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.

2019 April National Poetry Month

LIGHT verse dept.

[Cocoa, Florida]

After work

by JG Annino

How curious it is

villages called

Coffee, Florida

 

or Tea or Juice

are absent from

the map

 

Out the newsroom door

of my summer job

into warm late night

 

search around downtown

only other visitor a dusty

armadillo

 

how can this

hot state have

a hot town

 

named Cocoa

and more than that

shouldn’t a person

 

find the best

cup of it, right

here

©JanGodownAnninoall rights reserved

 

GRAB a cuppa whatever – mine is water, no ice.

This month we mosey into Poetry Friday’s gift to 2019 National Poetry Month.

It’s the Progressive Poem! A line a day is added by your 2019 Poetry Friday

line leaders, to make a month-long-in-the-making, 29-line, poem.

I will grab a line

(out of a Cocoa box perhaps)

on April 25th – to post here that day. I haven’t looked at the other written lines yet,

deciding to only see them all of an early morn, on my designated Thurs & then

spin something fresh during that day, posting sooner rather than later. Shivers!

 

REQUEST Dept.

Editors, eagle-eyed readers, published Poetry Friday poem makers, if you

liked “After Work” above, please know that beta readers are collecting

for an upcoming poem project. Please send an email note to me with your availability

summer/fall, or send a fb message. I am dividing the poems to be read into

clutches of approx. 5, 7, 11, 1,211, etc.  For your volunteer reading, I can offer

enthusiastic appreciations,

with a package of dry ingredients

to make my special

best cuppa hot Cocoa recipe.

LINE LEADERS

Line Leaders of the 2019 April National Poetry Month Progressive Poem who are Pampered & Organized & Enthused & Memorialized by Poet Extraordinaire & friend of octopuses, IRENE LATHAM;

1 Matt @Radio,Rhythm and Rhyme

2 Kat @KathrynApel

3 Kimberly @KimberlyHutmacherWrites

4 Jone @DeoWriter

5 Linda @TeacherDance

6 Tara @Going to Walden

7 Ruth @thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown

8 Mary Lee @AYear of Reading

9 Rebecca @RebeccaHerzog

10 Janet F. @LiveYour Poem

11 Dani @Doingthe Work that Matters

12 Margaret @Reflections on the Teche

13 Doraine @Dori Reads

14 Christie @Wondering and Wandering

15 Robyn @Life on the Deckle Edge

16 Carol @Beyond LiteracyLink

17 Amy @The Poem Farm

18 Linda @A Word Edgewise

19 Heidi @my juicy little universe

20 Buffy @Buffy’s Blog

21 Michelle @Michelle Kogan

22 Catherine @Reading to the Core

23 Penny @a penny and her jots

24 Tabatha @The Opposite of Indifference

25 Jan @Bookseestudio

26 Linda @Write Time

27 Sheila @Sheila Renfro

28 Liz @Elizabeth Steinglass

29 Irene @Live Your Poem

c.2019allrights reserved
April 2019 “Kickin’ It” Cleveland, Ohio

 

Three beats of the heart: books to borrow or buy

Three Beats of the heart: books to borrow or buy

WONDERFUL WORDS
THE WILD BRAID
BIG MAGIC

Three volumes to talk up, today.
I celebrate them
for how they they jolt my Writer Spirit.
Who knows? Could be your new favorites.

WONDERFUL WORDS is a color-packed gallery, illustrated by Karen Barbour,
for anthologist/editor Lee Bennett Hopkins. With visits to ideas
such as Metaphor, Listen, Finding a Poem & more, it bombards
my senses in the best way, with go-go juice. Last weekend at a
writing retreat, thanks in part to this book, I carted off some
wrong words, proud words, from my middle grade verse novel,
a revision on-going with good steam. This thought is
potent for me, a few lines of “Primer Lesson” by Carl Sandburg
Look out how you use proud words.
When you let proud words go, it is
not easy to call them back…
c. 1922, 1950 in WONDERFUL WORDS
Yes, WONDERFUL WORDS a picture book.
The artwork, the poems shared, ensure it is for ALL ages. Hope you find it fast.

