Poetry Friday -- Autumn Cadenza

Unsplash photo by NordWood Themes

Autumn Cadenza

Oak leaves drift down, a brown rustle.
Crickets are hushed.
Only sound --
plop --
acorns bonk roof.
Steady
drop.
Winter is here
when they
stop.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018


This poem is a Zeno, a form invented by J. Patrick Lewis. It has 10 lines with a syllable count that goes 8, 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1, 4, 2, 1. The single syllable words rhyme.

I've seen several Zenos in the Poetry Friday Roundup recently, and I thought I'd give it a try. I was inspired by the acorns falling, and I found my rhyming words first. The temperature dropped from the 80s to a morning temperature today in the 40s. On my early morning walk today, the silence was a bit shocking -- no crickets! I'm sure we'll have some more warm weather, but winter has served notice -- she's on her way!

Laura Purdie Salas has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week at Writing the World for Kids.

Poetry Friday -- The Poetry of US (mine)

Click to enlarge 

Click to enlarge

I'm tickled pink and proud as punch! I also can't wait to dig into the book and read all the poems...but the boxes of books for the Charlotte Huck Award keep coming and coming, so my reading life will not be my own until after NCTE! I'll try to make it around to the roundup this week, but I can't make any promises. :-(

Speaking of the roundup, Tabatha is hosting at The Opposite of Indifference.

3 by J. Patrick Lewis

World Rat Day: Poems About Real Holidays You've Never Heard Of

by J. Patrick Lewis

illustrated by Anna Raff

Candlewick Press, 2013

review copy provided by the publisher

Any day's the perfect day to take a holiday and read funny poems by J. Patrick Lewis! Whether it's Dragon Appreciation Day on January 16, World Rat Day on April 4, Limerick Day on May 12, or (my favorite) Chocolate-Covered Anything Day on December 16, there's an animal poem for every reader in this book.

Face Bug
by J. Patrick Lewis
photographs by Frederic B. Siskind
illustrations by Kelly Murphy
WordSong, 2013

review copy provided by the publisher

Eye-catching close-up photos of creepy bug faces will draw the reader into this book, and Lewis' descriptive poems will delight. Sketches of the action in the poems and back matter full of factual information keep readers poring over this buggy book.

When Thunder Comes: Poems for Civil Rights Leaders
by J. Patrick Lewis
illustrated by Jim Burke, R. Gregory Christie, Tonya Engel, John Parra, and Meilo So
Chronicle Books, 2013
review copy provided by the publisher

On a more serious note, When Thunder Comes "...celebrates the struggles and achievements of seventeen men and women who dedicated their lives to fighting injustice based on race, ethnicity, nationality, gender, and sexual orientation."

These poems are far from silly, and require a reader who will read and re-read, utilizing the biographical information in the back of the book to understand the impact of each of these diverse civil rights leaders.

Poetry Friday -- Careerhymes

Flickr Creative Commons photo by  /Sizemore/

TRAFFIC COP

Drivers think the traffic cop
is totally about the, "STOP!"
Standing hours in twelve below
what I need to do is GO!

© Mary Lee Hahn, 2013

Good think I spent a few minutes browsing my Google Reader feeds yesterday. Blog after blog featured Careerhymes, a new form invented by (who else?) J. Patrick Lewis.

I started reading the HUNDREDS of comments on the original post at David Harrison't blog, and they were all so dang CLEVER that I almost gave up before I even tried. However, this one practically wrote itself on the way to school (seed idea captured with voice memo on my phone), and now I'm hooked! You should try one, too! Here's the form:

"...light verse, in which the name of an occupation appears somewhere in the first line."

Couldn't be easier, could it? So what's holding you back? Write one!!



Renee has today's roundup at No Water River.

Dark Humor for Halloween

Last Laughs: Animal Epitaphs
by J. Patrick Lewis and Jane Yolen
illustrated by Jeffrey Stewart Timmins
Charlesbridge, 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

Laughing about death is not everybody's cup of tea, so when this book made its appearance in my 5th grade classroom, I made sure that readers were forewarned. The pictures are gruesome and the animals in the book meet untimely and horrible deaths...but at the same time, to the right reader (mostly boys, to be honest), this is a very funny book.

