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Poetry Friday: Facing Loss

Happy New Year to all of my Poetry Friday friends.

There were many things to celebrate in 2020. For me, having our two 20-something kids living with us full time was the highlight of the year.

But we all experienced losses. Loss of jobs and income. Loss of food security. Loss of plans for travel, trips to museums. Loss of time with friends, family. (I haven’t seen my parents in over a year).

As the year changes, we will continue to grieve for loved ones we lost. Grief is a complicated emotion. More so when we are unable to walk together through the rituals, ceremonies, and comforts that usually accompany our sadness.

If you are grieving, let’s sit with that for a moment, together, with this beautiful poem by Langston Hughes.

Poem

by Langston Hughes

I loved my friend.

He went away from me.

There’s nothing more to say.

The poem ends,

Soft as it began—

I loved my friend.

Thank you for all of your kind words about Rudy. If you would like to know more of his story, I am writing about how we adopted him as a serial of short chapters. You can find it on Instagram or Facebook.

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Poetry Friday: Rudy

Buffy Silverman is preparing a platter of poetry delicacies for us today. Find all of the Poetry Friday links at her blog.

Happy Hanukkah, Poetry Friday friends.

Our family’s celebration is bittersweet this year. Although 2020 had its joyful moments, we also experienced several transformative losses during the pandemic.

Last week, we had to say goodbye to one of our dogs after an unexpected medical emergency.

Many of you knew our beagle, Rudy, through my Poetry Friday and Facebook posts about his adventures with Sam, our Schnauzer. (My poem “Yoga Dog” about Rudy was my most recent PF post.)

Rudy came to us as a very unhealthy senior in 2015. He got well, lost 20 pounds — 1/3 of his starting body weight! — and became inseparable from Sammy.

Last January, when Rudy suffered from an eye injury, I wrote a series of Facebook/Instagram posts about his treatment and recovery. I was surprised by how many people connected with our dog and cheered him on! It was as if dozens of people had raised their hands to be Rudy’s honorary aunties and uncles.

Although we are all heartbroken, the Festival of Lights is the perfect time to acknowledge how much light and joy this silly, stubborn dog with his outsized personality brought to our family.

I wrote a double Fibonacci poem about Rudy for my Reading Rockets post about the intersection between kids, literacy, and pets. This poem didn’t make it into the post (which you can read here), so I share it here today.

Rudy’s Fib

By Laura Shovan

Hi!

I

have not

eaten lunch.

See how patiently

I sit by my empty bowl?

My dish still has crumbs?

They’re not mine,

promise.

Slurp!

Sigh.

clone tag: -7007307561917534005

Many thanks to Poetry Friday Margaret Simon, who posted a photo of me and Rudy in her “This Photo wants to Be a Poem” series. You’ll find that at Margaret’s blog, Reflections on the Teche.

I plan to write up the hilarious, truly outlandish story of how Rudy came to be part of our family. If you follow me on Facebook or Instagram, look for Chapter 1 soon.

If you have a dog, especially a larger breed or one with a deep chest, please learn the signs of GDV,  commonly known as bloat.

 

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Poetry Friday Is Going to the Dogs

Robyn Hood Black is hosting Poetry Friday today. Visit her blog, Life on the Deckle Edge, for this week’s poetry links.

Hey, poets and readers. Quick post this week.

I am working on a guest article for the website Reading Rockets. It’s going to be all about books … and dogs.

Of course, I have to include a few dog poems.

During the pandemic, Sam (the Schnauzer) and Rudy (the Beagle) have been joining me on the yoga mat.

Rudy is an especially enthusiastic yogi. Beagles are very comfortable with savasana and ujjayi breathing.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yoga Dog

By Laura Shovan

Your mat rolls out

like a big pink tongue.

I wag and strrretch.

Come on! Come on!

It’s yoga time.

Let’s greet the sun.

Human and dog,

we breathe as one.

Want more yoga poems for kids? Check out Janet Wong’s TWIST: YOGA POEMS. Available on Bookshop.Org.

Is it dog poems you need? My favorite is STELLA, UNLEASHED: NOTES FROM THE DOGHOUSE, by Linda Ashman. This book is out of print, but you can find it at online retailers.