I can’t keep track of how many copies of THE WILD BRAID
fly out from here to friends. This slim purse-size book is a
collection of essays, with some poems,
by the founder of Poets House in NYC,
Stanley Kunitz (1905-2006) who earned a Pulitzer-prize, worked as a
U.S. Poet Laureate, among shelves of writing connections during his
generous life. This lovely work is a collaboration with photographer
Marnie Crawford Samuelson and the book’s midwife is writer Genine Lentine.
We came to know about Stanley Kunitz, who as a boy was a village lamplighter,
through relatives of his who we chanced to overnight with in a stream of serendipity
that continues to bless our family.
If you become intrigued by him, I send you to this pinterest page, servings of his thoughts.
Last week I copied out one SK verse for a young student in New Hampshire
who intends to be a librarian some day:
I can scarcely wait for tomorrow
When a new day begins for me
As it does each day
As it does each day
c. 2007 StanleyKunitz from “The Round” in THE WILD BRAID

One of my special moments in visiting Poets House in
March of this year, involved
my hubby and I finding a desk
where e.e. cummings wrote. One of our first
connections we shared when we began dating
was cummings’ poetry. Love Poets House.
You can listen to Stanley Kunitz read his poem “The Long Boat.

Poets House, NYC,
March 2018
a desk where e.e. cummings wrote

You have heard of BIG MAGIC from Elizabeth Gilbert. Just finished my
2nd read of this copy, gifted to me by the magical
Joan Broerman of SCBWI fame. It is now inscribed for a writer,
who is also a musician, who I felt lucky
to meet in a singing circle.
At the nurturing TEACHING AUTHORS site, when asked to select a
book to pass along, I instantly picked this for her.
The top life lesson I take away from BM is
get back to creation.
Which isn’t an exhortation to read Genesis
but to know in my bones that folks have always
stuck hands in mudclay to sculpt,
or swiped berry juice on stone,
or grabbed grass stalks & woven,
without making such a big deal out of it.
I’m doodling, I’m paper cutting, creating in ways
in addition to words… With great appreciations to wonderful Joan,
pictured here with a special oil painting by our talented
mutual friend, Brian Nolan.
(I am lucky enough to be seated on the left.)

With joy for your wonderful words, for your wild braid, for
your big magic that I feel vibrates through your soul. xox

plus Three more images – the cove of the river from last weekend’s
writing retreat & charmed gourd cache pot made for me by Turtle Cove Press
writing pal M.R. Street, cheerleader for my artistic expression, & host of the
cove time my lucky self enjoyed.

Mother’s Day

Our student volunteers her
law skills in far-flung places (Boston, DC, NYC)
so comes my August birthday, or
Mother’s Day & I am not usually with
this brilliant, fun & thoughtful young woman,
an only child. But oh, something almost as fabulous.
Without fail my mailbox delivers
a unique book
that I open so slowly to read again & again,
to savor forever.

Copyright.
All Rights Reserved.

Her book cards carry words that
wet my eyes.
Now if she were seven I would show you
what she writes. Since I’ve not been Mommy
for years, but Mom, I’m not giving a peek beyond
the double wood doors opening onto garden and beyond
endless sky
as it sits here in my office. But you can guess
the heart-melt inside.

Please know that this past weekend
I was together in
spirit with you, family & friends
who are children of Moms,
or are yourselves, Mothers.
And I thought this weekend so much about my
Mother, who left Earth too soon,
the woman who taught me to weave words,
which her only grandchild, as you see here from
toddle days, never one to be held back,
does
within these book cards.

Copyright.
All Rights Reserved

What your mother tells you now
in time
you will come to know.
c. Mitsuye Yamada
in A CHORUS OF CULTURES, A Poetry Anthology
edited by Alma Flor Ada, Violet J. Harris, Lee Bennett Hopkins

Poetry Friday/Spiritual Thursday: LUNA

LUNA
copyright2018JGANNINO
all right reserved

I’ve been invited by Mainely Write in the
Poetry Friday group,
collected this week under the glow of the
Spiritual Thursday banner,
to think about the moon.
I love thinking about her.
Luna is a she, yes?
And to me, Luna represents joy & generosity.

Q & A with Ms. Luna

Favorite Earthling?
Mr. E.E. (Buzz) Aldrin

Favorite moon
Phobos (of Mars)

Favorite of your surface shapes
Hands

Favorite phase
Crescent

Favorite poem
“The Crescent Moon” – Amy Lowell

Favorite book
NIGHTGOWN OF THE SULLEN MOON – Nancy Willard
Moon conversation C. copyright JGAnnino
. . .

