Poetry Friday -- Rita Dove via NCTE

 

From the NCTE Inbox Newsletter, a poetry event that is free and open to the public:

Join NCTE and the Library of Congress for A Conversation with Rita Dove

Join NCTE and the Library of Congress on Wednesday, February 24, at 4:00 p.m. ET for a conversation with former US Poet Laureate Rita Dove and NCTE member Melissa Alter Smith. Dove will discuss her own approach to writing, share and discuss specific poems, and dedicate ample time for Q&A. This event is free and open to the public. Rita Dove won the Pulitzer Prize in 1987 for her third book of poetry, Thomas and Beulah, and was US Poet Laureate from 1993 to 1995. She received the National Humanities Medal from President Clinton and the National Medal of Arts from President Obama—the only poet ever to receive both. Her many honors include a 2017 NAACP Image Award (for Collected Poems: 1974–2004), the Heinz Award in the Arts and Humanities, and the Academy of American Poets’ Wallace Stevens Award. She is the Henry Hoyns Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Virginia. Her eleventh collection of poetry, Playlist for the Apocalypse, is forthcoming from W. W. Norton in the summer of 2021. Melissa Alter Smith is the creator of the #TeachLivingPoets hashtag and teachlivingpoets.com. She is a National Board Certified high school English teacher in Charlotte, NC. She is the 2017 District Teacher of the Year, an AP Reader, and an NCETA Executive Board member. Smith is also the coauthor, with Lindsay Illich, of Teach Living Poets. This text opens up the flourishing world of contemporary poetry to secondary teachers, giving advice on discovering new poets and reading contemporary poetry, as well as sharing sample lessons, writing prompts, and ways to become an engaged member of a professional learning community.

Poetry Friday -- An Opportunity to Learn

Photo credit: Karen Kuehn

Hooray for our new Poet Laureate, Joy Harjo, a registered member of the Mvskoke Creek Nation! She is our first Native American Poet Laureate, and now non-Native U.S. citizens have an excellent opportunity for learning.

At this past weekend's Building Cultural Competency symposium at the Highlights Foundation (my brief post about that here), one of the speakers we were most excited to hear was Dr. Debbie Reese, a registered member of the Nambe Pueblo Nation. And, no surprise, she's also very excited that we have a Mvskoke Poet Laureate!

Here's one of my big take-aways from Debbie's talk -- what we casually call "tribes" are actually Sovereign Native Nations, and we should name the nation to which a Native person belongs, rather than generically say Native American. There were thousands of these nations, each distinct in language, location, religion, story, systems of writing, and governance. (Note to self, when I am teaching my fifth graders about forms of government, I need to move beyond Democracy, Monarchy and Dictatorship and include Native governance.) Understanding that Native people belong to sovereign nations is important because the treaties of the past were made between heads of state. (Some references Debbie suggest we explore are Nation to Nation at the Smithsonian, the National Congress of American Indians, and the young people's version of An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States, which Debbie revised from Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz's adult version, along with Jean Mendoza, and which is set for publication at the end of July.)

One of my favorite poems by Harjo (so far...I'm just digging in...) is For Calling the Spirit Back from Wandering the Earth in Its Human Feet. It begins


Put down that bag of potato chips, that white bread, that bottle

of pop.

Turn off that cellphone, computer, and remote control.

Open the door, then close it behind you.

Take a breath offered by friendly winds. They travel the earth 

gathering essences of plants to clean.

Give it back with gratitude.

If you sing it will give your spirit lift to fly to the stars’ ears and 

back.

Acknowledge this earth who has cared for you since you were a 

dream planting itself precisely within your parents’ desire.

(read the rest here)

Here's some bonus music that celebrates Native culture and language. The first is an adaptation of the Beetles' "Blackbird" sung in Mi'kmaq, an Algonquian language spoken by the Mi'kmaq, the indigenous people of Nova Scotia. This was produced for the 2019 United Nations International Year of Indigenous Languages. Here's a CBC post about this production, and a WBUR radio spot featuring Emma Stevens.

"My Unama'ki," sung by the same 17 year-old high school student who sang the above version of "Blackbird," is a love song for the island of Cape Breton written by students and staff at Allison Bernard Memorial High School in Eskasoni, Cape Breton (Unama'ki), Nova Scotia, Canada.

Why stop there? Here are 11 Pop Songs in Indigenous Languages You Need to Listen To, mostly from Latin America, but also Australia and New Zealand. And here's a Peruvian teenager who is trying to save the Quechua language through music. Okay. Enough with the rabbit holes.


I'm sure (I HOPE) there will be lots of posts about our new Poet Laureate in the Poetry Friday roundup this week. I look forward to learning from and with you! Linda has this week's roundup at A Word Edgewise.

Poetry Friday -- New National Youth Poet Laureate!

Meet Amanda Gorman, the first National Youth Poet Laureate!

