CCBC-Net Archives
Poetry for Every Day
- Contemporary messages sorted: [ by date ] [ by subject ] [ by author ]
From: Ginny Moore Kruse <gmkruse>
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 09:15:10 -0500
Wow, great ideas!
Meg regularly tucks a poem into her children's lunch boxes!
Lisa's third and fourth graders participated in New York's Poem in Your Pocket Day!
Those suggestions remind me of the interview Bill Moyers conducted with Naomi Shihab Nye for his "Now" TV program (10/11/02). At one point he reached into his wallet and pulled out a small folded square of paper. For almost a decade he had carried that piece of paper with him. During a previous interview with Naomi for an earlier TV series "The Language of Life," Bill Moyers had discovered Naomi's poem "The Art of Disappearing." Afterwards he couldn't imagine being without it.
What a powerful thing it is to carry a poem around, if not in our heads, on a little piece of paper given to us by another person. Or one we copied for ourselves.
Even though we're glad that poetry has its own month, there's no need to wait around until it's an announced subject. Each day a new poem can appear on the chalkboard. A poem can be incorporated into just about every talk, even into a report. A blank note card can be transformed for any occasion by copying a poem for that person and time - and crediting the poet and book! We don't need Hallmark to do that for us.
Poetry is for every day. In all kinds of ways. All kinds of poems.
Earlier this month several people referred to poems by Jack Prelutsky and Shel Silverstein. "Prelutsky and Silverstein books are constantly in circulation here." During a Poetry Night, "...the kids chose lots of Shel Silverstein." "There are always kids in the library looking at the poetry books and checking them out -- and not just Prelutsky and Silverstein, although those go out, too." "My students all bring a favorite poem (no Prelutskys/Silversteins, by virtue of definition)..."
"...One of the best ways to get the attention of a class of ten-year-olds is the reciting of 'I am Waiting, Waiting, Waiting' by Prelutsky from "The Dragons are Singing Tonight."
These almost universally popular collections of original poetry are enjoyable for the sheer fun of the language and the accompanying artwork. The operative words there are "accompanying" and "artwork." While Silverstein created his own quirky line drawings, in Prelutsky's books the accompanying artwork was created by outstanding artists such as Peter Sis, Meilo So, Yossi Abolafia, Paul O. Zelinsky, and Petra Mathers. In Garrison Keillor's introduction to his anthology "Good Poems," he quotes Charles Bukowski as saying, "There's nothing wrong with poetry that is entertaining and easy to understand." Keillor reports that as a former English major, he didn't care to hear something like that years ago, but later in life he's found that Bukowski's claim does ring true.
Entertaining, easy poetry will be "it" for some children. That's what they enjoy, and maybe that's what they'll remember. Terrific! Put those poems into pockets, or backpacks.
Some kids will discover and respond to other ways of compressing an idea, describing experience, and expressing feelings. Many of us hope for that. Not for a prescriptive or technical reason, but rather because of what our heads and hearts recall of poetry's power and pleasure. So we do what we can to make that happen, using lunch boxes or chalkboards or whatever else might be effective. And not only during April. Meanwhile we try not to pass judgment on the choices children make when they're provided with opportunities for exercising their own preferences.
Whether or not it's accompanied by artwork, I just can't picture a day going by without a poem. Moyers is right. It's the language of Life.
Peace, Ginny
Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at education.wisc.edu
Received on Thu 24 Apr 2003 09:15:10 AM CDT
Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2003 09:15:10 -0500
Wow, great ideas!
Meg regularly tucks a poem into her children's lunch boxes!
Lisa's third and fourth graders participated in New York's Poem in Your Pocket Day!
Those suggestions remind me of the interview Bill Moyers conducted with Naomi Shihab Nye for his "Now" TV program (10/11/02). At one point he reached into his wallet and pulled out a small folded square of paper. For almost a decade he had carried that piece of paper with him. During a previous interview with Naomi for an earlier TV series "The Language of Life," Bill Moyers had discovered Naomi's poem "The Art of Disappearing." Afterwards he couldn't imagine being without it.
What a powerful thing it is to carry a poem around, if not in our heads, on a little piece of paper given to us by another person. Or one we copied for ourselves.
Even though we're glad that poetry has its own month, there's no need to wait around until it's an announced subject. Each day a new poem can appear on the chalkboard. A poem can be incorporated into just about every talk, even into a report. A blank note card can be transformed for any occasion by copying a poem for that person and time - and crediting the poet and book! We don't need Hallmark to do that for us.
Poetry is for every day. In all kinds of ways. All kinds of poems.
Earlier this month several people referred to poems by Jack Prelutsky and Shel Silverstein. "Prelutsky and Silverstein books are constantly in circulation here." During a Poetry Night, "...the kids chose lots of Shel Silverstein." "There are always kids in the library looking at the poetry books and checking them out -- and not just Prelutsky and Silverstein, although those go out, too." "My students all bring a favorite poem (no Prelutskys/Silversteins, by virtue of definition)..."
"...One of the best ways to get the attention of a class of ten-year-olds is the reciting of 'I am Waiting, Waiting, Waiting' by Prelutsky from "The Dragons are Singing Tonight."
These almost universally popular collections of original poetry are enjoyable for the sheer fun of the language and the accompanying artwork. The operative words there are "accompanying" and "artwork." While Silverstein created his own quirky line drawings, in Prelutsky's books the accompanying artwork was created by outstanding artists such as Peter Sis, Meilo So, Yossi Abolafia, Paul O. Zelinsky, and Petra Mathers. In Garrison Keillor's introduction to his anthology "Good Poems," he quotes Charles Bukowski as saying, "There's nothing wrong with poetry that is entertaining and easy to understand." Keillor reports that as a former English major, he didn't care to hear something like that years ago, but later in life he's found that Bukowski's claim does ring true.
Entertaining, easy poetry will be "it" for some children. That's what they enjoy, and maybe that's what they'll remember. Terrific! Put those poems into pockets, or backpacks.
Some kids will discover and respond to other ways of compressing an idea, describing experience, and expressing feelings. Many of us hope for that. Not for a prescriptive or technical reason, but rather because of what our heads and hearts recall of poetry's power and pleasure. So we do what we can to make that happen, using lunch boxes or chalkboards or whatever else might be effective. And not only during April. Meanwhile we try not to pass judgment on the choices children make when they're provided with opportunities for exercising their own preferences.
Whether or not it's accompanied by artwork, I just can't picture a day going by without a poem. Moyers is right. It's the language of Life.
Peace, Ginny
Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at education.wisc.edu
Received on Thu 24 Apr 2003 09:15:10 AM CDT
