Poetry Makers - Marilyn Nelson

Today the amazingly talented Marilyn Nelson is celebrating a birthday. This then, is the perfect day to celebrate her work. First published in 1978, Marilyn has authored 19 titles, been a 3-time National Book Award finalist, a 3-time recipient of the Coretta Scott King Author Award, a Newbery Medal honoree, a Michael L. Printz honoree, a recipient of the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award, the poet laureate of the state of Connecticut, and more! WOW!

I have long had an interest in African American scientists and inventors, so finding Marilyn's book Carver: A Life in Poems was a revelation. Finally, here was the story of a remarkable man in language as inspiring as his life! Here is an excerpt.

A Charmed Life

Here breathes a solitary pilgrim sustained by dew
and the kindness of stranger. An astonished Midas
surrounded by exponentially multiplying miracles: my
Yucca and Cactus in the Chicago World Exposition;
friends of the spirit; teachers. Ah, the bleak horizons of joy.
Light every morning dawns through the trees. Surely
this is worth more than one life.

Before we look at some of Marilyn's work, let's learn a bit more about her.
***************
How did you get started writing poetry?
Marilyn: I started as a child, because I had started reading poetry (we had the Childcraft set of books in our home: volumes 1 and 2 are poetry anthologies).

Who/what made you want to write?
Marilyn: I don’t remember. I think I wanted to write because I loved reading.

What got you hooked on children’s poetry?
Marilyn: Childcraft books got me started reading poetry: some, but not all, written for children. I started publishing poetry for the y/a audience by accident: a book I had written for adults (Carver: A Life in Poems) was taken by a publisher (Front Street Books) which published only for children and young adults.

Have you had any formal poetry training? If not, how did you learn to write what you do?
Marilyn: I have a Ph.D. in English literature, but have not studied poetry writing, per se.

Can describe your poetry writing process?
Marilyn: I usually do a lot of research before I start writing. I hand-write many drafts, on yellow legal pads. I use a rhyming dictionary. I count meter on my fingers. I often consult my notes on historical events.

What are the things you enjoy most about writing poetry for children/young adults?
Marilyn: I’ve written several books based on historical research, most of them about African-American history. I enjoy doing the research and trying to bring events and persons to life in verse.

Do you have a favorite among all the poems/poetry books you have written?
Marilyn: The favorite is always the most recent, of course. But I like best the books which forced me to grow. One of my “grown-up” books, Magnificat, is, for me, a record of struggle and growth. And I learned and grew a lot during the four or five years when I was researching and writing Carver.

Would you like to share the details of any new poetry project(s) that you’re working on?
Marilyn: I’ve just completed a book about Seneca Village, an African-American village in Manhattan, 1825–1857. About twenty years after its first settlement, the African American villagers were joined by immigrants from Germany and Ireland, and the village was peacefully integrated. It was destroyed in the construction of Central Park.

Pop Quiz!
Your favorite dead poet?
Marilyn: Rainer Maria Rilke. Robert Hayden.

Your favorite place to write?
Marilyn: My attic writing room. Before I moved to the house where I now live, I had a little tower – sort of a playhouse on stilts -- in the woods behind the house I used to live in.

Favorite quote on writing/poetry?
Marilyn: "We must labor to be beautiful." - Yeats

***************
After finding Carver, I didn't hesitate to pick up Marilyn's poetry books. Fortune’s Bones: The Manumission Requiem was commissioned by the Mattatuck Museum. Marilyn received a grant from the Connecticut Commission on the Arts to write a poem in commemoration of Fortune's life. The Manumission Requiem is the result. Here's what Marilyn has to say about it in the author's note.

A requiem, by definition, is sad; the person it honors has died. But manumission--the freeing of a slave--is a joyous event. By calling this the The Manumission Requiem, I'm setting grief side by side with joy. I'm trying to imitate a traditional New Orleans brass band jazz funeral. When the mourners follow the body to the cemetery, they are solemn and sorrowful, and so is the music. But after the burial, after they leave the cemetery, the music becomes jubilant. The mourners dance joyfully through the streets in what the call a "second-line parade." And crowds of people, passers-by, strangers, come out and join them. What was a dirge for the dead becomes a celebration of life.

There is sadness and joy in this book, but the book does celebrate Fortune, and ultimately the ending is freeing. Here is an excerpt from the poem entitled "Not My Bones."

I was not this body,
I was not these bones.
This skeleton was just my
temporary home.
Elementary molecules converged for a breath,
then danced on beyond my individual death.
And I am not my body,
I am not my body.

We are brief incarnations,
we are clouds in clothes.
We are water respirators,
we are how earth knows.
I bore light passed on from an original flame;
while it was in my hands it was called by my name.
But I am not my body,
I am not my body.
.
.
.
You are not your body,
you are not your bones.
What's essential about you
is what can't be owned.
What's essential in you is your longing to raise
your itty-bitty voice in the cosmic praise.
For you are not your body,
you are not your body.

There is a good deal of history in this book. The left page in each spread contains facts about the time, place, museum and Fortune's bones. The Afterword contains a short note from the Executive Director of the Mattatuck Museum on the commissioning of the poem and the history of the project. You can learn more about Fortune's bones in this NPR story and at the Fortune's Story web site.

One of the things I love about Marilyn's work is her emphasis on history--real people and real places. Learning about the past through poetry puts the story back in the word history, particularly when it's told so eloquently.

It was A Wreath for Emmett Till that made me see the impact that reading poetry could have on my understanding of the past. Never before has a poem or series of poems made me feel so unsettled, discouraged, and angry. Reading them is a difficult thing to do, but when I got to the end I was reminded of the difference that one person can make, and the responsibility we all have to our fellow man.

