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RE: OUT OF POETRY
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From: Claudia Pearson <pearsoncrz_at_earthlink.net>
Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2012 10:56:38 -0500
"I do not feel we should be 'passively waiting and hoping...". I do feel we should go ahead but let's not throw away the past. There should not be a recurrrence - there should be a now, an availability to these great poets. As for the halcyon days I never felt works by many of our greats wrote only about happy, peaceful days/times.
I absolutely agree with you. When looking back, people seem to focus on the "happy, peaceful" themes, especially when recalling literary works for children. Perhaps this is a reflection of the perception tthat children should be protected from the often harsh truths of human history and that what is written for them should not evoke and address their ambivalent feelings, or worse. Perhaps it is an engagement with the word play that chooses to ignore the deeper meanings which the work could convey.
As Donna Jo Napoli points out in some of her talks, we should be telling our children about "terrible things." Sometimes the best way to do this is through poetry, which offers, but does not require, a close personal reading while it simultaneously allows the young reader a sense of distance evoked by the "otherness" of the poetic form.
Claudia Pearson coRA SCBWI SouthernBreeze pearsoncrz_at_earthlink.net www.LookAgainPress.com
Received on Sun 22 Jul 2012 10:56:38 AM CDT
Date: Sun, 22 Jul 2012 10:56:38 -0500
"I do not feel we should be 'passively waiting and hoping...". I do feel we should go ahead but let's not throw away the past. There should not be a recurrrence - there should be a now, an availability to these great poets. As for the halcyon days I never felt works by many of our greats wrote only about happy, peaceful days/times.
I absolutely agree with you. When looking back, people seem to focus on the "happy, peaceful" themes, especially when recalling literary works for children. Perhaps this is a reflection of the perception tthat children should be protected from the often harsh truths of human history and that what is written for them should not evoke and address their ambivalent feelings, or worse. Perhaps it is an engagement with the word play that chooses to ignore the deeper meanings which the work could convey.
As Donna Jo Napoli points out in some of her talks, we should be telling our children about "terrible things." Sometimes the best way to do this is through poetry, which offers, but does not require, a close personal reading while it simultaneously allows the young reader a sense of distance evoked by the "otherness" of the poetic form.
Claudia Pearson coRA SCBWI SouthernBreeze pearsoncrz_at_earthlink.net www.LookAgainPress.com
Received on Sun 22 Jul 2012 10:56:38 AM CDT
