Poetry Friday Is Here Today!

In preparation for National Poetry Month (only 18 days away!), I am immersed in all kinds of poetry and loving it. Right now I'm reading poetry about poetry. Here's one of my new favorites.

The Poet's Occasional Alternative
by Grace Paley

I was going to write a poem
I made a pie instead      it took
about the same amount of time
of course the pie was a final
draft     a poem would have had some
distance to go     days and weeks and
much crumpled paper

the pie already had a talking
tumbling audience among small
trucks and a fire engine on
the kitchen floor

Read the entire poem. (Unfortunately, the formatting is lost at this site, but you'll still find the beauty.)

As this week's hostess, I'm pleased to offer up links to the following gems. Enjoy this fantastic Friday feast of poetry.

Contests and Announcements
Kelly Polark has a contest! Enter to win a copy of Douglas Florian's new book, Dinothesaurus: Prehistoric Poems and Paintings!

Greg K. at GottaBook is setting you up for 18 days of longing with a big tease about his national poetry month project.

Books, Reviews and Projects
Sylvia Vardell at Poetry for Children has a list of books on magic and luck for Friday the 13th.

Sally Murphy at Versing introduces her new blog dedicated to novels in verse.

Amanda at A Patchwork of Books reviews the book Food Hates You Too by Robert Weinstock.

Sara Lewis Holmes at Read*Write*Believe shares her thoughts on The Free Verse Project at Poets.org.

Anastasia Suen at Picture Book of the Day shares ideas for using the book Tadpole Rex by Kurt Cyrus.

Martha Calderaro shares her thoughts on Maria Testa's book Becoming Joe DiMaggio.

Becky of Becky's Book Reviews has a review of Tropical Secrets by Margarita Engle.

Renee at Shen's Books shares a review of Linda Sue Park's Tap Dancing on the Roof.

Tasha at Kids Lit has a review of the book Rhymes Around the World by Kay Chorao.

Web at Blog from the Windowsill shares a review of Three Little Kittens and Other Favorite Nursery Rhymes, selected and illustrated by Tony Ross.

Original Poems
This week's poetry stretch results showcase poems in which two words opposite in meaning were used in both the body of the poem and the title.

At Blue Rose Girls, Elaine shares her poem And Who Will Lead the GOP?, along with a link to her new blog Political Verses. Go Elaine!

Julie Larios at The Drift Record has a brief poem on the letter P, as well as a fun list of things she loves that begin with the letter p.

Jim Danielson at Haunts of a Children's Writer gives us a poem on Robins.

Laura Purdie Salas shares the poem she has written for the Peace Project, entitled Unexpected Links (a poem for two voices).

Using a photo of a tree and it's "secret door" for inspiration, Laura Purdie Salas shares the the poems folks submitted for this week's 15 words or less challenge.

Linda at Write Time shares three original tanka.

Liz Garton Scanlon at Liz in Ink gives us her poem Details of Devotion.

Jone at Check It Out shares two student poems and a quote.

Laurie Ann Grover at On Point shares an original poem entitled Samurai Armor.

cloudscome at a wrung sponge has some lovely photos accompained by haiku.

Tiel Aisha Ansari at Knocking From Inside shares an original free verse entitled Buddha Hand.

Christine shares two poems written by her daughter. You can find Beauty and the Beast at The Simple and the Ordinary and Home Is at Simply Put.

Lisa Chellman at under the covers share her opposites poem entitled Blind/Sighted.

Poetry of Others
John Mutford at The Book Mine Set shares the poem Goblin Market by Christina Rosetti.

Susan at Black-Eyed Susan's has the poem Tahar Ben Jellou, translated by Nadia Benabid.

Elaine at Wild Rose Reader shares the poem Litany by Billy Collins. You'll also find a video of him reciting the poem here.

Mary Lee at A Year of Reading has the poem What I Believe by Michael Blumenthal.

Janet at Across the Page shares the poem Sheepdog Trials in Hyde Park by C. Day Lewis.

Carol at Carol's Corner gives us Kay Ryan's poem Bad Day.

Diane at The Write Sisters shares an anonymous poem entitled As to the Weather.

Jet at The Incredible Thinking Woman has John Gillespie Magee, Jr.'s poem High Flight.

Love2Learn Mom at Studeo shares the Gary Soto poem Teaching English From an Old Composition Book.

Kelly Fineman at Writing and Ruminating has a Jane Austen poem entitled Venta.

Valerie at Living the Good Life on Not Enough Acres Farm shares a couple of limericks, including one by Edward Lear.

Kim Cassidy at Whimsy House gives us the Jane Yolen poem The Cardinal.

Yat-Yee Chong shares The Meaning of Life by Nancy Fitzgerald.

Over at Bildungsroman Little Willow shares the poem She Ran by Amy Studt.

Charlotte at Charlotte's Library has the poem Guest by Rabindranath Tagore.

Amy at ayuddha.net shares some A.A. Milne and Now We are Six in honor of her daughter's birthday.

Jacqueline at Neverending story has a great picture and The Flying Squirrel by John Gardner.

Karen Edmisten shares James Agee's Knoxville, Summer 1915.

Jennie at Biblio File gives us Mercutio's Queen Mab speech from Romeo and Juliet.

Jill Corcoran shares her love for Valerie Worth along with two poems, safety pin and dinosaurs.

Suzanne at Adventures in Daily Living shares some Dickinson and the poem The Grass Has So Little to Do.

Justina at Wordlings by Justina gives us Scarlet by S.Y. Headley.

Music, Lyrics and Video
Jama at Jama Rattigan's Alphabet Soup shares thoughts on the recent birthday of James Taylor, along with some fine lyrics.

Shelf Elf has the video Poetry with Cookie Monster.

Marjorie at the Paper Tigers blog shares links to the BBC's Poetry Pie programme in which poems by Debjani Chatterjee are featured.

Over at readertotz you can see Shel Silverstein reading Crocodile's Toothache.

In celebration of Holi, the Hindu festival of colors, Nandini Bajpai at Notes from New England shares the Beatles' song Here Comes the Sun.