A Wreath for Emmett Till is a heroic crown of sonnets, or a sequence of 15 sonnets that are interlinked like a normal crown of sonnets, except in the heroic crown the last sonnet is made entirely from the first lines of the previous 14 sonnets. Marilyn's heroic crown is even more remarkable because the last sonnet is an acrostic that spells out “RIP Emmett L. Till.”

One of the sonnets in this crown is written from the perspective of the tree witnessing the lynching, and echoes some of the sentiments expressed in Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem The Haunted Oak.

Pierced by the screams of a shortened childhood,
my heartwood has been scarred for fifty years
by what I heard, with hundreds of green ears.
That jackal laughter. Two hundred years I stood
listening to small struggles to find food,
to the songs of creature life, which disappears
and comes again, to the music of the spheres.
Two hundred years of deaths I understood.
Then slaughter axed one quiet summer night,
shivering the deep silence of the stars.
A running boy, five men in close pursuit.
One dark, five pale faces in the moonlight.
Noise, silence, back-slaps. One match, five cigars.
Emmett Till's name still catches in the throat.

Take a few minutes to watch Marilyn read an excerpt from A Wreath for Emmett Till.
You can also listen to Marilyn read A Wreath for Emmett Till at NPR.

If you aren't familiar with Marilyn's work, or haven't taken the time to read it, I hope you will. You can learn more about Marilyn and her work by visiting these sites.

• Soul Mountain Retreat
• Interview at The Brown Bookshelf
• NPR story on A Wreath for Emmett Till
  
• Profile at Poets.org
• CCBC Meet the Experts interview
• Author study guide at the National Book Foundation
  
• Poetry Foundation podcast
• Interview transcript at TeachingBooks.net
  

A rousing chorus of Happy Birthday and several hearty cheers for Marilyn. Thank you so much for participating in the Poetry Makers series.

All poems ©Marilyn Nelson. All rights reserved.

Poetry Makers - Calef Brown

I LOVE Daniel Pinkwater. Because of him ...

What's that? You thought this interview was about Calef Brown? Well, hold onto your hat--I'm getting there! Now, where was I? Oh yes . . .

For any of you uninitiated out there, Daniel Pinkwater frequently joins Scott Simon on Weekend Edition Saturday to discuss children's books. In the years I've been listening I have met new-to-me authors and found many delightful books thanks to their tandem readings and Pinkwater's unabashed enthusiasm. In April of 1999, nearly ten years to the day of THIS interview, I met Calef Brown. (See, I told you I'd get there!) Scott Simon had invited Daniel Pinkwater to talk about poetry for National Poetry Month. When asked what he brought to share, this is what Pinkwater had to say.

I looked at a number of poetry books. This one is a standout. This one is clearly by a genius. A guy by the name of Calef Brown. Never heard of him, but he is a genius. Trust me.
.
.
.
This is Mr. Brown's first book for children. Let it not be his last. It's Polkabats and Octopus Slacks: 14 Stories, he calls them stories, they're not po-ems.

Before you read this interview, you should listen to the NPR episode on Polkabats and Octopus Slacks. Then come back and learn a bit more about Calef and his work.

***************
How did you get started writing poetry?

Calef: I knew that I wanted to create children's books, and I originally tried writing stories in prose , but for whatever reason, found I had a knack for creating short rhyming pieces. For my first two books I didn’t call them poems because I wasn’t sure that they qualified as such, and I knew very little about poetry. Now I’m comfortable with calling myself an artist who writes poems, or a poet who paints, or any combination thereof.

Who/what made you want to write?
Calef: As a kid I was very inspired by Lewis Carroll, Dr. Seuss and A.A. Milne.

My family was a big influence because we all share a love of language and a similar sense of humor. The first things I wrote were just to amuse myself and family and friends. My sister Phebe and I would write stories back and forth when I first moved to the west coast.

My love of music is the other thing that made me want to write, and I have always been inspired by great songs and smart lyrics.I think of the poems in my books as song-like, meant to be read aloud.

What got you hooked on children’s poetry?
Calef: I’m not hooked, I can quit anytime. That’s what I kept saying over and over during my intervention, but everyone just shook their heads and wouldn’t make eye contact with me. I was dragged to a CPA meeting , but after introducing myself with the standard “My name is Calef Brown and I’m a recovering children’s poet”, I broke into an exuberant reading of Kansas City Octopus, and they threw me out. But seriously folks… I was hooked once I started getting a response to my first book, and realized that both kids and adults were digging it. Daniel Pinkwater had a huge part in getting attention for Polkabats and Octopus Slacks when he read it on NPR. Once I realized that there were people out there who liked what I was doing it gave me a boost of confidence and I kept at it.

Have you had any formal poetry training? If not, how did you learn to write what you do?
Calef: No. I’m pretty much self taught. I was really turned off by the way poetry was presented in school, especially in high school, where it was approached as a sort of code to be broken–taken apart and analyzed. I could never get the symbolism and felt left out and alienated by the stuff that we studied. On top of this it was all humorless. I did like some of the poets that my father introduced me to, especially Robert Coffin, a Maine poet who won the Pulitzer in 1936.

Can describe your poetry writing process?
Calef: My process revolves around keeping notes and ideas for poems in sketchbooks and trying to put time in each day editing, playing around and refining ideas, as well as spending some time writing in a free association mode.

What are the things you enjoy most about writing poetry for children/young adults?
Calef: First, I really love my process of writing poems–from getting the germ of an idea from a tossed off sketch, or an overheard phrase, a whim, whatever–and building a rhythm and a story. It’s like solving a wonderful puzzle. This is great fun, but what I enjoy most is seeing the effect that my books have on kids and families in the real world, something that I never considered when I started out. I love seeing kids react to the poems and art when I do school visits. I get emails from parents telling me that their four year old has memorized some of my poems, or a grandparent who tells me about little poetry slams of my work that they have with their grandchildren, letters and drawings from kids inspired to make art or poems or both together. I want kids to feel like they can do what I do, because they can!

