had been a hidden child during World War II who comes to America in 1951 as an orphan to family she’s never known.

This is news I welcome, Barbara! Appreciations for your visit today. 37 Days at Sea leaves me feeling that this debut verse novelist is destined to add more beautiful words to my bookshelf and yours. And I would love to see this book be a movie. jga/Bookseedstudio

ALSO ~~~

Please know that one of children’s literature most-honored authors, Kathryn Erskine, writes of 37 Days at Sea that it is “a timely, compelling story of real-life refugees, seen through the eyes of a child, who is both innocent and wise.”

And further, Barbara is known to many for her notable p.b. bio limning a moment for Goldie, a schoolgirl in Milwaukee, who history came to know as Golda Meir, future elected Prime Minister of Israel.

See a book trailer for GOLDIE TAKES A STAND.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQ4qJh2Bup8

Barbara Krasner’s fascinating website is The Whole Megillah.

https://thewholemegillah.wordpress.com/author/thewholemegillah/

Pre-order 37 Days here

Lerner/Kar-Ben https://lernerbooks.com/shop/show/20730

#2021ProgressivePoem

#2021Progressive Poem of #PoetryFriday flits here!

So, let’s jump right into the mix now at Day 6. 

I’m a case of kindness – come and catch me if you can!

Easily contagious – sharing smiles is my plan.

I’ll spread my joy both far and wide,

As a force of Nature I’ll be undenied.

And yesterday Irene Latham, who is kindness defined and delivered, 

tapped [or penned but I feel it was tapped/keystroked] two juicy

next lines. But! Only one line can win! Really? The competitors are: 

See that child sharing grapes with a friend?

OR

Words like, “how can I help?” will bloom in the street

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

2021 Progressive Poem [in-the-making]

I’m a case of kindness – come and catch me if you can!

Easily contagious – sharing smiles is my plan.

I’ll spread my joy both far and wide,

As a force of Nature I’ll be undenied.

Words like, “how can I help?” will bloom in the street.

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Wouldn’t cha’ know it. I totally love both of Irene’s detail-rich line friends.

I see an illustrator running away with them – so much liveliness in each line. 

My pass-along two choices are 

A new girl alone on the playground – let’s meet, let’s meet!

OR

See that child sharing grapes with a friend? [by Irene Latham, Day 5]

And yes, you sharp-eyed ones, I added heft to nature,  but of course,

Nature doesn’t have to stand. What’s going to unfold tomorrow? The one

who knows [or will know by the lovely morning] is Day 7 poet 

Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities

With Appreciations to Rose, and also to Our Collector Margaret Simon [otherwise

known as 2021 Day 9] living further West along my fragile Gulf Coast among her

lovely live oak grove writing at the creative blog, Life on the Teche.  And Joy to

all poem-makers from the earlier April days especially Line Leader Kat Appelt,

no doubt at this moment, busy as a mama wombat, in the lovely Down Under!

I feel lucky to slip in here whilst Bookseedstudio is otherwise On Break, tho please

give a visit again this very Friday April 9 when I return with with words, including a

Beloved Author’s endorsement for, the gripping new MG verse novel,

37 Days at Sea by Barbara Krasner.  

And now, Hello there, Rose! Have fun, xo from Jan

We have these sites to visit and discover day by day. Or to return to

for a quick recap. Viva! #PoetryFriday and #2021ProgressivePoem

April 1 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers 
2 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
3 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
4 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
5 Irene Latham at Live your Poem
6 Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio
7 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
8 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
10 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
11 Buffy Silverman 
12 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
13 Jone Rush MacCulloch 
14 Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living
15 Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning
16 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
17 Tricia Stohr Hunt at The Miss Rumphius Effect
18 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
19 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
21 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
22 Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town
23 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
24 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
25 Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul
26 Tim Gels at Yet There is Method 
27 Rebecca Newman
28 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core
29 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wondering
30 Michelle Kogan at More Art 4 All

Sing dance submit: call for poems

[nota bene: book covers to know, below] 

Subject: Children, reading, writing or both
Form: Any. 40 Line Limit.
1st PL $40. 2nd PL $20. 3rd PL $15. 