I am creating a list of middle grade books where the protagonist has a best furry friend, especially of the dog variety. Got a recommendation? Leave it in the comments.

My best furry friend.

Sam says, “See you next time!”

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Poetry Friday: Electing a President

Linda Baie is hosting Poetry Friday this week. Visit her blog Teacher Dance for poetry-related links from around the kidlitosphere.

Hi, poets and poetry lovers!

We have two big events coming up in the next few days. Tomorrow is Halloween. (Check out this Baltimore Sun article about how Halloween was celebrated during the 1918 flu pandemic.)

And, of course, Tuesday is Election Day. After the 2016 presidential election, I signed up for election judge training. It’s fascinating to see what goes on behind the scenes at a local polling place. Elections are a true community effort.

Since we’re electing our country’s new president this year, let’s get into some presidential reading for kids. I’ve got a historical fiction book series to recommend, and some poetry to pair it with.

Deborah Kalb is the author of an early middle grade series, THE PRESIDENT AND ME from Schiffer Kids. The first two book are George Washington and the Magic Hat (Deborah and I talked about this book in 2016) and John Adams and the Magic Bobblehead.

The third book in this time travel series is just out, Thomas Jefferson and the Return of the Magic Hat.

Here is the official book description:

After almost six months in Maryland, fifth-grader Oliver still misses his friends back in New Jersey. But things start to change one day, when his neighbor—and possible new friend—Sam lends Oliver a magic hat that takes him back to the 18th- and 19th-century world of Thomas Jefferson. Oliver and his sisters—Cassie, the nice one, and Ruby, the annoying one—end up learning more about Jefferson than they’d expected. And Oliver finds that his new neighborhood might not be so terrible after all. Thomas Jefferson and the Return of the Magic Hat is the third in The President and Me series that began with George Washington and the Magic Hat and John Adams and the Magic Bobblehead. This new adventure brings back previous characters Sam, Ava, J.P. (blink and you might miss them, though!), and of course the cantankerous talking hat itself.

Buy it on Bookshop.Org and your purchase will help support independent bookstores!

And Deborah adds:

The books combine time travel, history, and present-day issues. In this new book, fifth grader Oliver, the new kid in town, borrows his friend Sam’s magic hat and goes back to the 18th and 19th centuries, where he encounters Thomas Jefferson at various points in his career, including writing the Declaration of Independence, fleeing from the British during the Revolutionary War, and serving as the country’s third president. Another main character is Madison Hemings, the son of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings. Alexander Hamilton also makes a cameo appearance, as do characters from the first two books in the series.

Deborah and I chatted about poems to pair with her books about a modern day kid who travels back in time and meets our country’s early leaders. Here are some of the things we came up with:

Did you know Thomas Jefferson wrote poetry?

The Library of Congress has a Presidential Poetry series of posts on the LOC website. Here, you can read Jefferson’s poem “To Ellen” — and see a draft in our third president’s own handwriting.
Kenn Nesbitt’s President’s Day Poems

It’s Election Day, not President’s Day, but poet Kenn Nesbitt has “Six Great Ideas” for writing your own poems about U.S. presidents.
“The Renaissance Man”

The website ClassroomPoems.Com has a page dedicated to writing about Thomas Jefferson. It includes the poem “The Renaissance Man” by Denise Rodgers and Jefferson facts that kids can use to compose their own Jeffersonian verse.

The Renaissance Man

(A Thomas Jefferson Poem)

History and botany,

languages, theology,

chemistry and politics,

anatomy, zoology,

the orators and law.

He read so much and often

that it almost was a flaw.

His interests were so wide and strong,

played violin three hours long

and still had time to pluck his garden weeds.

Collected some six thousand books,

would read them, and take second looks.

Thom Jefferson had many varied needs.

Read the rest of Denise Rodgers’ poem here.

Marilyn Singer’s RUTHERFORD B, WHO WAS HE: Poems about Our Presidents.

The second poem in this funny, smart book is a debate between presidents 2 and 3, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, who went from friends to political enemies, back to friends across their lifetimes.

One last thing, everyone. Be sure to VOTE!