Do you have a favorite among all the poems/poetry books you have written?
Calef: My favorite of my books so far is Flamingos on the Roof because in addition to writing the poems and doing the paintings, I designed it, and also created a font for the text, so it feels like it’s the most my own from cover to cover. A couple of my favorite poems from that book are "Weatherbee’s Diner" and "Tiny Baby Sphinx." My two favorites from my newest book, Soup for Breakfast, are "Painting on Toast" and "One to Ten (and back again)."

Would you like to share the details of any new poetry project(s) that you’re working on?
Calef: Right now I’m working on a book in the Halloween spirit for Houghton Harcourt, one for Simon and Shuster that is a bit different from my other books, but involves nonsense and wordplay. And lastly I’m illustrating a volume of the work of one of my literary heroes for Chronicle.

Pop Quiz!
Your favorite dead poet?
Calef: A.A. Milne

Your favorite place to write?
Calef: Harpswell, Maine

Favorite quote on writing/poetry?
Calef: Poets have been mysteriously silent on the subject of cheese. ~G.K. Chesterton

Your nominee for the next Children’s Poet Laureate?
Calef: Adam Rex

***************

Since Calef was kind enough to name some of his favorite poems, I'll start by sharing those here. Here are two of his favorites from Flamingos on the Roof.

Weatherbee’s Diner

Whenever you’re looking for something to eat,
Weatherbee’s Diner is just down the street.
     Start off your meal with a bottle of rain.
     Fog on the glass is imported from Maine.
The thunder is wonderful, order it loud,
with sun-dried tornado on top of a cloud.
     Snow Flurry Curry is also a treat.
     It’s loaded with lightning and slathered in sleet.
Cyclones with hailstones are great for dessert,
but have only one or your belly will hurt.
     Regardless of whether it’s chilly or warm,
     at Weatherbee’s diner they cook up a storm!


Tiny Baby Sphinx

Tiny Baby Sphinx.
She looks at me and blinks.
I offer bits of cat food.
The kind that really stinks.
I wonder what she thinks about
at nighttime when she slinks about
inviting other sphinxes out
to gather in the moonlight.

In his newest book, Soup for Breakfast, Calef has been transformed from a blue elephant to a blue cat. The flap copy about him reads:

Calef Brown was, until recently,
a blue elephant.
He truly does enjoy soup for breakfast,
as does his wife, Anissa.
They live, for now,
in a wooden cottage
on a foggy island in Maine.
Calef tries to write a poem a day.
"Believe it or not," he says,
"I was once very averse to verse,
but now all of my nouns, verbs,
adjective, and adverbs
go forwards and backwards,
riffing and rhyming.
It's all about the timing," he intones,
with a far too serious look on his face.

Here are two of Calef's favorite poems from this book.

Painting on Toast

Thank you for joining me.
I'll be your host.
The name of the program
is “Painting on Toast."
Before getting started,
we need to prepare.
The primer is butter.
Apply it with care.
Blueberry jam
makes a beautiful sky.
Brush on some cream cheese
for clouds going by.
Honey is dandy
for mountains and hills.
Mix it with cinnamon.
Show off your skills.
Now for a barn
with a silo and shed.
Raspberry jelly
is perfectly red.
Our painting is done,
except for the sun—
a dab of orange marmalade.
Look at the farm we made!

One to Ten (and back again)

One, Two, close your eyes,
Think of something strange:
Fog that isn’t foggy.
A day that doesn’t change.

Three, Four, nod your head.
Think of something odd:
Underwater butterflies.
Fuzzy-wuzzy cod.

Five, Six, snap your fingers.
Think of something weird:
Noodles in a haystack.
A baby with a beard.

Seven, Eight, clap your hands
Think of something silly:
Chickens popping bubble wrap.
Statues eating chili.

Nine, Ten, tap your feet.
Think of something fun:
Mulling over foolish whims.
Counting back to one.

I'm still quite fond of the poems that first made me a fan of Calef's. Here's one I love from Polkabats and Octopus Slacks.

Skeleton Flowers

Late October showers
bring delicate skeleton flowers.
A ghostly sight
on Halloween night,
they softly glow for hours.

I love ALL of Calef's book and could share any number of poems from them, but I'll end with my favorite from Dutch Sneakers and Flea Keepers.

Dutch Sneakers

My Dutch Wooden Sneakers from Holland,
the grooviest shoes on the block.
I love 'em so much,
did I mention they're Dutch?
I don't care if it hurts when I walk.

My Dutch Wooden Sneakers from Holland,
handmade out of some sort of pine.
They creak and they squeak,
and they constantly leak,
but I just can't believe that they're mine!

If you'd like to learn more about Calef and his work, check out the sites below.

• Calef's web site
• Listen to Scott Simon and Daniel Pinkwater discuss Flamingos on the Roof
• Interview at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
• Interview at Illustration Mundo
• Halloween poetry podcast at SLJ
  
• Calef's original poem written for the 30 Poets 30 Days event at GottaBook.
  

Boatloads of thanks to Calef for participating in the Poetry Makers series.

All poems ©Calef Brown. All rights reserved.

OH MY WORD! (Part 2) - Nursery Rhymes Updated for the Recession

McSweeney's is a gold mine of humor this evening. Check out Jen Statsky's piece entitled Classic Nursery Rhymes, Updated and Revamped for the Recession, As Told to Me by My Father. Here's an excerpt.

Jack and Jill

OK, so Jack and Jill went up the hill, to fetch a pail of water. But, listen, even water is expensive nowadays. So Jack just innocently asked, "Do you really have to wash your hair every night?" Then, of course, they started getting into it, and Jill became pretty damn passive-aggressive, and unnecessarily, I might add. So then Jack fell down—maybe on accident, maybe on purpose—and he broke his crown. And, with no health insurance, they were both shit outta luck.