Conjure your own memory. Or you might pen a poem about other real-child readers or writers. How about imagining a character-child? This call for a poem is part of the 2021 Florida State Poets’ Association’s annual effort to raise poetry’s profile. You don’t have to be a Florida resident or a member of this non-profit to enter. Details are here. The group often looks for new ways to engage poets, so, as someone who joined only in 2020,  I was pleased they accepted my suggestion (it does exempt me from this fun category but not you!). Detail: The contest team (which I’m not on) receives poems postally. No submissions are considered that are sent in before 1 May, for the deadline, 15 June 2021. Take care with submission details, as category #s must be included. (My guess is that overseas submissions are not invited, as a small fee in check form, is asked for the entry.) Last year I floated, when my poem “Surfing” won an Honorable from Oregon poet Tiel Aisha Ansari.

::::::::

“Dear Poet.” Now for a second take on submissions, at Poetry for Children last month, I learned of an essay opportunity for students called “Dear Poet.”  I plan to listen to as many of these richly experienced and published poets Poetry.org has collected, reading a poem on line. Students will do the same, but can submit their responses to the poems. I began with Marilyn Chin, reading her original piece “The Floral Apron.” If I were a student I would write an essay about how this inky poem reminded me of watching my mother-in-law take her knife to squid, about the depth of family ties and why it’s important to share family history. Hey, an idea. Hmm. 

Sing!

I laffed in attempted bopping to a Jerusalema loop. Song, music and lyrics of the isiXhosa language of South Africa (nearly 19 percent of souls there use it) filled our spaces, in the space of an evening. It’s a 2019 to present day song/dance phenom in wide parts of El Mundo. A few ~  Antigua/Barbados, Argentina, Finland, Israel, Italy, Ireland (my own fun fumble in Florida, unrecorded thank you very much!) Palestine, Sweden (at winter shore!) & onward. Despite cute video versions of wiggle kids and flapping animals, my favorite visit with this levitating song & line dance remains the initial launch, staged outdoors in a small community courtyard between simple low buildings as friends enjoy a meal. The mood is casual joy. The skillful choreography wink to the audience – this regards plates – is a contributing pleasure. The performers are Angolan dance troupe Fenómenos do Sembato, celebrated widely in Africa and now, The World. The song is reimagined from a hymn sung in South African, bought forward by South African music dance impresario, MasterKG (Kgaogelo Moagi) and singer Nomcebo Zikode, also now famous.

After the original video, my 2nd favorite Jerusalema goodjuju includes all socially distanced medical professionals who undertake the #JerusalemaDanceChallenge in the sterile halls of hospitals.  And my 3rd fave arrives with the airport crew at Antigua/Barbados Bird Airport. Find them & hundreds on YouTube.

In a nod to “May the wind be always at your back” St. Patrick’s Month (part of my heritage is iconically Irish) I’ll share that several versions from The Emerald Isle were uploaded online just last month. Here is one at Twitter Beyond the bounce, I wanted to know the words.

Jerusalema ikhaya lami
Ngilondoloze
Uhambe nami
Zungangishiyi lana
Ndawo yami ayikho lana
Mbuso wami awukho lana

Jerusalem my home
Keep me
Walk with me
Don’t leave me here
My place is not here
My kingdom is not here

South African theology student Nkosi Mlambo wrote his take on  “Jerusalema – The Dance, the Meaning, the Theology”, linked here.The song struck him deeply, remembering an original version in primary school at morning assembly. This article is source of verses I’ve shared here.

Jerusalema – The Dance, The Meaning, The Theology

 

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

The #PoetryFriday March 2021 Hosts line-up is beautiful to behold.

5 Kat at Kathryn Apel

12 Heidi at my juicy little universe

19 Linda at TeacherDance

26 Susan at Soul Blossom Living

            :::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

It’s Women’s History Month! I’m pleased to note 2 verse novels and one p.b. bio forthcoming in spring or summer 2021 with girl or women characters worth remembering.// Saving American Beach by Heidi King and Caldecott Honoree Ekula Holmes, p. b. bio about a little-known Black eco-warrior who left an opera career to advocate in Florida. // 37 Days at Sea by Barbara Krasner, a MG family story verse novel inspired by a heart-tugging true event of the Holocaust that also touches Florida history. // Everywhere Blue by Joanne Rossmassler Fritz, a MG family story verse novel of oboe practice, siblings and a missing person emergency that triggers mental health concerns.

