From: Meg Robertson <mroberts>
Date: Sat, 19 Apr 2003 12:39:03 -0500

I've been feeling very guilty for lurking and decided (finally) to contribute to the thread by bringing up Stevenson's "Corn" books that I love so much. When I finally made it through the backlog of messages I had, I saw that someone had beaten me to it!

I went to check the shelves to find my favorite poem from these books and was thrilled to find that they are all checked out from the branch where I am a children's librarian. So I will just echo Marianne's comments by saying that Stevenson has a particular talent in bringing out the commonality and the individually speculative nature of everyday images and moments.

Thank you, everyone for such wonderful poetry suggestions. I have been using titles mentioned in these discussions with patrons and with my own children. The "Marilyn" poem in Heart to Heart:new poems inspired by twentieth?ntury American art edited by Jan Greenberg has gotten stuck in my 11-year old son's head and inspired some poetic responses of his own to art.

Lastly--here is one way I have used poetry with my own children--an idea inspired by Naomi Shihab Nye's description of waking her own child with a poem each morning. Instead of an "I love you" note in a lunchbox, I copied short poems that I have found especially compelling and put one in my children's lunchboxes (not daily, but regularly). Even with the hurried lunches that are specialties in the American public schools, my kids and their friends seemed to have a lot of fun reading these at lunchtime.

I have a bulletin board at my library for the posting of favorite poems and am trying to think of any way I can to further the idea of exchanging favorite poems with others--perhaps under the pillow tooth fairy style is next!
Received on Sat 19 Apr 2003 12:39:03 PM CDT