So what are you waiting for? GO NOW and READ!

OH MY WORD! - Internet-Age Writing Syllabus And Course Overview

The folks at McSweeney's are at it again. Check out Robert Lanham's piece entitled Internet-Age Writing Syllabus And Course Overview. Here's an excerpt.

ENG 371WR:
Writing for Nonreaders in the Postprint Era
M-W-F: 11:00 a.m.–12:15 p.m.
Instructor: Robert Lanham

Course Description
As print takes its place alongside smoke signals, cuneiform, and hollering, there has emerged a new literary age, one in which writers no longer need to feel encumbered by the paper cuts, reading, and excessive use of words traditionally associated with the writing trade. Writing for Nonreaders in the Postprint Era focuses on the creation of short-form prose that is not intended to be reproduced on pulp fibers.

Instant messaging. Twittering. Facebook updates. These 21st-century literary genres are defining a new "Lost Generation" of minimalists who would much rather watch Lost on their iPhones than toil over long-winded articles and short stories. Students will acquire the tools needed to make their tweets glimmer with a complete lack of forethought, their Facebook updates ring with self-importance, and their blog entries shimmer with literary pithiness. All without the restraints of writing in complete sentences. w00t! w00t! Throughout the course, a further paring down of the Hemingway/Stein school of minimalism will be emphasized, limiting the superfluous use of nouns, verbs, adverbs, adjectives, conjunctions, gerunds, and other literary pitfalls.

Prerequisites
Students must have completed at least two of the following.
ENG: 232WR—Advanced Tweeting: The Elements of Droll
LIT: 223—Early-21st-Century Literature: 140 Characters or Less
ENG: 102—Staring Blankly at Handheld Devices While Others Are Talking
ENG: 301—Advanced Blog and Book Skimming
ENG: 231WR—Facebook Wall Alliteration and Assonance
LIT: 202—The Literary Merits of Lolcats
LIT: 209—Internet-Age Surrealistic Narcissism and Self-Absorption

Required Reading Materials
Literary works, including the online table of contents of the Huffington Post's Complete Guide to Blogging, will serve as models to be skimmed for thorough analysis. Also, Perez Hilton's Twitter feed.

If you think this is funny, wait until you get to the lecture and discussion section! Do take a moment to read. It will put a smile on your face.

Maira's Back! - May It Please the Court

You know how much I love Maira Kalman. She's back with a new piece at her blog And the Pursuit of Happiness. It's called May It Please the Court.

Book Giveaways Today!

Today is the last day of the semester. I'm happy and a bit sad all at once. To celebrate, I'm going to give away a poetry book!

Stanza, written by Jill Esbaum and illustrated by Jack E. Davis, is the story of a dog who LOVES to write poetry. Here's how it begins.

Stanza prowled through the streets
with his two rotten brothers,
annoying and chasing and bullying others.
Folks, called him "Bad doggy!"
or "Flea-bitten thug!"
or "Scoundrel!"
or "Bonehead!"
or "Slobbery lug!"

But once Dirge and Fresco were sleeping at last,
Stanza cautiously . . . silently . . . slowly crept past
to a shadowy space
tucked away
out of sight
where he sat with a pad
and wrote poems all night.

For a chance to win this book, leave a comment letting us know about your favorite place to write poetry. You have until midnight tomorrow to enter. On Sunday the winner will be chosen.

Also, I'm giving away a book from one of today's poetry makers! Leave a comment on THAT post (you'll have to figure out which one it is!) and you'll be entered to win a copy of the poet's newest book. Hurry though, that contest ends at midnight tonight!

Poetry Friday - A Lazy Day

Before I launch into my poetry post for today, let me remind you of the Poetry Makers series happening here every day in April. In honor of poetry Friday there are TWO poets featured today. They are Minnesota's very own Lisa Westberg Peters and Laura Purdie Salas.

Alright, on with the regularly scheduled poetry post!
-------------------------
I'm still reading The Complete Poems of Paul Laurence Dunbar. Since I'm longing for a day off, this poem seemed particularly appropriate today.

A Lazy Day
by Paul Laurence Dunbar

The trees bend down along the stream,
Where anchored swings my tiny boat.
The day is one to drowse and dream
And list the thrush's throttling note.
When music from his bosom bleeds
Among the river's rustling reeds.

No ripple stirs the placid pool,
When my adventurous line is cast,
A truce to sport, while clear and cool,
The mirrored clouds slide softly past.
The sky gives back a blue divine,
And all the world's wide wealth is mine.

A pickerel leaps, a bow of light,
The minnows shine from side to side.
The first faint breeze comes up the tide—
I pause with half uplifted oar,
While night drifts down to claim the shore.

The round up is being hosted by Lisa Chellman at under the covers. Do stop by and take in all the great poetry being shared this week. Before you go, be sure to check out this week's poetry stretch results. Happy poetry Friday, all!

Poetry Stretch Results - Outside the Window

The challenge this week was to write about something found "outside the window." Here are the results.

Jane Yolen left this poem in the comments.

Looking Out My Bedroom Window

Once a field where day and night
rabbits, possums, turkeys, deer,
even bobcats and bears crossed the long grass,
predator and prey, you know—
that old exciting story full of danger.
Now my daughter’s cozy Cape,
the slatey blue of a February sky,
let’s me know with window light
that she and my granddaughters
are safe, eating, showering, reading
the homey stuff, not fight and flight.
The bobcat still crosses, unafraid,
through her back garden some days.
The bear occasionally strides down her driveway,
glancing hungrily at the kitchen door,
exclamation point reminders of times passed.
We give away wild for comfort,
for safety, for family, forever,
but sometimes it is a story,
the story, we need to hear.