Here are a couple of examples that have been favorites in my classroom:

THE LAST OF THE STAGGERING STAG

Win some.
Lose some.
Venison.


BARRACUDA'S BITE-SIZE DEMISE

My teeth were vicious;
my bite was hateful.
A great white met me --
the date was fateful.
The shark was hungry,
and I was baitful.


CHICKEN CROSSES OVER

She never found the answer
to the age-old question,
Why did the chicken cross the ro---?

Poetry Friday -- Be the Change You Wish to See

National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry: 200 Poems with Photographs That Squeak, Soar, and Roar!

edited by J. Patrick Lewis, U.S. Children's Poet Laureate

National Geographic, 2012

review copy provided by the publisher

Today begins the three-day 100 Thousand Poets for Change event: "...a demonstration & celebration of poetry, music & art to promote social, environmental & political change...a global celebration of solidarity for peace & sustainability."

I'm aiming a little lower than the grand goal of 100 TPC, under the assumption that every little bit counts.

The change I want is for poetry to be a natural part of every child's life. My corollary wish, the one that's necessary for the first to happen, is that poetry is a natural part of every parent's and teacher's life as well.

How best to make that happen?

Give J. Patrick Lewis' newest book, the National Geographic Book of Animal Poetry to every new parent, and put a copy in every classroom!

This book is a treasure of poetry (and some pretty spectacular photography). It's as if Pat went through my classroom collection of poetry and plucked a favorite from each book -- Kristine O'Connell George is there with her polliwog commas, and there's Douglas Florian, David Elliott, Julie Larios, Jane Yolen, Arnold Adoff, Janet Wong, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Mary Ann Hoberman, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Marilyn Singer, Jack Prelutsky, and Joyce Sidman. PLUS some of my favorite poets who are usually for adults have poems here -- Kay Ryan, Ogden Nash, and Hilaire Belloc. AND there are "classic" poets -- Walter De la Mare, Emily Dickinson, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Louis Stevenson.

In his introduction, Pat writes about the possibility that animals "appreciate most of all the simple joys of exploring their worlds." This book is a poetic exploration of the natural world.

He invites us to wander through the pages: "This book is not for reading straight through. Pick it up anytime. Choose a poem and then read it out loud: You want your ears to have as much fun as your mouth is having...Once you have opened it, you are likely to find words that are not so much a description as a revelation."

If you  haven't gotten your hands on a copy of this book, CHANGE that! If you want a few more peeks and reviews, check these out:

Julie Danielson at Kirkus Reviews and Seven Imp


Marjorie has today's Poetry Friday roundup of posts at Paper Tigers.

*     *     *     *     *     *

Addendum -- What I Learned About the Quote in the Title of This Post

Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Ghandi

"Gandhi’s words have been tweaked a little too in recent years. Perhaps you’ve noticed a bumper sticker that purports to quote him: “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” When you first come across it, this does sound like something Gandhi would have said. But when you think about it a little, it starts to sound more like ... a bumper sticker. Displayed brightly on the back of a Prius, it suggests that your responsibilities begin and end with your own behavior. It’s apolitical, and a little smug.

Sure enough, it turns out there is no reliable documentary evidence for the quotation. The closest verifiable remark we have from Gandhi is this: “If we could change ourselves, the tendencies in the world would also change. As a man changes his own nature, so does the attitude of the world change towards him. ... We need not wait to see what others do.”

Here, Gandhi is telling us that personal and social transformation go hand in hand, but there is no suggestion in his words that personal transformation is enough. In fact, for Gandhi, the struggle to bring about a better world involved not only stringent self-denial and rigorous adherence to the philosophy of nonviolence; it also involved a steady awareness that one person, alone, can’t change anything, an awareness that unjust authority can be overturned only by great numbers of people working together with discipline and persistence." from Falser Words Were Never Spoken by Brian Morton in the New York Times, August 29, 2011.

