Poetry in Unexpected Places

Tons of fun packed into one little book?

How can that be?

You’ll see.

THE ARROW FINDS ITS MARK: A Book of Found Poems, edited by Georgia Heard, illustrated by Antoine Guillope, Roaring Brook Press, 2012.

 A number of highly regarded poets were challenged to take text from a form other than poetry and turn it into a poem. Editor Heard gathered their creations into forty pages that will delight any age reader or maybe turn any reader into a poet or maybe turn everyone into a reader. Well, let’s just say this small volume could be transformative.

Janet Wong  found her contribution on a box of OxyClean. Lee Bennett Hopkins  developed his poem from selected words in a SPRINT newspaper ad. Robin Hood Black was in that wonderfully inspirational place many writers know well, her laundry room, when she found her poetic lines folded up in a LASERTAG results report. 

At some point in her household adventures, Robyn found time to interview Joyce Sidman who also participated in this challenge. Joyce found her poem in the 2010 Greenpeace calendar.

You’ll recognize the names of poets Jane Yolen, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, and David L. Harrison. Others may become your first writerly discovery of the new year.
 
Georgia Heard, who edited The Arrow Finds its Mark, is a writer and educational consultant.  She’s also a crusader, taking her message about writing  and using poetry with children around the world.

Sylvia Vardell is surely a sister crusader. Her blog, Poetry for Children, is a poetry resource that keeps on giving.   

Now, where have you spotted a poem in hiding?  Cereal boxes on the breakfast table?  Vanity license plates in a traffic jam?

Possibilities are endless!

April is for Poets

April is National Poetry Month and it’s also one of those spring months that announces its presence with bouts of severe weather even as it’s gracing the countryside with a delicate tracery of green. What better way to celebrate a month of poems than a book that celebrates storms in verse.

STORM COMING! by Audrey B. Baird and illustrated by Patrick O’Brien, Wordsong, Boyds Mills Press, 2001.

The book’s first verse is the title poem, written for two voices. When a storm is rumbling around your house, your children could recite this one bravely, greeting a storm they’re not scared of,

not really,

well,

maybe just a little.

Poems like “Firebolt” and “Cloudburst” are short and to the point, packing in plenty of energy for young readers and listeners. “Reflections” raises a question for discussion and has that just right feel to it when the thunder has stopped but the rain lingers.

Author Baird will be remembered by writers and illustrators of children’s poems and stories for editing and publishing ONCE UPON A TIME. Many saw their first by-line in this national magazine. Audrey has lowered the curtain on her quarterly creation, but not on her poetry. Her second book of poetry is A COLD SNAP: FROSTY POEMS, also illustrated by the talented Patrick O’Brien and published by Wordsong.

Although it’s hard to choose just one poem as a favorite from STORM COMING!, mine is “My Grandfather’s Toe.”

What’s yours?