@2009 Jane Yolen

Julie Larios at The Drift Record also left a poem in the comments.

Wide window -
Lady Snow
leaves her glove
on the mullion
as she goes.

Linda at Write Time left this poem.

Just Outside My Window

tiny buds on trees
lift their faces to the sun
drinking in the day

Jane Yolen left a second poem this week!

April Outside My Window

Yesterday was spring.
Today high winds bring winter.
This should be March.

@2009 Jane Yolen

Stephanie at Sparble left this poem in the comments.

Play

She watches through the window, nonchalant,
At ten, too old for games they used to play.
Neighbor boys throw football on the lawn.
No more swing or chase or keep-away.

At ten, too old for games they used to play.
Boy and girl, the boundary line was thin.
No more swing or chase or keep-away.
Play was so much easier back then.

Boy and girl, the boundary line was thin.
She changes clothes and ponytails her hair.
Play was so much easier back then.
She stands before the mirror: Who is there?

She changes clothes and ponytails her hair,
Picks up her secret weapon from the floor.
Checks the hallway mirror: She’s still there.
Window-glances, breathes, goes out the door,

Picks up her secret weapon from the floor.
Balancing on one wheel is a feat.
Window-glances, breathes, goes out the door,
Takes her unicycle to the street.

Balancing on one wheel is a feat.
Neighbor boys stand frozen on the lawn.
She rides in bumpy circles in the street,
Who watched them through the window, nonchalant.

Tess at Natural Worlds shares a poem entitled Leaving.

Andi at a wrung sponge gives us a poem for Earth day.

Jacqueline at Neverending Story shares a whole bunch of haiku.

Dianne White shares a poem entitled Window Sijo.

Gael Lynch at Small Circles gives us a poem entitled Magnolia.

Jone at Deo Writer shares a poem called Outside My Window.

My poem came to me in the middle of the night, as many of my poems often do. If it weren't for insomnia and that itty bitty booklight, I wouldn't get anything written these days!

Princess's Lament

From my tower window
this is what I see:

Once Prince all puckered up
looking for a sleeper

One Prince with a glass slipper
looking for a keeper

One Prince calling Rapunzel
looking for the one with hair

Where the heck is my Prince?
Don’t see him ANYWHERE!

It's not too late if you still want to play. Leave me a note about your poem and I'll add it to the list.

Poetry Makers - Laura Purdie Salas

When I think of Laura Purdie Salas I am reminded of the beginning of this poem.

Valentine for Ernest Mann
by Naomi Shihab Nye

You can't order a poem like you order a taco.
Walk up to the counter, say, "I'll take two"
and expect it to be handed back to you
on a shiny plate.

Still, I like your spirit.
Anyone who says, "Here's my address,
write me a poem," deserves something in reply.

In January of 2008, Laura wrote about the work behind the creation of her Capstone poetry books. The first six books in the series were written in FOUR weeks! Count 'em people--FOUR WEEKS! Laura received a series of stock photos and wrote poems specific to the images. Talk about ordering up a poem like a taco. Now THAT'S poetry on demand! Here are two of my favorite poems from these books.

Then There Were Eight
(from And Then There Were Eight: Poems About Space)

Poor ball of ice, we know you exist; but you're
Little and solid and we must insist on
Undoing the past, so though you'll be missed, we've
Taken you
Off of the "real planet" list


Clouds
(from Seed Sower, Hat Thrower: Poems About Weather)

Vanilla cotton candy
Pillows meant for kings
Fluffy bunny rabbits
Enormous seagull wings

I check the sky at recess
To see what each day brings
I never dreamed that clouds could make
So many different things!

Before I talk further about Laura's work, let's learn a bit more about her.

***************
How did you get started writing poetry?

Laura: I had written a few poems in a college class, but nothing since then. About 9 years ago, I had some really scary, horrible family health issues. Lisa Westberg Peters, my writing mentor at the time, suggested I freewrite about it. I reluctantly (I don’t like freewriting!) agreed, and was I ever surprised to find poetry pouring out.

Over the next several years, I started writing more and more poetry, not just on strongly emotional topics. It became my favorite way to express myself.

Who/what made you want to write?
Laura: I grew up consuming books at an incredible rate, but I had no clue that real people wrote them. It never occurred to me. It wasn’t until college, when I took a creative writing class as an elective, that I became passionate about writing and having a writing career.

What got you hooked on children’s poetry?
Laura: I heard poet Barbara Juster Esbensen speak shortly before her death, and it was the first time I had heard children’s poetry read aloud as an adult. I confess that I didn’t start reading children’s poetry (is that what you mean?) on my own until I was writing it. As I wrote more and loved it more, I realized I needed to see what was out there. And what’s out there is gorgeous, and now I can’t get enough of it!

Have you had any formal poetry training? If not, how did you learn to write what you do?
Laura: Nope, though my English degree was with a specialty in Creative Writing. I have taken (and am taking right now) a couple of poetry workshops through the Loft Literary Center. I love to read books and blogs about writing poetry. But reading tons of great poems, that’s really the finest teacher I’ve had.

Can describe your poetry writing process?
Laura: I write fast. Very fast. And usually it’s an awful poem and stays right there on the page, never to be seen by anyone else! If there’s a core to it that works, I’ll revise (many, many times) over days or weeks. Much of my revision involves getting rid of extra words, replacing boring words with more specific, evocative, surprising words, and reading the draft aloud a million times to see if it has the right sound.

What are the things you enjoy most about writing poetry for children/young adults?
Laura: When I read or write poetry that works, it feels to me like a direct electric wire between me and the other person (no matter which of us is the writer and which is the reader). I think kids are especially open to seeing the world in unexpected ways, more so than adults. And their emotions tend to run wilder. So that makes them extra fun to write for and connect with.