Three by Two

Two of children's literature's most prolific poets have three new books out this spring. The first they wrote together. The other two will inspire readers younger and older to look closely at the world around them.

Take Two! A Celebration of Twins
by J. Patrick Lewis and Jane Yolen
illustrated by Sophie Blackall
Candlewick Press, 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

This must-have book of poems about twins is divided into four parts: Twins in the Waiting Womb, Twinfants, How to Be One, and Famous Twins.

I have one of a pair of VERY identical twins in my room this year. I think she'll enjoy sharing this book with her twin, and with her family.

This book has gotten lots of well-deserved attention. Here's a sampling:

The New York Times
Kirkus Reviews
Laura Salas at Writing the World for Kids
Linda Kulp at Write Time

Bug Off! Creepy, Crawly Poems
by Jane Yolen
photographs by Jason Stemple
Worsdsong, April 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

Jane Yolen and her son, Jason Stemple, have another great poetry/science book this spring. (I LOVE An Egret's Day!)

Each spread has a poem, a photo, and a little bit more information about each insect. The only one with a lot of "EWWWW" factor for me, was the one about the tick. I just about can't look at that picture!
But Jane reminds us in the poem,

"The tick is mostly mouth,

and if he lands on you

he'll try to suck your blood,

'cause that's what all ticks do."

What's Looking at You, Kid?
by J. Patrick Lewis
illustrated by Renee Graef
Sleeping Bear Press, 2012
review copy provided by the publisher

For the younger set, J. Patrick Lewis takes us on a rhyming nature walk that invites us to look, look, look at the world around us.

"Skimming ponds

and country lanes,

whizzing wings

of windowpanes.

Look, a pair

of fairy planes."  

(with an illustration of dragonflies)

Poetry Friday -- National Dog Day

August 26 is National Dog Day. To honor the day, J. Patrick Lewis kindly sent this poem. And wasn't it serendipitous that just recently we met Brutus Winston Buckeye in Selby Park as we set out walking to the Worthington Farmer's Market?

How Big?

You were a kid, 

             I was your pup,

I got bigger

             As you grew up.

When you were four,

             I was just two.

I was already 

             As tall as you.

Now you are twelve,

             And I am ten.

I'm still as big 

             As you are, Ben. 

You are my owner,  

             But I am in charge.

You are my captain, 

             I am your barge.

You are a prince,

             But I am the king.

I am the boss

             Of everything. 

You’re the conductor,

             I am the train.

You’re a great kid, 

            And I’m a Great Dane!

J. Patrick Lewis, ©2011

Here's to our canine friends: to the slobber, the barks, the whines, the drifts of hair in the hallway...and to the the tails thumping the floor, the adoring looks, the readiness for play, the leaning on our leg.

Don't let today, National Dog Day, go by without patting a dog on the head, or rubbing a dog on the belly, or scratching a dog behind the ears. It'll lower your heart rate and it'll make the dog's day!

Irene has the Poetry Friday Round Up today at Live. Love. Explore!

Poetry Friday: Hurray for J. Patrick Lewis!!!

from HAPPINESS by Raymond Carver

(read the whole poem here)

Happiness. It comes on
unexpectedly. And goes beyond, really,
any early morning talk about it.

We're THRILLED that our very own J. Patrick Lewis has been selected as the third U.S. Children's Poet Laureate!! What an unexpected happiness! Here are some fireworks just for Pat!

Jama has the Poetry Friday roundup at alphabet soup. Go check out the STEAMIN' poem she's got today! ...And of course, stick around to check out all of the poetic offerings of the week!!

Favorite Series: Tugg and Teeny

Tugg and Teeny: Book One (I Am a Reader)
by J. Patrick Lewis
illustrated by Christopher Denise
Sleeping Bear Press, 2011
review copy provided by the publisher

Yes, it's probably cheating to love a series when there's only one book out so far. But I'm willing to stick my neck out for Tugg and Teeny.