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Poetry Friday: Celebrating Hop to It!

Janice Scully is hosting the Poetry Friday round-up at Salt City Verse today!

Happy book birthday to HOP TO IT: POEMS TO GET YOU MOVING, by the creators of the Poetry Friday anthology series, Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong!

There are 90 children’s poets with work in this collection. I’m excited to be one of them. You can read the full list of contributors here. (High five to the Poetry Friday regulars in the group.)

My poem (p. 23) in HOP TO IT has an interesting back story, and it goes like this…

Back in January, my friend Michael Rothenberg was drawing and sharing abstract illustrations. One day, he posted what looked to me like a monster! I decided to write a monster poem to go with it. I shared that poem and Michael’s illustration at this post.

Michael and I had so much fun with our collaboration, that we went on to do sixteen monster and poem pairings.

One of Michael’s monsters looks like this:

Art by Michael Rothenberg

I saw this monster, with its spiky, blocky head, and what came to mind was the “crown-like spikes” (according to CDC.gov) on the surface of the coronavirus.

Micro Monster

By Laura Shovan

It flies through the air

with the greatest of ease

on a jet stream of goo

when your friend has to sneeze.

This monster is small,

miniscule, microscopic.

Its devious plans

are quite misanthropic.

From the spikes of its crown

to the plugs on its fingers,

it sticks to the air

where it hovers and lingers.

It flies up your nose.

It is stealthy and quick.

Now you have the virus.

Now you’re feeling sick.

Invisible foes

are not easy to conquer,

but it helps when you sneeze,

if you cover your honker.

***

What a joy to have this poem shared in Sylvia and Janet’s new book. Here is what it looks like on the page:

I had to laugh when I told Michael that his illustration inspired my poem, which inspired the dancing monster cartoon on this page, which inspired…

Many of the poems in HOP TO IT have some kind of movement or activity to go with them. If you do not wish to sing “Micro Monster” as suggested, I have another option.

Make your own Micro Monster finger puppet/bookmark. (This one was made for me by my friend, children’s author Casey Lyall.) You can fly this easy-to-craft Monster through the air while you read the poem out loud! Instructions to make your own Micro Monster are here.

“It flies through the air/ with the greatest of ease.”

Micro Monster has great taste in books!

 

It took 5 minutes to make a Micro Monster with paper, index cards, scissors, glue stick, Sharpie.

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Poetry Friday: Virgil Suarez

Every week, poets, authors, educators, and librarians post a poem, poetry book review, or other poetic gem. Today, Bridget Magee is gathering all of the Poetry Friday links at her blog, Wee Words for Wee Ones. Join us!

Welcome, Poetry Friday friends.

My friend Michael Rothenberg introduced me to a new-to-me poet, Virgil Suarez.  Michael is a poet, founder of 100 Thousand Poets for Change, and art-collaborator with me on the monster poems I’ve shared in the past.

I visited Michael in Tallahassee, Florida in January — a few short weeks before the lockdown began. He recommended I read The Painted Bunting’s Last Molt, Suarez’s 2020 book.

Suarez’s roots are in Cuba, so many of the poems in this book deal with Cuba as a setting, culture, and home of the heart. The pain and dangers of migration and immigration are among the most powerful themes in the collection.

Flags and tags and bookmarks for poems that resonated with me.

Because I am working on a verse novel set on a body of water (the Chesapeake Bay), Suarez’s poems resonated with me. Today — with his permission — I’m sharing Virgil Suarez’s poem “When Leaving the Country of Your Birth.” The profound sense of loss in this poem is expressed through a series of questions, connecting the “you” to the land left behind.

The poem connected deeply for me as I think about the main character in my WIP, especially the section that begins, “Who will remember you, child?”

 

 

When Leaving the Country of Your Birth

By Virgil Suarez

Will the wind remember your body, its weight

slanted against a white wall?

Will the river flood the valleys, carve a new path

into the roots of mountains?

Will palm trees bend and birth coconuts,

these yellow beacons in the blinding light?

Will buildings crumble into rubble and dust,

ruins of memory’s instant flash?

Will your aunt’s parrot still hang by the doorway

that leads to the patio, calling out, “Mariposa!”