Do you have a favorite among all the poems/poetry books you have written?
Laura: My favorite has to be my new book, Stampede! Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School. It’s my first trade poetry book, so it’s the first one where I came up with the idea, developed the collection, and spent years submitting it and swallowing rejections. So holding that first printed copy is pretty amazing (that’s all I have so far—one copy!). And one of my daughters inspired it, so that makes it very personal for me.

Would you like to share the details of any new poetry project(s) that you’re working on?
Laura: My current collection in progress is top secret, so I could tell you, but then I’d have to hack into your blog and delete the whole thing, so that would be no good.

Otherwise, I have a collection of poems from books’ points of view and a gross poems collection both in the revision stages. And I’ve been having a lot of fun working on various rhyming nonfiction picture book manuscripts. I’m not sure if they’re poetry or rhyming prose, or what. But I love them. Now, to see if any publisher loves them!

Pop Quiz!
Note From Laura: These answers could change depending on the weather, my mood, and what flavor ice cream I just ate. But because I’m a rule-follower, I’ll try to answer!

Your favorite dead poet?
Laura: Are you kidding? At least you didn’t say living poet. OK, I’m going to have to go with Barbara Juster Esbensen, not only because she flipped on the poetry light bulb for me, but also because her collection Swing Around the Sun is one of my absolute favorites! And because her book A Celebration of Bees is so inspiring about working with young poets, which I also love.

Your favorite place to write?
Laura: No single place. One thing I love about poetry is I can write it anywhere because it’s blessedly short!

Favorite quote on writing/poetry?
Laura: “Poetry’s a zoo in which you keep demons and angels.” (Les Murray)

Your nominee for the next Children’s Poet Laureate?
Laura: You’re killing me here, Tricia. Today, I’m torn between two poets.

One is Lee Bennett Hopkins, who is not only a fabulous poet himself (how I love Alphathoughts) but who is also a top-notch anthologist (see Behind the Museum Door, Wonderful Words, and a gazillion others). And he’s an ambassador for children’s poetry and how important it is.

The second poet is J. Patrick Lewis. His talent, prolificity(?), and range are astonishing. The same guy who wrote Black Swan, White Crow (my favorite haiku collection) and The Brother’s War: Civil War Voices in Verse also wrote Once Upon a Tomb: Gravely Humorous Verses and The Underwear Salesman? Talk about a poet who does it all…

***************

Even though Laura has 11 poetry books under her belt (the 10 titles in the Poetry series and the book Write Your Own Poetry), her first trade poetry book, Stampede! Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School, has just been released. Stampede! is a collection of poems that recognizes and celebrates the ways kids mimic the behaviors of animals. The poems are funny, clever, and clearly recognize the ups and downs of being a kid. Here are a few of my favorites.

New Mouse
Go left, then right.
Wrong turns, dead ends.
Can't find my class.
I've got no friends.

Each hallway is
a hallway clone.
Can't find my way
around alone.

A thousand halls,
a thousand ways,
I'm lost inside
this new-school maze.


Counting On Me
I've counted up all of my fingers.
This math problem still has me beat.
A centipede's got what I'm missing--
A collection of one hundred feet.


Printer Problems
My pencil scrapes across the paper.
I'm such a lousy letter-shaper.

My hand's as clumsy as a claw.
My letters land like scattered straw.

Erasing leaves a dusty patch.
My writing looks like chicken scratch.

You can learn more about Stampede, read some additional poems, view samples of the artwork, and download a teacher's guide at the book's web site.

I'm going to close with this very fun video of Laura reciting one of her poems from Stampede.
If you'd like to learn more about Laura and her work, check out the sites below.

• Laura's web site
• Interview at wordswimmer
• Interview at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast
• Author profile at Children's Literature Network

Beaucoup thanks to Laura for participating in the Poetry Makers series.

If you've read this far, you now have the opportunity to win a copy of Stampede! Poems to Celebrate the Wild Side of School. You have until midnight tonight to leave a note in the comments. On Saturday morning I will put the names in a hat and let William pick the winner.

All poems ©Laura Purdie Salas. All rights reserved.

Poetry Makers - Lisa Westberg Peters

Lisa Westberg Peters has authored nearly 20 books, most of which are not poetry. However, it was her book of poems about the earth that introduced me to her. Earthshake: Poems From the Ground Up is a collection of twenty-two poems that introduces geologic concepts through metaphor and word play in a variety of poetic forms.

Before I talk further about Lisa's work, let's learn a bit more about her.

***************
How did you get started writing poetry?

Lisa: I started writing poetry as a teenager. My family had a summer cabin on the St. Croix River in Wisconsin and I would go off by myself and write. Poetry is a great way for teenagers to express their frustration, anger and fear, and I was no exception.

Who/what made you want to write?
Lisa: My parents were readers, but it wasn't just that our house was full of books. My father, especially, drew me into conversations about the ideas contained in the great books he had read. Those conversations encouraged me to reflect, to wonder, and eventually to write.

What got you hooked on children’s poetry?
Lisa: I slid into poetry. My children's book writing career began with the birth of my daughters and the reading of hundreds of picture books. I loved the form because it demanded an economy of words, attention to language and to rhythm. From there, it's not a big leap to poetry. I started by reading everything I could find, focusing on poets I liked -- Douglas Florian, Kristine O'Connell George, Marilyn Singer, Valerie Worth, Karla Kuskin.

Have you had any formal poetry training? If not, how did you learn to write what you do?
Lisa: I didn't have any formal poetry training. I graduated from college with a degree in journalism. That lack of formal training in poetry can work both ways. You have a steeper learning curve, a disadvantage. On the other hand, you don't know the rules, so you're free from having to obey them. I might add that the two extremes tend to play out simultaneously.

