Poetry Friday: Surprise!

Back in May, I learned that one of my poems on YDP (Your Daily Poem) made the cut for 100 chosen as "the best of YDP!"

The collection is titled POEMS TO LIFT YOU UP AND MAKE YOU SMILE. It's not up on Amazon yet, but can be found at Parson's Porch & Company. Here's that poem, which I wrote back in 2021. It kind of describes my day yesterday!

photo via Unsplash

CHANT OF THE COMPUTER-WEARY
update
download
Internet
code
password
fire wire
USB
load
keyboard
network
charger cord
mouse
sunshine
fresh air
out of the
house
© Mary Lee Hahn

Molly has this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Nix the Comfort Zone.

You can also find this post at A(nother) Year of Reading. 

Slice of Life: Home

You can read my post here. Just so you know, pretty soon all of our new content will be over at A(nother) Year of Reading. But no worries. All of the archives will remain here.

Poetry Friday -- There's a Village for Sale in Scotland

NOTE: Thank you for your patience as we figure out the transition to WordPress. We will crosspost on A Year of Reading and A(nother) Year of Reading for a bit, but eventually, all current thinking will be at A(nother) Year of Reading. A Year of Reading will remain as a reference when we make the complete transition. In case you missed it, here's why.

There’s a Village for Sale in Scotland

There’s a village for sale in Scotland.
Only $173,000 and that includes mossy ruins
and a beach on the loch.

In Scotland, thunderclouds won’t stall overhead
dumping inches of rain at a time, flooding the yard.

In Scotland, the yard waste is always picked up on time
and the neighbors don’t build smoky fires with wet wood.

In Scotland, Democracy is not failing,
racism is not systemic, and police are always helpful.

Though there’s a village for sale in Scotland
I’m not buying it.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021

Laura Shovan takes us to the Black Lagoon for this week's Poetry Friday Roundup.

#PoemPairs

 

The Leaf Detective: How Margaret Lowman Uncovered Secrets in the Rainforest

by Heather Lang

illustrated by Jana Christy

Boyds Mills & Kane/Calkins Creek, 2021

review copy provided by the publisher (thanks!)

FIRST THE PICTURE BOOK

The Leaf Detective is a picture book biography written in verse, lushly illustrated, and sprinkled throughout with quotes from Margaret Lowman and rainforest facts. Following the author's note (she's actually met and learned alongside Margaret Lowman in the Amazon rainforest in Peru), readers can learn more about the rainforest from a flip-the-book-vertically double-spread diagram of the levels of the rainforest, and explore further resources listed in the back matter. 

Lowman is a pioneer in the study of rainforests, and especially rainforest canopies. Not only did she invent new ways of studying the canopy by climbing into the tops of trees, but she broke through all kinds of challenges and barriers as a woman in the area of field biology in science. 

AND NOW THE POEMPAIR (replace he/his with she/her)

It Couldn't Be Done

by Edgar Guest 

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done,
  But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
  Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
  On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
  That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
  At least no one ever has done it”;
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
  And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
  Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
  That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
  There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
  The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
  Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing
  That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

(this poem is in the public domain)

Inclusion and representation in science continue to be issues for women, and especially women of color. A video to share with students features Adania Flemming, a Black marine biologist/ichthyologist. Like Margaret Lowman, who has made education about women in science and about the rainforest important parts of all she does, Adania Flemming dreams of starting a research aquarium/museum in her home country of Trinidad and Tobago. 

NOTE: Thank you for your patience as we figure out the transition to WordPress. We will crosspost on A Year of Reading and A(nother) Year of Reading for a bit, but eventually, all current thinking will be at A(nother) Year of Reading. A Year of Reading will remain as a reference when we make the complete transition.

ATTENTION BLOG SUBSCRIBERS!

image via Unsplash

You will no longer be receiving email notifications for this blog because Blogger email subscriptions were handled by FeedBurner, which is going away TOMORROW.

Never fear, we've got a plan! Since we are both in "reinventing our identities" mode, we decided to start A(nother) Year of Reading over at WordPress. 

Our new site/blog is live, and we welcome you to subscribe there and come along with us on this new phase of the journey. Just be forewarned, we've been Google/Blogger users for DECADES, so things will be a little clunky at the new site while we get accustomed to WordPress. 

Slice of Life: #TeachersWrite

Thank you Two Writing Teachers for saving me a spot
in this amazing community of writers. It's been awhile...

Thank you also to Kate Messner for the annual #TeachersWrite...event? ...challenge? ...encouragement.

The topic for this first week is Reflect. 

"...think about a time when you were growing up and you felt peaceful and whole."

It's wiltingly hot today in Ohio. Hot like nothing I experienced growing up in arid Eastern Colorado. As a teen, I sat in the glaring heat on a lifeguard stand above a blue-as-the-sky swimming pool. For 45 minutes at a time, I scanned swimmers, counted heads, and shouted the occasional, "DON'T RUN!" I was in a zone. It was some kind of chlorine- and Coppertone-scented Zen. It was my identity. I knew exactly who I was and how to do the work (if you can call it that).

In today's muggy haze, I entered a different kind of Zen in the garden. It was a dirt- and green-scented Zen as I dug the invasive spiderwort out of the spot between the Japanese iris (long done blooming) and the day lilies (just putting up buds). Luckily, I was mostly in the shade, and also luckily, the mosquitoes weren't attacking. Gardening is one part of my grownup identity, and I'm as glad for the air conditioning and the shower as I was back then for a quick dip in the pool during rest period.