There are three short stories in this book, and they are all art-themed. In the first story, Teeny wants to become a musician. Tugg didn't buy her expensive lessons, he made sure she discovered a stick with holes in it, encouraged her to blow in it to see what happened, and then waited patiently as "her squeaks turned into peeps, and the peeps turned into tweets and toodles." Tugg is just as patient when Teeny wants to become an artist (Violet the Warthog helps out with this venture), and when Teeny wants to be a poet.

Why I love this series:
1. Tugg and Teeny are a great pair of characters. Elephant and Piggie great. Frog and Toad great. Henry and Mudge great.
2. They call each other "Monkeyface" and "Tuggboat."
3. The illustrations.


This post is the first in a SERIES of Wednesday posts about new/recent books in some of my favorite series.

Why I love series books:
1. I fall in love with characters when I read, and with a series, I get to revisit them in book after book.
2. I appreciate the way an author can keep enough things the same and at the same time, change just enough in each successive book in a series to keep me reading.
3. Other people collect baseball cards or beanie babies. I read all the books in a series as a readerly way of collecting.

Poetry Friday -- Countdown

Countdown to Summer: A Poem for Every Day of the School Year

by J. Patrick Lewis

illustrated by Ethan Long

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 2009

review copy provided by the publisher

High Schools have had Poetry 180 ever since Billy Collins came up with the idea when he was Poet Laureate. Now elementary school has their own Poetry 180, brought to us by one of the most prolific poets in all of children's literature -- J. Patrick Lewis!

You've got about a month to get your copy so that you're ready to read a poem a day to your class. You'll begin on page one, on the poem numbered 180, and you'll count down, poem by poem, to summer.

Lewis has timed the placement of the poems in the countdown to roughly coincide with a traditional "after Labor Day" school start, and he includes an amazing variety of holiday poems: Eid ul-Fitr (a special thanks for this one from those of us who have Muslim students in our class whose families observe Ramadan), Columbus Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Christmas, New Year, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Groundhog Day, 100th Day of School, Chinese New Year, Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, April Fool's Day, Passover, Easter, and Mother's and Father's Days. There probably are more that I've missed!

Also amazing is the variety of poetic forms included in this book! I found at least one limerick, epitaph, quatrain, haiku, abecedarian, concrete, acrostic, riddle, couplets, haik-lues, ode, lullaby, tongue twister, rebus, and free verse. Again, there are likely more that I've missed!

The simple line drawings by Ethan Long sometimes help the punch line of the poem, sometimes provide a clue to understanding or solving the poem, and sometimes are a visual retelling of the poem.

I tabbed seven poems I really wanted to share with you today, but I guess that's about 5 or 6 too many. You'll have to check these out when you buy your copy: #174 "The Librarian" (an abecedarian), #87 "Martin Luther King, Jr. Day" (a beautiful acrostic), #76 "The Ninth Ward: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans" (heartbreaking and true), #59 "When is Its It's?" (maybe this poem will help my students learn proper use of its and it's...we can hope), #28 "Ars Libri: after Archibald MacLeish (everything books are and should be).

Here are two teacher/teaching poems since this is (I proclaim it so) the current quintessential volume of poetry for the elementary classroom. Apologies for the lost formatting on the first one...the middle lines should be centered between the first and last lines:

#163 I Was Your Teacher Once

I was your teacher once. You may remember me.

I am the chalk dust of memory.

I was the trusted ship you sailed.

You were the promise I unveiled.

I was the show. You were the tell.

I was your magic. You were my spell.

I was the ticket. You were the game.

I was the candle. You were the flame.

I was the curtain. You were the play.

I was the sculptor. You were the clay.

I was your teacher once. You may remember me.

Proposed Amendment to the Constitution

The President and Vice-President

of the United States shall be required

to take the Fourth Grade Standardized

Achievement Test so that

No President or Vice-President

shall be left behind.

Sylvia Vardell at Poetry For Children reviewed Countdown to Summer during Poetry Month in April and, coincidentally, she's got the round up this week!

Surprise!

Mom and I went out to eat here...

Right next to here...

Where I noticed this...

And lookie who I saw!

That's J. Patrick Lewis and his daughter, continuing the promo of their new book that started at Cover To Cover in Columbus, Ohio!