Will the sea rush El Malecón in dangerous weather?

Will your old house stand in the shadows

of all the plantains your father planted?

Will the baobab at the corner grow wider, it’s elephant

skin roots sunk deep into the earth?

Who will remember you, child? Who will sigh

your name?

Who will greet you there in the old neighborhood

upon your return?

Who will say that you are now a “mariposa,” not

a “gusano“?

Who will trace the bread crumbs this far out?

Posted with permission of the author — 

from The Painted Bunting’s Last Molt, by Virgil Suarez.

This book is available from University of Pittsburgh press.

I used “When Leaving the Country of Your Birth” as a mentor text for a new poem in the voice of my WIP character.

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Poetry Friday: Oops-topus

Tabatha Yeatts is hosting the round up of poetry links and posts today at The Opposite of Indifference. Thanks, Tab!

It’s October, Poetry Friday friends.

Poet Irene Latham is on my mind this week. I hosted a stop on her THIS POEM IS A NEST blog tour, and even tried writing a nestling. You can read that post here.

It’s October first as I write this, and Irene + Octo = her wonderful book, Love, Agnes: Postcards from an Octopus.

I’ve been using a bullet journal (AKA bujo) for several years. I was feeling arty this morning and decided to fire up my watercolor markers and colored pencils to make an October page…  an Octo(ber)pus page. (Thanks for the inspiration, Irene.)

However, I ran into some technical difficulties with my purple cephalopod. And the resulting Oops-topus doodle led me to a poem.

It’s a nonet. For reasons which shall become obvious.

Oops

By Laura Shovan

Dear Octopus, I drew you before

that first jolt of tea woke my brain.

It’s a challenge, keeping track

of all those wandering

tentacles! So, I

miscounted legs.

Forgive me,

Nono-

pus.

I started writing this poem on my morning walk, speaking the first line and a few other phrases into my phone. When I got home, I sat down and started to draft. My drafting page looks like this:

October is off to a silly start for me. I wonder what other Oops-topuses are hiding themselves where we least expect them.

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This Poem Is a Nest Blog Tour

Check out all of the posts and reviews on the This Poem Is a Nest blog tour!

Happy book birthday to Irene Latham!

Yesterday was the release date for poet and children’s author (and my dear friend) Irene’s latest collection, This Poem Is a Nest. This book of poems has an exciting concept to wrap your brain around!

“We poets spend much of our time nest-building,” Irene explains in the book’s introduction. “We gather words, ideas and dreams, and then we set about weaving, arranging, and structuring.”

This Poem Is a Nest opens with a four part/four season poem called “Nest.” Irene uses this poem as a sort of word well from which she draws 161 unique poems on a wide variety of themes including colors, animals, and emotions. She calls these subsequent poems, “nestlings.”

I love the idea that Irene set herself a poetic challenge with this book: “to find as many different kinds of nestlings as possible.” The term is perfect! The smaller poems are like baby birds. They were borne out of and fed from the larger nest, but have taken on lives of their own as stand-alone poems.

After you read let the poems settle, come back and explore them again, through the joy of re-reading or by trying your hand at Irene’s “nest” and “nestling” writing method.

Since Irene closes the book with an invitation to play along, I thought I’d try a nestling of my own.

Find a wonderful interview with This Poem Is a Nest illustrator Johanna Wright at Irene’s blog. Scroll to the bottom to watch a cool video of Johanna’s art process!

Step 1: I started with the Autumn section of Irene’s source poem, “Nest.”

Autumn

from “Nest” in This Poem Is a Nest

by Irene Latham

Won’t you breathe, reach? Grab hold and climb these branches like a ladder—

up and up—where the crispcool world turns both smaller and bigger.

From here shipwrecked nest shows moorings; settles into hull, deck, mast.

Distant woodsmoke seasons air as dizzy leaves flood forest floor.

Three deer take the stage below, sniff, then swerve in sudden ballet.

When a box turtle splashes into a sunpuddle, clouds still.

Time now to imagine another life: wings and wordless flight;

the whisperweight of faith tucked beneath an acorn’s jaunty hat;

near-naked oak hums with ancient memory as you drop down.