 

Poetry Friday -- Zentangle Poetry

 Three tries, three very different poems.

life was art

no order

perplexing harmonies

I was left feeling dizzy

the thing was

I had imagined something

not 

as 

unpredictable

and bumpy

the poetry is timeless

who questions this?

no one

How much is "enough time?"

We hope for enough time, knowing there is never enough time.

Except, maybe, in poems -- in writing them and reading them, 

far inside them where we lose account of minutes. 

Except, maybe, in photographs, 

where time sleeps but doesn't close its eyes.

Back in 2012, I subscribed for a year to the Poetry Foundation's poetry journal. I never read more than a poem or two here or there, but I also couldn't find it in me to send them to recycling. Now I've found the perfect use for them. I'm using Poetry to make poetry and art!

Thank you, Poetry Sisters, for this week's challenge. It was fun! 

And thanks to all who signed up to host Poetry Friday July-December. The schedule is filled!

Linda has today's Poetry Friday Roundup at A Word Edgewise. It's her annual "clunker" exchange!

Poetry Friday -- Juneteenth

 

image via Unsplash

Now That Juneteenth is a National Holiday

We pause
in honor of Liberty, Hope,
and Resiliency.

We pause
with clear-eyed acknowledgement of slavery's role
in building the economic foundation of our country

We pause
to consider a better way forward
for our not always glorious national history

We must not
co-opt this celebration with white commercialism

We must not
let this celebration undermine the right to protest

We must not
allow this celebration to eliminate the ongoing work of justice

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021 (draft)

As I read through different versions of the news of President Biden's declaration of Juneteenth as a national holiday, I jotted words and phrases that became this poem. This is Juneteenth through the lens of a white American who was ignorant about Juneteenth until embarrassingly recently because of gaps in my formal and informal education. I am excited to share the joy of Juneteenth, but I understand that in many ways, the deep significance of Juneteenth is not mine to claim. 

For words that weren't mine to write about liberty, hope, resiliency, and our not always glorious national history, read (or better yet, listen to) "When Fannie Lou Hamer Said" by Mahogany L. Brown.

And here are some children's authors, illustrators, and creators telling what Juneteenth means to them.

Buffy has a delight-full nature poem and this week's Poetry Friday at her blog Buffy Silverman.

And there are just six five more slots left on the Poetry Friday roundup schedule. Claim one here!

#PoemPairs

 

Birds: Explore their Extraordinary World

by Miranda Krestovnikoff 

illustrated by Angela Harding

Bloomsbury, 2020

review copy provided by the publisher (thanks!)

FIRST THE PICTURE BOOK

This is a gorgeous oversized nonfiction picture book. Illustrated with fine art linocuts, the information is grouped by types of birds, by notable characteristics (feathers, beaks and eyes), then by nests, migration, songs, and extremes (cold and urban living). Within each category there are big subcategories, and then each subcategory has short example sections. For example, in the category SEABIRDS are the two subcategories Seabirds of warmer waters and Seabirds of colder waters. In Seabirds of colder waters the reader learns about Gulls, Great black-backed gulls, Kittiwakes, and Gannets. This is a great book for browsing. You'll definitely be drawn in by the illustrations and then you'll find yourself perusing the bite-sized text chunks. The only thing that would make it better would be an index.

AND NOW THE POEMPAIR

Is it cheating to pair an entire book of poems? Bright Wings: An Illustrated Anthology of Poems About Birds, edited by Billy Collins and illustrated by David Allen Sibley is the most obvious pairing. Lots of fun poems plus gorgeous illustrations. 

If it's cheating to pair a whole book, I'll choose the poem Bird-Understander by Craig Arnold. This poem about someone who notices a bird trapped in the terminal of the airport; someone who notices the wrong in the world and who is desperate to help, to right the wrong. Birding requires close observation. There's much to learn about the natural history of birds if you bother to look closely, but just like in life, the closer you look, the more you are likely to see all kinds of problems that need work.

One of the problems connected to birding is racism. If you want to dig in more deeply, here is the story of Christian Cooper and a link to the (free) comic he wrote about what happened to him in Central Park when he was birding last spring.

A video to share with students features Corina Newsome, who broke stereotypes associated with becoming an environmentalist. She is a woman of color who grew up in an urban environment but became a zookeeper who has worked with turkey vultures as an Ambassador Animal Keeper at the Nashville Zoo.

Texts for this Text Set have been posted daily on Instagram. 

Follow @TextSets there to get daily updates!  

Summer is a great time to catch up on reading new books. I always use this time to think about which new books might be must-haves for the classroom. This week I'm sharing some new middle grade novels that might make good read alouds, great choices for book clubs and great additions to classroom libraries. These are some of my favorite new middle grade must-reads!

Starfish by Lisa Fipps

Quintessence by Jess Redman

When You Trap a Tiger by Tae Keller

The Sea in Winter by Christine Day

What Lane? by Torrey Maldonado

Efrén Divided by Ernessto Cisneros

Flight of the Puffin by Ann Braden

A High Five for Glenn Burke by Phil Binder

The Land of the Cranes by Aida Salazar

Before the Ever After by Jacqueline Woodson

The List of Things that Will Not Change by Rebecca Stead

This week's books were linked at Cover to Cover Children's Bookstore. If you are looking for a fabulous independent children's bookstore to support, this is an amazing one. We are lucky to have them in Central Ohio!

Happy Reading!

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(@TextSets will be on vacation for the rest of June. Be back after the July 4 holiday!)