What a super week for supermoon watchers this one is.
Here’s just one site spotlighting some of the glory.

At night, we bundle up & step out the back door. Or the front door.
We are blessed with a Luna trajectory that is nothing short of heavenly, directly over
us, rising in back & setting in front with clear views, despite living in an urban woods.
The night moon framed in a heart of live oak leaves is the view from our own
front steps. Those are branches & leaves of the grandmother oak that we
fell in love with, wanting to buy our little cottage in North Florida.
We spent a nice bit of time out front moon gazing this past Sunday evening & the
nights since. Are you getting up in the chilly pre-dawn to see her?
We have meant to, but . . .

As for Ms. Luna’s answers in the Q & A above, I can explain.

When I was a little girl, Buzz Aldrin sent me an
envelope of great goodies from NASA. My Mother wrote him that I
was tickled to learn that we had a relative in common, via
marriage. The good cheer our classroom felt from his
generous letter brings a smile to me. When I think of
the Moon I think: generous, I feel generous &
I also think: happy, I feel happy. To me, Col. “Buzz” Aldrin is
THE Man in the Moon.

copyrightJGANNINO

Phobos is the moon that gets a lot of buzz
for orbiting the red planet Mars while wearing an
odd projectile, much commented upon,
in the space world.

Earthlings gaze at the moon and see
things. Some of the many shapes we
find in crater designs left by asteroids
striking the surface, include hands.

All four phases attract my moongaze. I am especially intrigued
when part of Luna is hidden.
Amy Lowell writes in “Crescent Moon,”
Little rocking, sailing moon/ Do you hear me shout Ahoy!/
The “Crescent Moon” poem

The picture book that changed my life is NIGHTGOWN
OF THE SULLEN MOON by Nancy Willard. Reading it over
and over at our daughter’s request, but to my delight, provided a challenge
to write in a way that spins a fantastic story for young readers
while at the same time, crafting a
luminous page-turner for all-age readers.
I love Lindsey Canesco’s tribute to this treasure book.

MY HOPE is that the moon is a muse for many artists.
I hope Col. Aldrin, who safely landed (July 20) & walked on the moon
(July 21) in 1969 continues living his exhuberant
life for many many many more moons.
(Shiver: His mother’s name before switching to Aldrin at
marriage was Moon!) I wish for your family to see fun designs in the
moon’s cratered marks. I hope many moon poems tickle your
fancy. I wish that you will read Nancy Willard’s magnificent
moon story & be moved by it.

Finally, I wish you a marvelous start to a new cycle of our moon.

Appreciations to Donna for shining the light on Spiritual Thursday.
And this Everywhere with Special Care gal is also hosting today’s Poetry Friday.
Join in.
The luminous Spiritual Thursday logo is created by Margaret Simon.
See it here.

Nancy Willard

Nancy Willard

Hello all Poetry Friday seekers.
I am grateful to Heidi who organizes it here this week.

This week, I am spending time with
my Nancy Willard books,
especially, THE SALT MARSH,
TELLING TIME,
A VISIT TO WILLIAM BLAKE’S INN &
STEP LIGHTLY, Poems for the Journey,
collected by Nancy Willard.

I want to pick one to share Saturday,
when I feel fortunate to be meeting with
teens at the request of a legendary
librarian I treasure, Ms. Lenita Joe.

Since Nancy Willard treasured every poem
she placed in
STEP LIGHTLY,
reading them feels like two chairs are pulled up
before a big window overlooking a salt marsh,
tea is poured and
a conversation begins.

Nearly every selection speaks to me, especially
the poems about writing,
but for this post I’m sharing two lines,
from Emily Hahn, in her poem,

“Wind Blowing”
“I can see everything, all around the earth;
Red sun dying, gold sun’s birth.”
c. Emily Hahn, all rights reserved

I feel that is Nancy’s world now,
stepping lightly,
knowing and seeing everything.

Here is a sweet memory written
just a few days ago by her friend
and former neighbor, poet
Lee Bennett Hopkins.

I was thrilled
to meet Nancy Willard in Roanoke, VA
once, at the graduate program
in children’s literature.

She sat in on a creative writing seminar
I enjoyed so much, led by
Han Nolan. She was available to us –
we were all big fans. I treasure the moon she drew
in my copy of NIGHTGOWN OF THE SULLEN MOON.

