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.
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“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 troupeFenómenos 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.
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!
And so sweet summer solstice arrives in
just 10 days with our blue/green marble rubbing closer to the sunstar on June 21.
Without awareness, until this reflective moment,
I find that I am less inclinded to cook up Red Mill oat bran in the morning,
more likely to have already prepared a batch of chocolate-raspberry pudding
(tofu protein base) for the first meal of the day.
Summer in a weather zone such as our North Florida suburban woods
provides us
mold & mosquitoes,
high 90s, sometimes 100s,
humidity my husband labels perfidy
walls of rain,
sometimes hurricanes.
I take our summer to be like others’ winter,
a signal to embrace extreme conditions.
I savor close-to-home expeditions,
love the gifts of this summer,
wouldn’t want any other summer.
Summer treasure
is tactile
living jewel on hand
ocean necklace plucked from sand beach hard to reach little yard tomato, one for each
The usual Poetry Friday frolic is collected
today at Dori Reads.
. . . .
We are just shy of the half-way point
in April & Nattional Poetry Month. Lucious links of the 2017 menu are
at Jama’s Alphabet Soup.
It’s a bodacious buffet!
I will tip you off to Poetry Mosaic.
Take off your shoes, put up your feet & allow the poets on stage there to
entertain you with their readings. It’s among the wonderful new additions to the month.
Back here at Bookseedstudio’s Friday the 14th’s day in
the National Poetry Month Progressive Poem of
Kidlitosphere, I am
sculpting in the meandering
playground of words. We are creating
together but separately, smoothly, sweetly,
a new poem. Makes me giddy! Yesterday’s mighty fine strong line from Margaret Simon/
Reflections on the Teche, officially known as line 13, needs a neighbor. So line 14 arrives:
Shiver me. Look who’s here. Must I disappear?
See if you think that fits
as the poem-to-date appears a bit further, below.
As always, we are soothingly stage-directed
by Progressive Poem pixie & perpetrator Irene Latham at Live Your Poem. (Who quilted/created
our lovely logo.)
Handsprings are boing boing boinging
all around for her idea & influence.
Enjoy the dragonwords
and when this is titled at day 30
perhaps you’ll dare read it to a
captive
castle
audience?
Untitled 2017 Progressive Poem In Progress
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,
I skip up the stairs in anticipation.
Flip around, face the crowd, and freeze!
Shiver me. Look who’s here. Must I disappear?
. . . .
Now here’s the wand hand off to Brenda,
at Friendly Fairy Tales,
who will weave her magic over words for day 15.
Line-leaders day by day:
April 2017
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
Happy Happy Poetry Friday! And please remember that
the collected castle of Friday characters is
at Dori Reads.
….