---

A Pause. Woot!Woot! Except for some short appearances this blog will be taking a pause.  Expected appearances are: A line of the one and only April 2021 #PoetryFriday’s Progressive Poem hosted by Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche. A warble of “wonderful” with more of the verse novels shown above, each that I love to the moon and back ~ 37 DAYS AT SEA by Barbara Krasner and also EVERYWHERE BLUE by Joanne Rossmassler Fritz.

I expect to draw nourishment from visits to your posts & to keep social media active, but less so. Below, some goodies. The calendar of April #PoetryFriday hosts. A give-away book plate. And this reminder: consider creating a poem for the Childhood award at the contest mentioned above. Woot! Woot!

Gifting a complimentary bookplate download, courtesy of My Home Library

For great April expectations, the 2021 #PoetryFriday hosts in an #AprilPoetryMonth lovely line-up!

2 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading

9 Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference

16 Jama at Jama’s Alphabet Soup

23 Catherine at Reading to the Core

30 Matt at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme

:::::::

Collected at Reflections on the Teche by Margaret Simon, April 2021 Progressive Poem contributors!

April 1 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers
2 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise
3 Mary Lee at A Year of Reading
4 Donna Smith at Mainly Write
5 Irene Latham at Live your Poem
6 Jan Godown Annino at BookseedStudio
7 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities
8 Denise Krebs at Dare to Care
9 Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche
10 Molly Hogan at Nix the Comfort Zone
11 Buffy Silverman
12 Janet Fagel at Reflections on the Teche
13 Jone Rush MacCulloch
14 Susan Bruck at Soul Blossom Living
15 Wendy Taleo at Tales in eLearning
16 Heidi Mordhorst at my juicy little universe
17 Tricia Stohr Hunt
18 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance
19 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link
20 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge
21 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life
22 Ruth Hersey at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town
23 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse
24 Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference
25 Shari Daniels at Islands of my Soul
26

 

ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME: poem story

[nota bene: a give-away at the end is over & the selected recipient is FRAN HALEY. Brava, Fran!]

IF your heart skips a beat at this Naomi Shihab Nye poet line ping: “A peony has been trying to get through to you” OR if your family knows to stop and appreciate a field blessed by the color purple, as Alice Walker beautifully wrote, THEN your picture book collection will cosy up to ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME, new contribution to poem stories, beautifully told. (Beaming Books, Minneapolis.)

            “Feel the wind/ upon your skin. Imagine where/ that wind has been.” poem lines copyright by Charles Ghigna and Matt Forrest Esenwine, allrightsreserved Once Upon Another Time, illustrated by Andres F. Landazabal.

This book of natural world, Past, contrasted with the world, Present, made me sing. The new-to-me multi-genre artist, Andres F. Landazabal, working in South America from Armenia, Columbia, creates moments on the page that inspired me to abandon my desk, grab family and meander at a meadow we love. Right now! Impossible at that moment, but it figured in why my hubby & I spent an uninterrupted three hours wandering on connected nature trails this past weekend. And ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME promises more. The artist’s exquisite pastel pages matched to the authors’ words help me ponder the ways Planet Earth has changed with human progress & intervention. The authors and artist prickle my sensibility to think of celebrations and help, to further preserve what’s at my part of the planet~~ gopher tortoise hills, manatee springs, turkey woods, anhinga roosting swamps, so they can’t be paved, glassed or picked over.  This Earth poem by Charles Ghigna [Father Goose to many!] and Matt Forrest Esenwine [author of my favorite evening hours p.b. FLASHLIGHT NIGHT] cues a love of what remains of Nature on Earth. The potent part of this is how the story prompts me to ask what good actions I can begin, or continue, without ever suggesting this in a didactic way. The scenes and imagery in words touch my heart to consider this on my own. This book will be an excellent compliment for many sweet areas of student interest including: animal friends, backyard, city/town, geography, sky, fields, forest, mountains, nature, lyrical language and poetry. Applause! Applause! JGAnnino/Bookseedstudio

Resources Charles Ghigna Matt Forrest Esenwine Beaming Books The Color Purple Naomi Shihab Nye Alice Walker

https://alicewalkersgarden.com/books/book-list/

https://twitter.com/ypplaureate?lang=en

The mood of ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME lives at a nearby springs, where I snapped this image as if from another epoch. Question: What is your place to “imagine where/ that wind has been” as ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME evokes? Leave a comment below [moderated] that shares one place, or a few ~ by the end of MONDAY March 8. Beaming Books will provide a copy to one Bookseedstudio poster. Or you may comment but opt out for the give-away. Or leave a less-detailed comment and still opt-in. Provide contact info if I don’t know you. I”ll alert the lucky ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME recipient after March 8. This book launch began Feb. 25 with a blog from Ellen Leventhal. It’s a great interview! Go, enjoy.