 

Step 2: I made a list of every word in this poem and used the “Sort” function to put the words in alphabetical order. This helped me to see some possibilities for alliteration.

Step 3: First try! My first attempt at an autumn nestling had some cool sounds but wasn’t quite working right.

Autumn

An acorn’s

air ballet

branches breathe, crispcool

clouds climb, drop down

Here: hat

Imagine into

Nest now

Of oak seasons

Sudden sunpuddle

Then tucked

Where? Wordless world

Step 4: Try again. What would happen if I went from the bottom of the alphabet to the top, and chose words in order from “you” to “a” instead of going from A to Z?

Autumn

Wordless world

with wings up.

Turtle tucked still.

Memory moorings –

leaves ladder jauntily

into forest.

Dizzy clouds climb.

Branches breathe

ancient air.

Step 5: Celebrate! This was so much fun.

This Poem Is a Nest is highly recommended for the joy of reading Irene’s playful poems, but also as a mentor text and prompt to try explorative writing.

Want to read more posts about This Poem Is a Nest? Here are the other stops on the book’s blog tour.

Friday 9/25

A Word Edgewise/Linda Mitchell

Monday 9/28
Reflections on the Teche/Margaret Simon

Tuesday 9/29
Live Your Poem/Irene Latham

Friday 10/2
Poetry for Children/Sylvia Vardell

Saturday 10/3
Smack Dab in the Middle

Monday 10/5
TeacherDance

Friday 10/9
More Art 4 All/Michelle Kogan

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Poetry Friday: Guest Posting at Ethical ELA

Hi, Poetry Friday friends. Jone Rush MacCulloch is hosting us this week at her new blog! Please click through to find poetry posts from around the kidlitosphere.

I am guest posting at Ethical ELA this week with a food poetry prompt. Thanks to Sarah Donovan and to all of the educators — including a few Poetry Friday regulars — who tried “Tasting a Memory” with me.

The model poem I shared at Ethical ELA is from my new middle grade novel, A Place at the Table, co-written with Saadia Faruqi. It’s about mushy peas, a street food popular to Nottingham, England that I get totally nostalgic about.

Mushy peas served with mint sauce. YUM. Read more about this Nottingham delicacy here.

To read the post and share your own food memory poem, please visit Ethical ELA.

 

 

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Poetry Friday: Apples and Honey

Matt Forrest Esenwine is hosting this week’s Poetry Friday round up. Stop by Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme for links to poetry posts from around the kidlitosphere.

Happy Poetry Friday and Shana Tovah! This evening marks the start of Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year.

The greeting “Shana Tovah” means “good year.” If you’re curious, you can read more about this phrase and the significance of Rosh Hashanah in Jewish culture in this article.

It wouldn’t be a festival without special foods. Apples and honey (and apples dipped in honey, my favorite) are traditional, because they set our intention for a sweet year ahead.

Last week, I baked and froze a round challah for tonight’s Shabbat dinner. This is a special shape for the Rosh Hashanah holiday, symbolizing goodness without end. It was my first time braiding a round loaf!

This week, I took a webinar and learned how to make a lemony honey cake. I hope there’s some left for dessert tonight. If not, I won’t complain about having apple slices and honey.

With so much unknown about the year ahead during the pandemic, Marge Piercy’s Rosh Hashanah poem struck a chord for me. I love the reminder “putting by of what will sustain them” — which might be vegetables brought in from the garden, then canned or frozen. But it might also mean making time to bake, read, do yoga, knit — things that sustain our hearts.

Whether or not you are celebrating the New Year today, I hope you enjoy the poem.

The late year


BY MARGE PIERCY




I like Rosh Hashonah late,

when the leaves are half burnt

umber and scarlet, when sunset

marks the horizon with slow fire

and the black silhouettes

of migrating birds perch

on the wires davening.I like Rosh Hashonah late

when all living are counting

their days toward death

or sleep or the putting by

of what will sustain them—

when the cold whose tendrils

translucent as a jellyfish

and with a hidden sting

just brush our faces

at twilight. The threat

of frost, a premonition

a warning, a whisper

whose words we cannot

yet decipher but will.

Read the rest at the Poetry Foundation.

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