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 aBard 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.
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.
[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.
Appreciations for your visit! Until Feb. 5, Poetry Friday is based here. (more details below.) Please know I’ve been singing:
Down the wavy path
in the budding park
along the Miccosukee sidewalk
my jaunty footsteps hum
to
Here Comes the Sun
Amanda Gorman’s books A song poem spoken-word book of Biden-Harris phenomenal inaugural poet, 22-year-old Amanda Gorman, of Los Angeles, is due out late summer/early fall. CHANGE SINGS, An American Anthem is illustrated by the children’s Pres. O’Bama book (of THEE I SING) artist Loren Long, of Ohio. Ms. Gorman’s older ages book, of inaugural poem and more of her poetry is THE HILL WE CLIMB and Other Poems. I expect to love all these, as one of uncountable millions of 40 million watching, who teared up during her soaring performance at the U.S. Capitol on January 20th.
” I remember all those people (particularly women) who have been rendered silent by illiteracy, and how lucky I am that I get to use this pen. I remember that, to me, nothing is funner than a little word play, and I return to that little kid who is excited to put pen to paper.” Poet Amanda Gorman in COVEN online magazine interview
It’s a thing, to pick One Little Word at each new year as mojo for writing practice. My 2021One Little Word is Sing. In serendipity Sing called me before I knew about Amanda Gorman’s presenting at the inaugural or about her sure-to-be uplifting CHANGE SINGS picture book.
American Library Association Last year I sang of many books here at Bookseedstudio, with special glow for CAT MAN of ALEPPO, A PLACE AT THE TABLE and EIGHT KNIGHTS of HANUKKAH. This week these 3 great books’ various groovy honors were sung by the ALA. Congratulations to all involved in these stellar projects & special Love to those creators who I’m lucky to call Friend.\
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Comments Bop and hum around the links listed below, in comments. (Later, I’ll bring them up here in this text.) You’ll find a sweet shelf of Poetry Friday blogger posts. If you have a poetry blog the URL details can be added ~~ keep going, below, find the word “Comments” in tiny type ~~ there! Even just a “hey, howdy!” can introduce you to Poetry Friday. A blog is never needed to participate, just goodwill about sharing poetry, especially poems for young readers.
[This weekend I learn more of poet/author Zora Neal Hurston with historians here in Florida. On breaks I intend to bring your links here, pulled from where you left them in comments.]
I appreciate your poem study very much. ~~ Jan
Some week of 1.29.2021 Poetry Friday goodness, from all around~~
Michelle Kogan Art shares artwork & her fresh poetry ponderings about hero, heroes & conversos.
Robyn’s report: I have a New Year poem postcard gift to share, and it fits perfectly with your theme! Also, info on an online haiku workshop I’m leading in February that just got finalized this week. http://www.robynhoodblack.com/blog/posts/38085
Matt Today, I’m continuing to celebrate my first board book – and my only one written in prose – and also sharing another of my late mother’s poems in memoriam: https://wp.me/p2DEY3-2DU
Needed More Than Ever Is this a crucial year? Yes. More than ever it’s necessary to remember the mass murders carried out in multiple European countries in World War 2, only to satisfy Adolf Hitler’s maniacal desire to annihilate children & families who were Jewish.
Symbols of hate, including Hitler’s swastika & a mocking T-shirt that bore the message “Camp Auschwitz” were as sickening to see as was the violence in the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
I’m pleased to share that this month young writers in my big state (Florida) began thinking of what they will submit to the WHITE ROSE program by early March, 2021. This event engages students in grades 9-12 – traditional or home school settings – to express thoughts about the bold, brave & lesser-known German high school and college students who became Nazi-resistors. They worked against their narcissistic leader & his campaign of genocide that led to The Holocaust. WHITE ROSE was one crucial resistance campaign.
