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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Final Poetry Book Giveaway

I have one title left to give away in celebration of National Poetry Month. Steady Hands: Poems About Work, written by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer and illustrated by Megan Halsey and Sean Addy, is a collection of 34 free-verse poems on a variety of jobs and careers. The book opens with a poem called "Morning" and ends with one called "Night." In between are insightful poems packed full of information, though not in an overt manner. The metaphors and descriptions offered are lovely and thoughtfully chosen. Here are two of my favorites.
Baker

Snowy flour dusts the early
lavender light
in the backroom of the bakery.
With each
flap
roll
flap
the baker's hands
disappear
and reappear
in the folds
of dough.


Tow Truck Driver

The tow truck driver
fishes in the city:
a taxi
a sportscar
and a minivan--
three keepers
reeled in
before breakfast.
Leave me a note about a job that you think would make for an interesting poem and I'll enter you in the drawing to win. You have until midnight on Thursday (April 30) to enter.

All poems ©Tracie Vaughn Zimmer. All rights reserved.

14 comments:

  1. I love this book! Um...ice cream taster. That's the job I want, anyway:>)

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  2. man, I was going to put astronaut

    um..a shoe maker

    there are still shoe makers around btw :D

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  3. House painter.

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  4. This is neat. SO many kids have trouble figuring out what they want to do or be -- way up into junior high and high school -- that this is the type of book that eases the fears and kind of outlines job descriptions and makes them all sound equally cool. Like that.

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  5. A kindergarten teacher ;)

    mj.coward@gmail.com

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  6. Fortune cookie maker. I saw a fortune cookie "factory" in Chinatown in San Francisco. It's not a job I'd want, but I think it could make an interesting subject for a poem.

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