Poetry Saturday: J. Patrick Lewis and Kay Ryan

I had just about the best poetry day ever yesterday! It started at Cover to Cover bookstore with Tim Bowers and J.Patrick Lewis for the launch of their book, FIRST DOG. We heard the story of how talent and timing and luck resulted in the right book at the right...nay, the PERFECT time. FIRST DOG, written by Lewis and one of his daughters (talent), was originally about an all-American mutt who travels the world trying to find his ancestry. When Obama promised his daughters that they could have a dog when they moved to the White House, the manuscript just happened to be in the hands of Pat's editor (timing) when the publisher wished out loud that they had a dog book for this occasion. Tim Bowers, who also lives in central Ohio and who has been friends with Pat for a dozen or more years (Pat and Tim have often wished they could work together, but authors are not often allowed the luxury of picking their illustrator) and who has become somewhat well-known for his dog illustrations, was chosen as the illustrator. (luck, but also talent, and timing: "It's about TIME we got to work together!!") FIRST DOG takes the reader around the world as he looks for the right home. In the course of his travels, he meets dogs of the breeds that originated in various countries and wonders if he could live there with them. (Information about each breed is on the endpapers.) Ultimately, he finds his way back home to the U.S. and notices an article in a newspaper about the search for a dog for the White House. He trots on over to the back door of the White House, and is greeted by two children (seen only from the knees down to the spangly sparkly tennis shoes) who ask their dad if they can keep him. Can you guess what dad says? First Dog by J. Patrick Lewis and Beth Zappitello illustrated by Tim Bowers Sleeping Bear Press in stores April 15, 2009 First Dog bonus tracks: an original First Dog poem by J. Patrick Lewis here, and another by Rebecca Kai Dotlich here. Stay tuned for a YouTube video of Pat reading FIRST DOG to an audience of dogs! Edited to add: the video is up HERE! I had to leave Cover to Cover before the party ended, which was before even half of the autographing line had snake past the signing table. Lucky for me, the staff at CTC and Pat and Tim were understanding and accommodating, so my copy of FIRST DOG and my stack of not-yet-signed-by-Pat poetry books from my classroom collection were waiting for me later in the afternoon. Why the rush? Kay Ryan, Poet Laureate of the United States of America, was speaking at Columbus State Community College!! About the position of Poet Laureate, from the Library of Congress website:

"The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress serves as the nation's official lightning rod for the poetic impulse of Americans. During his or her term, the Poet Laureate seeks to raise the national consciousness to a greater appreciation of the reading and writing of poetry."

You might remember that I have a collection of four volumes signed by Poet Laureates -- Billy Collins (from before he was Laureate), Ted Kooser (who was signing at NCTE a few years ago), and two given to me by the best big brother in the world: Richard Eberhart (Laureate in the year of my birth), and Robert Frost (THE Robert Frost!!!). Kay Ryan, whose wit and rhyme and word play I adore, is my fifth Poet Laureate autograph. Ryan's talk was a poetry reading with commentary -- sometimes before the poem, sometimes after, sometimes during. She read each poem twice. She says (and I totally agree) the first reading of a poem is just to find out, "Do I want to read this poem?" The second reading is really the first reading. In her keynote, she gave us a few Key Notes: "You must write what you can at that time." Not very grand, she says, but meant to convey urgency and the acceptance of your work in the moment. (Good advice for living, as well as writing.) She also said that although her writing is very personal -- she writes because something is worrying her -- she is always aware that her writing must be accessible to the public as well. Here's my favorite poem by Kay Ryan, one I loved before she was named Poet Laureate: Turtle Who would be a turtle who could help it? A barely mobile hard roll, a four-oared helmet, She can ill afford the chances she must take In rowing toward the grasses that she eats. (the rest is here) You can hear Kay Ryan reading "Turtle" and commenting on her best rhyme ever ("a four-oared" and "afford") in this podcast with Billy Collins and Garrison Keillor. Ryan reads first, so if you only have time for a bit, you'll get to hear her. But if you listen to the whole thing, you'll get to hear her talk a bit more about her Key Note that the poet must attend to her/his reader.