Below please find the rest of the tour links. And keep going for the moderated comment box. Appreciations for your visit. And first ~~ links to our gracious #PoetryFriday host this week & all through March. Go see them soon.

March 2021#PoetryFriday Hosts

5 Kat at Kathryn Apel

12 Heidi at my juicy little universe

19 Linda at TeacherDance

26 Susan at Soul Blossom Living

“WakullaSprings, Once and Now”copyright JGAnnino allrightsreserved© “ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME” BLOG TOUR:
^{2/25:      Ellen Leventhal:  https://www.ellenleventhal.com/#blog
2/26:      Michelle Knott: http://mrsknottsbooknook.blogspot.com/
3/1:        Maria Marshall: https://www.mariacmarshall.com/blog
3/2:        Matt Forrest Esenwine: https://mattforrest.wordpress.com 
3/3:        Jan Godown Annino at Bookseed Studio: https://bookseedstudio.wordpress.com/
3/4:        Celebrate Picture Books: https://celebratepicturebooks.com/ ( giveaway on 3/5)
3/5:        Maria Marshall #PPBF (Perfect Picture Book Friday): https://www.mariacmarshall.com/blog
3/5:        KidLit411 – Charles Ghigna interview http://www.kidlit411.com/
3/10:      Melissa Stoller: https://www.melissastoller.com/blog
3/16:      Kellee Moye at Unleashing Readers: http://www.unleashingreaders.com/
5/5:        Andrew Hackett https://www.andrewhacket.com/blog}

 

Book Bun-Bun picks a recipient of ONCE UPON ANOTHER TIME! Fran Haley, congratulations! Please send your mailing address.

Lisa Desimini & Arnold Adolf in LOVE LETTERS + more

This is the perfect moment to flap wings & yodel-le-e-hoo! that February is a lovely season in so many ways that I haven’t already shared here in recent days.

We celebrate, this week, the anniversary of our wonderful daughter’s marriage to her wonderful sweetheart. Happy Days Always! to our Beloved Anna & Petar, seen here in Boston at a New Year’s Eve[before Covid]

I always spend quality picture book time in February with the inventive love drawings of my pal Lisa Desimini, who created heartmelt individual art works for each poem of one of the best Valentine books on the planet. Her co-creator is the esteemed poet Arnold Adoff, & the modern classic book to know is LOVE LETTERS.

And, it’s also time to drum a big Ta, dah! with Lots of cheers & all that jazz for our dear pal Stan, who is an active 100 this week. Stan, You always put the jazz in jazztime! And I hope my oyster plaque shows our affection for you. Finally, My man & I snuggle extra [foto before Covid] all February ’cause at the top of the month his parents wed in their native Sicily. I am blessed big time in February connections of Love.

AmnaAnninoArtwork allrightsreserved

Pubbed! Fresh Fish book & MoSt Poetry Center chapbook

What do you know about your statewide poetry people? After my children’s picture book debuted I added nourishing connections in children’s literature, internationally, nationally & statewide which endure. Hey, that’s how I found you, wonderful nest, #PoetryFriday. In crazy 2020 I pursued an added path, answering writing prompts from poem makers in my area who aren’t necessarily involved with literature for children.