I learned a great deal about children's poetry from two friends, accomplished children's poets, Susan Marie Swanson and Joyce Sidman. Both live in the Twin Cities and I've picked their brains many, many times.

Can describe your poetry writing process?
Lisa: It's different with each manuscript, so no!

I wrote the Earthshake poems with very little forethought. I just wrote them because I loved geology and had a vague idea that my notions about earth science might be worth writing about. When I finished, I didn't know what I had. The poems didn't resemble anything I'd ever read, so I stuffed them in a file and left them for two years. I finally hauled them out, read them to my writers group, and it was their enthusiastic reception that finally lit the fire under me.

A collection of whimsical volcano poems, to be published next year by Henry Holt, began with several trips to the Big Island of Hawaii. I had no specific project in mind, just knew that my passion for the place would inspire a writing project someday. Several years and an untold numbers of drafts later, I arrived at the version that worked for both me and the patient editors at Holt.

I should add that I always ask myself at the end of a first draft: is this something that only I could have written? If I can't answer yes to that question, then there's probably something wrong.

What are the things you enjoy most about writing poetry for children/young adults?
Lisa: I love to try to show children a new way of looking at the world, particularly the natural world. If I can do that with a bit of humor, so much the better.

Do you have a favorite among all the poems/poetry books you have written?
Lisa: No. I have things I love about each project, but picking a favorite is an odd notion for me. It's something that people want to know, but I find hard to answer.

Would you like to share the details of any new poetry project(s) that you’re working on?
Lisa: I'm working on several projects. They're in various stages of completion or disarray. One is a collection of haiku, another is a set of poems written in tanka, an ancient Japanese form, and another project is what I'm calling my dog-based physics poems. I'm also working on several picture book manuscripts.

Pop Quiz!
Your favorite dead poet?
Lisa: Barbara Esbensen

Your favorite place to write?
Lisa: At home. My husband and I recently moved to a condo near the Mississippi River in Minneapolis. It has big windows that let in lots of light. I love to stare out the windows, watch the weather roll in from the west, sip tea, and sit in my comfy chair and write.

Favorite quote on writing/poetry?
Lisa: Guindon, the cartoonist, said: Writing is nature's way of letting you know how sloppy your thinking is.

Your nominee for the next Children’s Poet Laureate?
Lisa: Someone who will inspire children and adults to read good children's poetry and to reflect on the ideas the poems explore.

***************

As someone with a longtime love of earth science, this collection of poems has a special place in my heart. It is also one of the only poetry books on my shelf that can be used to teach about rocks, fossils, geysers, continental drift, and more. Here are a few of my favorite poems.

River Meets Crack in the Earth
A river crosses the San Andreas fault.
It turns right, then continues on,
a little shaken up.


Obituary for a Clam
Clam. Marine.
Age, 10 years.

Died 300 million years ago
in underwater landslide.
Native of the Tethys Sea.
Loving mother of 198 clams.
Lived a good life
in the shallow water
off the coast of Pangaea.
Survived by
daughter clams,
son clams,
uncle clams,
aunt clams,
clam, clams, clams . . .
She is missed dearly,
but is fossilized
in the limestone
of a back yard path
in Memphis, Tennessee.


Instructions for the Earth's Dishwasher
Please set the
continental plates
gently on the
continental shelves.
No jostling or scraping.

Please stack the
basin right side up.
No tilting or turning
upside-down.

Please scrape the mud
out of the mud pots.
But watch out!
They're still hot.

As for the forks
in the river,
just let them soak.

Remember,
if anything breaks,
it's your fault.

There is another book of Lisa's I must mention here. October Smiled Back is a poem picture book that imagines each month of the year as a friend. Here's an excerpt.

Shy November looked out with your eyes puddle-gray.
I peeked in and whispered, "Come on . . .

. . . want to play?"

So December and I made a woolly white bear
Who could wink with one eye and had icicle hair.

But when January froze all her fingers and toes
We played jungle inside in our tropical clothes.
.
.
.
When October smiled back, I knew I would spend
Half the night throwing stars with a friend . . .

. . . an old friend.

If you'd like to learn more about Lisa and her work, check out the sites below.

• Lisa's web site
  
• Author profile at Children's Literature Network
• Article at Minnesota Citizens for Science Education about her book on evolution
• Author essay at HarperCollins Publishers
  

A mountain of thanks to Lisa for participating in the Poetry Makers series.

All poems ©Lisa Westberg Peters. All rights reserved.

Poetry Makers - Carole Boston Weatherford

Carole Boston Weatherford has written more than 30 books since her first title appeared in print in 1995. Whether poetry or prose, her books bring the stories of the past to life. In her Reading Rockets video interview she said, "My mission as an author is to mine the past for family stories, fading traditions and forgotten struggles." So far I'd say mission accomplished.

I'm particularly fond of the poetry she writes that introduces us to real people and real events. Here's a poem Carole wrote that was inspired by William H. Johnson's painting Joe Louis and Unidentified Boxer. You can find it in Jan Greenberg's book Heart to Heart: New Poems Inspired by Twentieth Century American Art.

The Brown Bomber

The radio gave folks a ringside seat
to cheer Joe Louis during his prize
        fights;
twenty-three titles and but one
        defeat.
Fans partied past dawn under neon
        lights
as if their own clenched fists had
        struck each blow.
They called Joe the Brown Bomber.
        He attacked
big, bad opponents, threatened old
        Jim Crow
who kept doors closed to hold his
        people back.
He was a secret weapon in a war
to knock out hate. Joe bore a million
        hopes
each time he punched a foe. He was
        a star;
his stage, a mat set off by stakes
        and ropes.
A left hook, a right jab, muscle and
        grace;
Joe danced, and pride glowed on
        every brown face.