If you know of an educator or student or other learning community such as synagogue where the essay project information is unknown (perhaps to start the essay effort in another area?) please pass idea of the project along. I’m delighted to know this is the inaugural year of the prize, which feels in keeping with the synergy of peace-teaching & kindness-spreading I felt Jan. 20 watching from home, the inaugural of Joseph Biden & Kamala Harris & that evening’s uplifting activities & events.
Appreciations to both the Holocaust Memorial Resource and Education Center and to the Holocaust Education Resource Council for the information.
Why is this a Holocaust Remembrance time? It was on January 27, 1945, that Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi concentration and death camp, was liberated by the Red Army. Another annual Holocaust Remembrance time is in April, a month WHITE ROSE students were executed in Germany for trying to create Peace.
Kip Wilson, author of WHITE ROSE, an outstanding & award-winning Young Adult verse novel. The book’s poems follow German student Sophia Magdalena Scholl to her sacrifice, once she begins to understand the murders of children & others her country commits, following Hitler. http://www.kipwilsonwrites.com
“Innocent children
killed
by this regime.
Yet what can anyone
do
to stop it?”
c.KipWilson, WHITE ROSE lines from the poem, “Truth in Rumors”
Good wishes to you this Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Weekend. More needed insight will be my goal in this weekend’s re-reading of CASTE, by Isabelle Wilkerson, my book group’s conversation this month. I also expect to re-read MARTIN’s BIG WORDS from Doreen Rappaport and Bryan Collier, which I often shared as a volunteer in K-2nd grade. I’m fortunate that 3 books from my unread new book stack are also part of this MLK Holiday.
They are Victoria Bond’s ZORA & Me, The Summoner, spun from child days of Zora Neale Hurston. Katheryn Russell-Brown’s SHE WAS THE FIRST traveling in 1972 to “Follow the Chisholm Trail” lifetime of U.S. Presidential Candidate, U.S. Rep. Shirley Chisholm, illustrated by Eric Velasquez and also, Katheryn Russell-Brown’s A VOICE NAMED ARETHA, celebrating the rhythm and blues icon whose hits can be sung from memory by me, my friends & likely you, too. This is illustrated by Laura Freeman.
Here are just brief riffs, from pre-reading skims. ZORA & ME, The Summoner. Together, the families of Carrie, who is Zora’s school days bestie in Florida, & Zora, elude white mobs descending upon Eatonville. The pair investigate skin-prickly stories of zombies & grave robbing, leavened by their keen interest in science. Zora confronts bullies, including her rough and rude but town-respected, preacher Father, who in turn receives her brave spunk:
“You got it all wrong, Daddy.” Zora says. Often after that, there will be a slap.
Carrie says, “A faithfulness to mystery, to strange unknowable symmetries vibrated Zora.”
This is part 3 of the richly researched ZORA & ME older middle grade novel series, ages 10-14.
SHE WAS THE FIRST, The Trailblazing Life of Shirley Chisholm. It is great to learn that U.S. Rep. Chisholm’s child days embraced Barbados in a deep way. I like this found poem from the book:
Shirley Anita
had a gift
people listened
and followed
“the Chisholm Trail.”
c. Katheryn Russel-Brown
A VOICE NAMED ARETHA. Verses this musical genius wrote include a cheer from 1972:
It’s time to get up! /It’s time to get up! It’s time to get up!/ It is morning! ~ Revelry
Shortly after the first day of this New Year I picked out from my tempting tower of To-Reads, a book that immersed me in a fascinating part of a topic of my heart, World War Two. MARE’S WAR is an unusual novel of the 6888th Battalion of Black enlisted servicewomen, overseas. These volunteers offered all the hours of their days and nights to follow their orders in the unified effort to quash the narcissistic inflammatory demagogue leader Adolf Hitler & his vast campaign of murder of people he hated based on their religion or birth.