"The unprecedented title, to be awarded annually, honors a teen poet who demonstrates not only extraordinary literary talent but also a proven record of community engagement and youth leadership," writes Maggie Millner.

At the age of 14, Amanda was the Youth Poet Laureate of Los Angeles. Now 19, Amanda a freshman at Harvard, an advocate for the creative arts and writing in the lives of young girls across the globe, a published poet, an inspiration.

“For me, being able to stand on a stage as a spoken word poet, as someone who overcame a speech impediment, as the descendent of slaves who would have been prosecuted for reading and writing, I think it really symbolizes how, by pursuing a passion and never giving up, you can go as far as your wildest dreams,” said Gorman at the ceremony on Wednesday evening. “This represents such a significant moment because never in my opinion have the arts been more important than now.”

Here's a bit from her poem, At the Age of 18--Ode to Girls of Color:

At the age of 18 

I know my color is not warning, but a welcome. 

A girl of color is a lighthouse, an ultraviolet ray of power, potential, and promise 

My color does not mean caution, it means courage 

my dark does not mean danger, it means daring, 

my brown does not mean broken, it means bold backbone from working 

twice as hard to get half as far. 

Being a girl of color means I am key, path, and wonder all in one body.

Be sure you read the whole poem!

Here she is, performing Mirror, Mirror:



Read more about Amanda here and here and here and here.



Margaret has this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Reflections on the Teche.

Poetry Friday -- History

Flickr Creative Commons Photo by Found Animals Foundation

CRICKET, ON KITCHEN FLOOR, ENTERS HISTORY
by Robert Penn Warren

History, shaped like white hen,
Walked in at kitchen door.
Beak clicked once on stone floor.
Out door walked hen then;
But will, no doubt, come again.




I won't suggest any possible parallels to The News of the Day. I'll let you chuckle to yourself and wish for whole flocks of chickens to clean up the kitchen floor.

This gem comes from You, Emperors, and Others: Poems 1957-1960 by Robert Penn Warren, the newest addition to my collection of poetry books signed by U.S. Poets Laureate.

Heidi has today's Poetry Friday roundup at My Juicy Little Universe, along with a shiny diamond of a poem written by her second graders.

Poetry Friday -- Poets Laureate -- And a GIVEAWAY!

Flickr Creative Commons Photo from the Boston Public Library

WE'RE BUILDING THE SHIP
AS WE SAIL IT

The first fear
being drowning, the
ship's first shape
was a raft, which
was hard to unflatten
after that didn't
happen. It's awkward
to have to do one's
planning in extremis
in the early years--
so hard to hide later:
sleekening the hull,
making things
more gracious.

©Kay Ryan, 2010
in The Best of It: New and Selected Poems



(I think this is perhaps the story of my year...)


Kay Ryan is one of the three US Poets Laureate I've met in person (also Ted Kooser and Billy Collins). These are the "live" autographs in my collection of books signed by Poets Laureate. This week, my birthday package from my brother arrived, and three more autographs have been added to my collection: Daniel Hoffman (1973-74, totally new to me), W.S. Merwin (2010-11, a book of his short stories from SW France), and...

Kay Ryan's newest collection, The Best of It: New and Selected Poems, First Edition, hardback.

So here's where we get to the give-away. I already own Kay Ryan's new collection...in paperback. Since I have a signed (first edition) hardback, I think YOU should have the paperback edition! Sunday night, I'll randomly choose from the commenters and I'll send it to YOU!

Updated: Sunday, 9:17 PM. The random number generator at random.org picked #8, which is Violet Nesdoly! You are the winner of the Kay Ryan book!

Buffy has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week at Buffy's Blog.

Two dates are One date is left on Check out the roundup calendar for the next 6 months!! Now that the calendar is complete, I'll put the html code in the files on the Kidlitosphere Yahoo group and into the calendar there, and send the dates to the Kidlitosphere web page webmistress. Shoot me an email if you want me to send you the code for your blog's sidebar.

Poetry Friday -- Poets Laureate -- Our National Poets

Joseph Auslander

Joseph Auslander was the first US Poet Laureate. The position was then known as the "Poetry Chair" or the "Consultant in Poetry." He served from 1937-1941.

About the position, he says

Having been appointed to the task of building in our national Library for the People of the United States a permanent sanctuary for the manuscripts and memorabilia of the poets of our tongue, I take the liberty of inviting your cooperation. Such a room, dedicated to the best and noblest utterances of the best and noble minds, is intended not only as a storehouse of treasures to inspire and instruct the multitude that daily throng our doors; it is to serve as one more heartening sigh, in a confused and darkened world, of the power of the poets and dramatists, the glory of our ideals and aspirations.

Isn't that a little bit what Poetry Friday is? It's temporary, but it's a sanctuary. It's built collaboratively each week. It's dedicated to what strikes us as the "best and noblest utterances of the best and noblest minds." And it is definitely a "heartening sigh, in a confused and darkened world."