When she learned that my thesis
for Hollins University included
serious poems about bears in history, she
suggested I look up the work of her poet
friend, Galway Kinnell.
Reading him was rough work, but it helped me.
In expectation of my editing & layout of a
chapbook of bear poems, experiences &
images, I feel fortunate to have been
touched by Nancy Willard’s
magical presence that summer.

I’ve previously mentioned her books here.
and also here, where I shared her signature artwork
a gift that graces books of many admirers.

And I think NW would have liked the recent honor that LBH earned in my state.

Grackles cackle! It’s Halloween 2015!!!

Grackles cackle. Crows glow. Ghouls drool.

It’s Halloween 2015!
(If you are seeking the Poetry Friday link click-clack, scit-scat over to
Check It Out’s post, which beautifully looks ahead to Veteran’s Day.)

My favorite goblin-night reading for teens & adults is a privately
printed poetry chapbook, ON ANY DARK AND SPOOKY NIGHT.
It was a gift to me in 1992 from the poet author, Audrey Parente. It
is one of the first orange items I reach for each year to decorate
the house.

ON ANY DARK AND SPOOKY NIGHT c.1992 Audrey Parente, read by woman with ghost-color legs!

The spine-tinglers in Audrey’s collection are creepy
& kooky & make adults shiver.

Here is a less-ghoulish poem for the wee ones.

When Goblins Sing
by Audrey Parente
in the chapbook, ON ANY DARK AND SPOOKY NIGHT

Oh, when the goblins sing,
your skin begins to crawl
with bumpy, goosey flesh
which drives you up a wall.
But scary as this is,
if they seem down the hall,
don’t you worry dear,
for they’re not there at all!
©1992 Audrey Parente

I love how I always go back & read it again to see what
she did there! Her Halloween poems are perfect presents.

Fortunately we held a Halloween poetry partee last weekend,
before All Hallow’s Eve. This way we would be free this weekend to enjoy
some of the many bubbling cauldrons of festivals & treats our town puts on.
But this year we are both under a sick spell (bad sore throats, etc.) now
at Halloween & feel fortunate to have these pre-Halloween memories.

c.2015JanGodownAnnino, all rights reserved

The first set of images are from the partee.
Outdoors images in the second group were
made at our nearby park. It provides a naturally ghostly atmosphere
with rugged live oaks, swaying Spanish moss (not truly a moss but an
epiphyte) & an annual scarecrow row. The artists who create them
are local folks who love Halloween.

My Halloween picture books for young readers can fill a bottomless caludron but include –
TRICK OR TREAT, SMELL MY FEET by Lisa Desimini, TRICK OR TREAT, OLD ARMADILLO, by Larry Dane Brimner, with illustrations from Dominic Catalano, THE MONSTORE by Tara Lazar & HAMPIRE by Sudipta Bardhan Quallen.

c.2015JanGodownAnnino, all rights reserved. subject: Abraham Lincoln & a bear.

Walk this way! c.1992, all rights reserved

c.2015 Classic Scarecrow

c,1992 Bee-utiful Scarecrow

c.2015 Village Philosopher

c.2015 Eyes so sad… could it be…

c.2015 Cheer up, dear!!!

c.2015 GO AWAY BIG GREEN MONSTER, by Ed Emberly. The Emberly family has several cool monster picture books. Check ’em out of your libraree!

c.2015 Classic Caludron Gals

c.2015 That’s right dearie, this way…

c.2015 Good. You’re drawing closer….

c.2015 Good. You’re drawing closer….

c.2015 You are at The End, protected by Classic Smiley Pumpkin! Happy times always.

JoAnn Early Macken

A storm that rolled in the day our daughter recently

winged back home, made me think of poet

JoAnn Early Macken’s WAITING OUT THE STORM.

 

This gentle prose poem is an appreciation

of finding shelter in a storm, to then watch it in wonder.

A mother and daughter consider the small creatures

who live outdoors as they make their path from

a hill of daffodils,

to their own cozy nest to watch and wait out the weather.

It is illustrated by Susan Gaber in a way that

transports the reader inside veils of rain.

 

I’m sharing these raindrop lines:

They burst from the cloud

skipping and leaping and laughing out loud

They spin and they tumble.