From a call for submissions shared by Florida State Poets Association, which I joined, first-time, two original poems found publication online with the Lake Cane Restoration Society in May 2020. This made me a Bard of the Lake, for “Meditation” and also, “Orlando Orilla de Lago”

Through exploring this long noodle of a state’s poetry community, one of my poems is fresh-pubbed in an art book from the Florida chapter of the Studio Art Quilt Associates. More on this in a second. Next, please know I expect to read a new poem online with a poetry community on Sunday, Feb. 21. I wrote it from a prompt-a-day poetry challenge that ran from mid-Dec. ’20 to mid-Jan.’21. [listening/link info is below] 

This newest prompt idea connected with me in two ways. It’s a wordpool. I first learned about (& silly me, forgot about) wordpool from Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge in her nourishing guide poemcrazy. Gary Thomas of MoSt Poetry Center in California brought me back to brilliant Susan by casting a wordpool. This was his Prompt #19/ January 2, 2021. His poem puzzle challenged us to conjure poetry to include: bleach, Blursdays, hellacious, levitate, salty & wig. Thought I: UGH! Didn’t do it.

But came the end of the prompts from MoSt/Gary. I didn’t feel a pull to other of the lines I had scribbled/doodled in response to the great ideas. But. Pinged in my heart by one word, I went back to that #19 Day wordpool. As someone with dear pals who have lost (& recovered) hair due to cancer treatments, and because I’m living/working post-treatment for stage 2+ kidney cancer that I appreciated receiving great surgery for in 2018, time-two around, with the prompt, I acknowledged the wicked word, wig. Dear people, it wigged me out. So, I knew that with my fear of this word, I should dig deeper. The result is my poem, “Shore good friday,” in the fresh-printed MoSt chapbook, which I expect to find in my traditional postal box any day. To listen to how I put wig & those unlikely companion wordpool words into “Shore good friday,” tune in this week, Feb. 21. It’s a MoSt Poetry Center two hour program & my spot is likely in the last hour because fortunately, two fabulous poets are keynotes of this Sunday’s event. I expect to share “Shore good friday” here in a post, later. **Time note** The MoSt link shows Pacific Time, as MoSt is in Modesto, Calif. I’m figuring on 5-7 p.m. EST. 

Back to FRESH FISH. I glom onto this book’s vibrant colors & forms. Rich, luxurious, playful,  delightfully fantastical, sometimes moody hand-made textile artworks ~~ all mesmerize me. International art contributors are from Canada, Sweden and the UK. It’s also a joy to blend with poets not only from my fabulous region of the universe – Florida – but also, who knew poets in Wisconsin, Ohio, Virginia, Louisiana, Oregon & California would become colleagues in publication?

My favorite FF piece, shown here with bias admitted, is by Maggie Vanderweit, a renowned textile artist in Ontario.  FRESH FISH, Textile Artists and Poets Explore Underwater Life is expected to swim again, as part of a future event in a gallery setting, when traveling members of the Studio Art Quilt Associates convene their delayed in-person international conferencing. 

Susan Goldsmith Woolrdidge        Florida State Poets Association            Studio Art Quilt Associates

 

Bookseedstudio is part of the #PoetryFriday community that visits around on line & when lucky, in person, to celebrate poetry. We are hosted  inventively this week from Haiti by Ruth who is stitching together a community poem! [I added yellow lion lines] & next week, please visit with our host, Karen E.

 

Chocolate news, 2nd edition.

 

c.allrightsrservedJGA/Jan GodownAnnino”LoveTypewriter”

Doodle~toodle:::: sending all my PF poet pals Valentine love! Hoopla abounds about Feb. 14 candy, yes?  So I hope you can spend time this month, or any time, with a NEW student video & radio interview, dear to my heart. Because of #FSU college students’ hard work, we have become fans of TONY’s anti-slavery chocolate, finding it with ease at online purveyors & walk-ins.

Below, my fresh d r a f t poem, “He said”

He said

He said “Get in Good Trouble”

and he meant it I know

reading about, seeing newsreels of

Rep. John Lewis, giant of civil

protest & action no longer

walking the Earth.

I feel what students are

doing about

child abuse in production

of our chocolate treats, fits.

“Get in Good Trouble”

© JGAnnino

Meet young friends advocating against the still-occurring in 2021 child abuse in the production of cocoa:

Just released! on You Tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC0BtL6BwYE

Regional NPR on January 8, 2021   [students’ foto is from before the epidemic]

TONY’s very unusual chocolate bar story is here.

[PoEtrY Friday! I welcome poetry tips/news/links in the moderated comment box, below & I look forward to visiting your blog. I’m linking this post in Poetry Friday with marvelous Molly. Nix the Comfort Zone.] Next week be sure to stop by Ruth’s blog, from Haiti.