Happy Poetry Friday in a flag-waving, country-loving, Fourth of July fireworks sort of way!!

I got my inspiration this week by dipping into my new book



The Poets Laureate Anthology
edited and with introductions by Elizabeth Hun Schmidt
foreword by Billy Collins
W.H. Norton, 2011
review copy purchased by me

Here's a poem by Joseph Auslander:

TESTAMENT

To see a dream
Reduced to rust
Is a bitter theme,
Yet it leaves a gleam--
It must...
But to lose trust
In a simple thing
Like the golden dust
On a miller's wing
Or the smell of spring
In the air--
That I could never bear.



The roundup today is at a wrung sponge. The roundup for the next six months is here, and in our sidebar. Thank you everyone for volunteering to host!

Poetry Friday -- In Medias Res

FALL WIND

by William Stafford

Pods of summer crowd around the door;

I take them in the autumn of my hands.

Last night I heard the first cold wind outside;

the wind blew soft, and yet I shiver twice:

Once for thin walls, once for the sound of time.

You can go to the William Stafford Archives and see the drafts (in Stafford's handwriting) as this poem grew out of his daily writing. You can also hear him (I think it must be him) reading the poem. Wow.

Jama has the roundup today at Alphabet Soup, and there are still a few spots open on the Jan-June roundup host calendar. Comment there if you want to host a roundup in the first half of 2011. I'll share the html code of the calendar for your blog's sidebar once the calendar is filled.

And now, a little about the choice of this poem and the title of this post.

You might remember that I'm collecting autographs of Poet Laureates. So far, I have stood before Billy Collins, Ted Kooser and Kay Ryan as they signed my books and listened to me babble a bit about my love of their poetry.

My brother has had fun these last several years collecting autographs of long-gone Poet Laureates that have some meaning or connection to me. In 2008, he knocked my socks off with the gift of a book signed by Richard Eberhart, the Poet Laureate in the year of my birth, and a book signed by Robert Frost, who was the Poet Laureate before Eberhart (and who was oh-my-goodness ROBERT FROST!!!)  Last year he sent a signed book about poets and poetry by the very FIRST Poet Laureate, Joseph Auslander.

This year, he asked me to call when I opened my present so he could tell me why it was perfect. This year's book is TRAVELING THROUGH THE DARK by William Stafford, the 20th Poet Laureate. Here's why he picked this particular book/poet for this particular year:

Stafford was born in Hutchinson, Kansas (not too far from our childhood home…). One of the most striking features of his career is that he began publishing his poetry only later in life. His first major collection of poetry “Traveling Through the Dark” was published in 1962 (not too long after you were born…) when he was ALMOST 50 YEARS OLD! It won the National Book Award the following year in 1963. Despite his late start, he was a frequent contributor to magazines and anthologies and eventually published fifty-seven volumes of poetry. He kept a daily journal for 50 years, and composed nearly 22,000 poems, of which roughly 3,000 were published. (Thanks to Wikipedia for help with this info.)

So some parts of life can actually begin at 50! You have a pretty good chance that you still have at least half of your adult life left to do what you want with (like William Stafford did…)! May you have a healthy and happy second half … and beyond!! 

I found one more way this book is the perfect one for this year. The three parts of the book are "In Medias Res," "Before the Big Storm," and "Representing Far Places."  In medias res means "in the middle part." It's also a literary technique where the story begins at the middle, instead of the beginning. My life story is at its middle, and I feel like the good part is just beginning! Hooray for the middle place in life! Hooray for the times "Before the Big Storm!" Looking forward to traveling to all the "Far Places" that come my way!

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.

Poetry Wednesday: Feeling Bubbly

I have the best brother in the whole world.

My Christmas/birthday gift this year was two inscribed books of poetry. Two inscribed books of poetry by former U.S. Poet Laureates to add to my "collection" (Billy Collins and Ted Kooser).

One of the two is THE QUARRY, by Richard Eberhart, who was Poet Laureate in the year of my birth.

The other is IN THE CLEARING, by Robert Frost. (Robert Frost!!)

This gift literally took my breath away. Still does.

Here is a quote by Richard Eberhart:

"Poetry is a maneuvering of ideas, a spectacular pleasure, achievement and mastery of intractable material, not less than an attempt to move the world, to order the chaos of man, insofar as one is able. Love, harmony, order; poise, precision, new worlds."

Here is a poem by Frost:

In a Glass of Cider

It seemed that I was a mite of sediment
That waited for the bottom to ferment
So I could catch a bubble in ascent.
I rode up on one till the bubble burst
And when that left me to sink back reversed
I was no worse off than I was at first.
I'd catch another bubble if I waited.
The thing was to get now and then elated.


Thank you, brother of mine, for the gift of poetry, and for a moment of elation!