They bounce on the breeze

They dance to the tune of the world in the trees

2010 JoAnn Early Macken, “Waiting Out The Storm”

 

You can learn more about JoAnn Early Macken, who

I met through Teaching Authors, at JoAnn’s web site pages.

And in your visit to JoAnn’s site, be sure to look at her, WRITE A POEM

information. This is about her book that I was fortunate to win

more than a year ago.

And also, please check back for one of my favorite rain images

from a few years past, of our gal, appreciating

cascades of drops. It’s not handy at the moment but I expect

to locate it soon.

 

Mindful that this week’s Poetry Friday gathering, collected at NO WATER RIVER

by Renee La Tulippe arrives the day after Sept. 11 memorials, I offer

JoAnn’s poetry lines, above, as a way of honoring quiet sweet moments in life that

our protectors endeavor to make continuous for us all.

 

Peace to you this week & always.

 

 

Flora & Ulysses

 

Gladiola. Caramel. Spiral.

Of the words and terms that evoke a relaxed feeling

for me, many can’t mean the same thing to you.

For example, the names of my husband and daughter,

my first childhood kitty, Wacky, my mother’s sister, Lily,

and the places on Earth where I felt one with the universe.

But one of my charmed words may be yours:

                            P   O   E  T  R  Y

So, I invoke this word to talk about the book I brought home from my

wunnerful public library. It is the 2013 novel for young readers,

FLORA & ULYSSES: The Illuminated Adeventures. I knew it won the 2014

Newbery. I had read it was about a girl and a squirrel. But I had not read it.

Imagine my summer reading surprise to see in it that a lively character, on page 82,

quotes with good effect:

 

“You, sent out beyond your recall,

go to the limits of your longing.

Embody me.

Flare up like flame

and make big shadows I can move in.”

 

This is from Ranier Maria Rilke.

As I scrunched further into the comfy sofa, racing through page after page, I found that in this always switching-around tale, a story that produces in me laughs out loud,  readers discover that faith & hope & love = poetry. Or something. Or, they can equal poetry. That depends on you. The way certain words can be your charmed words.

Kate D. gives the story delicious made up words, vigorous real words, charmed words, airborne moments & every poem tucked inside is fine to read. Flora is a self-proclaimed cynic who is immershed in the world of comic books about a superhero. And then the story leaps on four paws from there.

I expect the best with this author but still, I feel charmed to read a story once again that leaves no question why she steps out so well as our country’s Ambassador for Children’s Literature. She is like a matter-of-fact big sister in speaking to children & the link below is especially demonstrates how she takes her readers seriously, but always offers a smile.

KATE!, a view from across The Pond

http://www.theguardian.com/childrens-books-site/2014/jul/29/kate-dicamillo-flora-and-ulysses-guardian-childrens-fiction-book-prize-2014

Rilke/the poem, “Go To The Limits of Your Longing”  from which DiCamillo quotes:

http://www.onbeing.org/program/wild-love-world/feature/go-limits-your-longing/1448

Illustrator K.G. Campbell who is all over the place in the best illustrated books:

http://www.goodreadswithronna.com/2013/10/25/interview-k-g-campbell-illustrator-flora-ulysses/

Finally, you likely have arrived here through POETRY FRIDAY. A little nook of the Kidlitosphere. Today’s host is  CHECK IT OUT & I invite you to

take a trip to the West Coast & visit the host, Jone. Many thanks.  `  j a n

 

 

 

 

Nelson Mandela by J. Patrick Lewis

copyright KADIR NELSON

 

July 18th is a day for Mr. Nelson Mandela, who said,

 

“It is within your hands to make of our world, a better world for all.”

 

Thank you, Anastasia Suen & POETRY FRIDAY & J. Patrick Lewis.

The J. Patrick Lewis poem gives me goose bumps, especially at one line:

Nelson Mandela International Day poem by J. Patrick Lewis.

 

Here is more on Mr. Mandela, Nobel winning peace maker:

http://www.mandeladay.com/

And here is even more, from his Foundation:

http://www.nelsonmandela.org/content/page/biography

And finally, from Alicia Lewis Murray, (I don’t know if there is a Lewis-Lewis connection..)  here is a look at Mr. Mandela from the perspective of children’s books:

http://www.balancingmotherhood.com/2013/12/12/nelson-mandela-childrens-book/

The artwork here is from KADIR NELSON’s exceptional book, NELSON MANDELA as displayed with Alicia’s article.