From: Ruth I. Gordon <Druthgo>
Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2008 19:15:38 -0700

On Apr 3, 2008, at 6:46 PM, Ruth I. Gordon wrote:

> Megan writes:
> I'll begin with a question for both Lee and Ruth. I'm wondering if
> you
> can each speak to what you think about when choosing poems for an
> audience of children or teens. People who say they don't like poetry
> often comment that the reason is because they don't understand it. One
> of the things I so appreciate about your fine anthologies of poems for
> youth is the wonderful balance between accessibility and challenge.
> Sometimes the theme of the collection provides the point of
> accessibility--a lens through which to first begin thinking about a
> specific poems--sometimes the poems themselves "go down easy" so to
> speak, even as they may offer much to think about. But there are also
> poems that do require readers to consciously stretch and think and
> imagine.
>
> Are you consciously thinking about these ir other qualities when you
> read poems for potential inclusion in a book for children and teens?
> Are
> you looking for qualities you can break down and define, or is it more
> about how a poem as a whole strikes you?
>
> Big G: To the second paragraph--Yes.

To an interesting item in the first about "understanding"--I would like to return to this. It is complex-- at least about some of the works I choose. I don't think Lee's selections are fraught with this problem? Yes, I'll tear it apart and return but, I do wonder, what's to understand? Don't the words have their own songs, rhythms, surface? Is there a need to go under? On this question, I would like reader response.
>
>
> Ruth adds: LICENSE ? a writer's or artist's freedom to deviate from
> fact or from conventions such as grammar, meter, or perspective, for
> effect : artisticlicense.
> ? freedom to behave as one wishes, esp. in a way that results
> inexcessive or unacceptable behavior : the government was criticized
> forgiving the army too much license.
>
> Two meaning very much on my mind lately--Big G
>
> It will take me a bit of time to respond to Megan's various
> questions. I tend to think slowly about "answers" because almost
> nothing has one, most have several, some have none. Sorting out
> responses ( I prefer the word to "answers") is a long process. The
> same process also applies to gathering up selections for an
> anthology. The very word "anthology" goes to the Greek "gathering
> flowers." (See: the word for "anther" and look into a flower for
> the anthers.)
>
> (I must gather more lovely ((and cheap)) red wine now. I'll return
> in a goodly time.)
>
> Is life a tangent to poetry or v.v.? Ah ha--someone wants an
> explanation of this throw-away line/thunk (thunk=a heavy thought).
> Right now here in
> the Alexander Valley of Sonoma County where I live, almost
> everything is in flower or bud. The lilacs by my front garden plots
> are in flower so, of course,I think about Amy Lowell's "Lilacs," and
> Walt Whitman's "When lilacs last in the dooryard bloomed....." And
> each first line leads the rest of each
> works. In turn, that takes the mind to "April is the cruelest
> month...." and to Robert Browning's Home Thoughts from Abroad, "Oh,
> to be in England//now that April's there....." And the fact that
> Emily Dickenson's birthday is in April--the other day, as a matter
> of fact. Tangents? to what?
>
> A statement: A civilized person who is fortunate enough to be versed
> in a language or languages that have a body of poetry should know
> the poetry of tha that language and the translated poetry of other
> civilizations. Aprille--that's when the Canterbury pilgrims wended.
>
> A.E. Housman would have thought Sonoma County--right now, this very
> today, in my very back yard would be "Loveliest of trees, the cherry
> now//Is hung with blossoms on the bough,...."
>
> Nope--this is not a tangent, But oh, my friends, and ah, my foes...
>
> Really...when almost anything causes reverberations in the brain
> with lines of poetry from all our historic yesterdays--it is life.
> The remainders are a tangent.
>
> I must add that I have been unbelievably fortunate in having two
> really great, sensitive, and disciplined editors shape my
> gatherings: Charlotte Zolotow and Robert Warren. They disciplined
> my wild notions and sometimes we fought about them but I was
> permitted to "have my way," because the works were my babies--they
> were midwives. "Everybody loves a baby, that's why I'm in love with
> you, Pretty baby...."
>
> I'll return to Megan's questions--given time (and a bit more wine.
> Lottsa poetry--especially the classics about wine and wine red
> seas, ...)
>
> I raised questions--but you, reader, must settle them for yourselves.
>
> Here's one you might wish to ask each of us: What is the difference
> in approach to gatherings of Lee and those

>
> Big Grandma
> (who will return anon)
>
>
>
>
Received on Thu 03 Apr 2008 09:15:38 PM CDT