To read the story of Marey Lee Boylen, nicknamed Mare, born of poverty in Bay Slough Alabama, and her allegiance to the United States of America, to be paying through her invented 1940s based-on-history life in the same time of last week’s destructive, death-producing mob action in my own nation’s Capitol, is answer to a prayer. I appreciate that gifted author Tanita S. Davis researched her grandmother’s military history, which sparked an idea for the film-worthy character Mare of the ETO (European Theatre of Operations.) This book earned accolades including a Coretta Scott King honor, ALA-YALSA Best Book for Young Adults and Junior Library Guild Selection.
Teachers keep on teachin’ Preachers keep on preachin’ World keep on turnin’ Cause it won’t be too long Oh no
Lovers keep on lovin’ Believers keep on believin’ Sleepers just stop sleepin’ Cause it won’t be too long Oh no
C. STEVIE WONDER, lines from the poem song “Higher Ground”
I’m also grateful in this same time for cultural enrichment & writing ideas I had already subscribed to in mid-December, from Gary Thomas with MoSt Poetry. His notes ~ ranging from introspective riffs to uplifts ~ helped me through each day. I gratefully took one respite suggested ~ with Stevie Wonder performing his classic “Higher Ground.” Listening to that modern classic soothed my soul more than once since Jan. 6. And you know how I learned about Gary Thomas? By reading around at the nourishing website/blog of Tanita S. Davis, the author of the just-mentioned, MARE’S WAR. Serendipity.
Wishes for your best way forward during this fraught time, with faith that our new President & administration, the addition of two progressives in the U.S. Senate (from my next-door neighbor state, Georgia) will be served & joined by moderate Republicans to tend to the health, housing, food, jobs, safety & education needs of those who are suffering. I read in the Wall Street Journal “Law Enforcement Braces for More Violence” that Jan. 17 & Jan. 20, specifically, (others days possible) may be rough times at our state capitols & the U.S. Capitol. Again. These dates are targeted for massive actions by angry right-wing travelers who may be armed. Remember how in 2016 when Democrats lost a Presidential election, they joined/supported social service non-profits in higher numbers than before & knitted pink hats they wore in peaceful, singing, marches? [thanks to my AZ cousin for sharing that memory running around social media.]
Were I in charge I would have Mr. Biden & Ms. Harris celebrate after the C-19 jabs are widely given & because we are numb from the injuries & the loss of life Jan. 6, 2021 & just general shock of mayhem by our own people in the U.S. Capitol riot. Why would I want a motorcade & outdoor ceremony at the Capitol in January 2021? A tightly controlled space, via video to the World, gets my vote. Our next Commander-in-Chief is already leading in a sorely needed Presidential fashion. Ms. Harris is already leading in Vice-Presidential fashion. Please stay safe and I hope you find the words & resources you need to speak to students, your conservative BeLoveds or yourself, as I have, from veteran educator Mary Lee Hahn.
A watery & welcome distraction arrived Jan. 7th’s nite, in email. Allow me to share this cover of a new art & poetry collection I’m pleased to be associated with.
If you love visiting a salt coast, or have a friend who is enchanted by a sea urchin, squid, starfish, seahorse and others of the sandy depths, please consider buying this gift book, a non-profit project of the international Studio Art Quilt Association.
The accomplished artists featured in FRESH FISH enjoy layering their works in hand or machine stitching or a combo. Some textile artists begin a creation with blank fabric or even papers, and then add dye, paint, embellishment, printmaking technique, drawing, photo transfer, embroidery, beading or buttons, among the many features of fine art quilting. Some pieces are collages or assemblages. I’m thrilled my poem in this juried art collection, “Fish Fandangle” is paired with the talented visual artist Maggie Vanderweit.
While poets write about an individual work of art in what we call ekphrastic poetry, inspired after spending time with a sculpture, painting or other work of visual art, we weren’t writing poetry in that method. The process here followed a serendipitous difference to create an undersea world of joy. Literary & visual artists arrived separately at their contributions ~ working from the same sea theme ~ an unexpected process I found organic, scary & a bit magical. I hope you do, also. The 90-page book features 97 works of visual art & 39 selected poems. Although I haven’t yet held the book in my hands, my understanding is that it’s a book for both adults and school students who are enraptured by encountering all sorts of life in the sea. (Mermaid alert!) And, it’s especially for readers whose eyes love to linger over textile arts.
Until Feb. 1, FRESH FISH can be purchased & shipped postage-paid via the Studio Art Quilt Association, through this link. After, it can be found at a different price on Amazon. I’m eager to put up another post on this book at a later date, when I expect to share colleagues’ poetry from it, with a line or two of mine. But of course, I hope you will be holding the poems in your own hands.
In June 2021, the story of Strum and his sister Madrigal, an oboe player, debuts from verse novelist Joanne R. Fritz, who I am entirely biased about. But, you should pay attention anyway, despite my tilt in favor of this book. For more details than I can reveal, please visit MG BOOK VILLAGE’s recent interview with Joanne. Madrigal is known as Maddie & I feel we will all love how she is revealed in verse. I must tell you that Joanne is enamored of the magic that unfolds during Highlights Foundation workshops. Hoping EVERYWHERE BLUE becomes part of your favored reading. ARTIST of the epic cover is Elena Megalos.
On night walks a sense of comforting smallness seeps into my soul. The Northern Hemisphere’s Dec. 21, 2020 extra longest-night shift of a super Saturn and meteor show, is a phenom noted by Florida’s Bishop Planetarium and Scientific American.
Headlines call for head’s up
See it seep out in south direction following crimped daylight of quickest sunset
Overhead, find deep field with no fence, a cyclorama banner
Constellation-watcher or wayward wanderer can each behold quiet radiance.
Saturn, meet Jupiter, meet Saturn.
Find steady Polaris, North Star, Star of Judea, prick sky fabric
It’s a calm world that visits in Richard Blanco’s love-to-all poem titled ONE TODAY, as interpreted in stunning sky-present scenes by children’s author/illustrator Dav Pilkey. This poet and artist created a beautiful book for any season but this week it feels especially like a hug, if you want it:
Children’s authors in our area loved to learn how to lead kids to be lifelong learners through books, from Mrs. Lenita Joe, luminous Teaching Librarian Emeritus. We spoke on the phone during this pandemic time while her body reacted to a challenging condition not Covid-19 related, and I treasured those gift moments. At the top of this year, before the pandemic, when she needed a major medical trip, she & her husband sent my husband & me in their place to meet the Librarian of Congress. How typically generous of her & how chuffed we were! Please keep reading on for a way, regarding books, to honor this literature heroine.
I met Mrs. Joe during her Leon Reading Council volunteer work, when she hosted the wildly creative sister-authors of COOK-A-DOODLE-DO (Stevens and Crummel) at her school, Sealey E.S. Lenita’s parade of book events in the library-turned media center, such as annual Young Authors’ Day, were earned-invitations for aspiring student writers. Book Week, celebrations of the books of Dr. Seuss, kid fun on famous author birthdays, puppet events & other literacy parties were legendary. My husband & I have heartfelt empathy for her devoted Family, including U.S. Army Col. (retired) Ron Joe, steady uplifter of young Black Men, and for her many Beloved communities, including Sealey, Bethel Missionary Baptist Church and 100 Black Men, among others. Book boosters are extending generosity to Sealey E.S. (memo: Lenita Joe Media Center) check/money order to Principal Demetria Clemons, 2815 Allen Road, Tallahassee Fl 32312. All the days of my life I will feel close to Mrs. Joe, grateful for the gift of her friendship, keeping faith with her lessons & remembering her joyful path, which ended on Earth surrounded by her Family at home, Dec. 13, 2020. [my pizza party foto from a Book Week & my husband’s foto from the wider world.]
C. DAVPILKEY, illuminating Richard Blanco’s poem, ONE TODAY.
Bookseedstudio 