Before I talk further about Carole's work, let's learn a bit more about her.

***************
How did you get started writing poetry?

Carole: I composed my first poem in first grade and dictated the verse to my mother. My father, a high school printing teacher, printed some of my early poems on index cards.

Who/what made you want to write?
Carole: I had a God-given talent. I dabbled in other creative endeavors—from art to fashion design—but writing would not be denied. To my ear, poetry makes music with words.

What got you hooked on children’s poetry?
Carole: As a child, I loved poetry. And when my own children reintroduced me to children’s literature, I gravitated toward poetry. I like to say that poetry is my first language. Poetry for young people tends to be more musical than that for adults.

Have you had any formal poetry training? If not, how did you learn to write what you do?
Carole: I earned a Master of Arts in publications design from the University of Baltimore and a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing with a concentration in poetry from the University of North Carolina-Greensboro.

Can describe your poetry writing process?
Carole: I always start with a subject, usually do some research and sometimes make a word list of nouns and verbs germane to the subject. When writing rhyming poems, I use a rhyming dictionary. When writing in free verse, I strive for the most appropriate voice.

What are the things you enjoy most about writing poetry for children/young adults?
Carole: I write poetry for people who love language as much as I do. So, I’m not just writing for a reader of a certain age, but for a reader with a certain sensibility or aesthetic as far as language is concerned.

Do you have a favorite among all the poems/poetry books you have written?
Carole: My favorite book is the fictional verse memoir Becoming Billie Holiday.

Would you like to share the details of any new poetry project(s) that you’re working on?
Carole: I am excited about the forthcoming picture book biography, Racing Against the Odds: The Story of Wendell Scott, Stock Car Racing’s African American Champion.

Pop Quiz!
Your favorite dead poet?
Carole: Langston Hughes

Your favorite place to write?
Carole: At a desk overlooking a body of water. But that never happens.

Favorite quote on writing/poetry?
Carole: Poetry makes music with words. (my own quote)

Your nominee for the next Children’s Poet Laureate?
Carole: Nikki Grimes

***************

I found my way to Carole's work while looking for materials to use in teaching about the history of African American schools. The book was Dear Mr. Rosenwald, a series of poems that tells the story of how one community came together to build a new school--a Rosenwald School. The narrative begins with this poem.

1921: One-Room School
My teacher, Miss Mays, said,
You can't judge a school
by the building. When the roof leaks,
she calls us vessels of learning.
When the floor creaks, she says
knowledge is a solid foundation.
Wind whistles through walls,
blowing the sheet that splits the church
into two classrooms. Me on one side,
Junior on the other. Till I passed
third grade, I sat beside him,
counting with my fingers
and fidgeting on the pew.
Now I know better.

My school is not much to speak of,
but Mama says I'm lucky
even if class don't meet during harvest.
Down here, she said, some black children
go to school in shacks, corncribs,
or not at all. Don't know what I'd do,
if I couldn't go to school.

Harvest break--
just when I memorized the times tables.
Instead of learning long division,
I'll be working in the field.

From the very beginning, the heart, the dreams, and yearning of people longing to be educated comes through. As told by Ovella, a young girl in the community, we meet dedicated people who put their blood and sweat into backbreaking work that doesn't earn a decent living, and then see them spend that money for the good of the community. We see families and communities at work, at home and church, coming together for the common good. You see, Rosenwald schools were only partially funded through grants from the rural school building program. The balance came from the community. This meant that hard-working, poor folks needed to raise money, acquire land and build that school.

Ultimately, the story told in Dear Mr. Rosenwald is a triumphant one. You can hear Carole read some of the poems from the book in this piece on North Carolina Public radio . You can also learn more about the book by reading Poetry in the Classroom - Dear Mr. Rosenwald.

Birmingham, 1963 (2007) is a book of poems told from the point of view of a fictional 10-year old girl who attended the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church and was present on the day of the bombing. This book was awarded the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award and was an honor recipient of the Jane Addams Children's Book Award. The emotionally packed poems are accompanied by photographs from the Civil Rights Movement and the site of the bombing. Here's how the book opens.

The year I turned ten
I missed school to march with other children
For a seat at whites-only lunch counters.

Like a junior choir, we chanted "We Shall Overcome."
Then, police loosed snarling dogs and fire hoses on us,
And buses carted us, nine hundred strong, to jail.

On the page facing this poem is a photograph of a young black girl holding a sign that reads "CAN A MAN LOVE GOD and HATE HIS BROTHER?"

A bit further into the text, after learning more about the narrator, we come to the event. On the page opposite the poem is a picture of a Klansman.

The day I turned ten
Someone tucked a bundle of dynamite
Under the church steps, then lit the fuse of hate.

The final poem in the narrator's story is this.

The day I turned ten,
There was no birthday cake with candles;
Just cinders, ash, and I wish I were still nine.

The book ends with poems of tribute to each of the four girls killed in the explosion: Addie Mae Collins, Cynthia Wesley, Denise McNair, and Carole Robertson. The back matter includes an author's note on the civil rights struggle in Birmingham and the September 15th bombing. I've been pairing this work with Christopher Paul Curtis' novel The Watson's Go to Birmingham, 1963 , which briefly touches upon the event.

Two of Carole's recent works are grounded in jazz. Before John Was a Jazz Giant: A Song of John Coltrane and Becoming Billie Holiday were both 2008 Cybils nominees, the former in the nonfiction picture book category, and the latter in the poetry category. Before John Was a Jazz Giant is a picture book biography that is a poetic tribute to Coltrane. The text is rhythmic and and fully conveys the feel of jazz. Here's how it begins.

Before John was a jazz giant,
he heard hambones knocking in Grandma's pots,
Daddy strumming the ukulele,
and Mama cranking the phonograph.

Before John was a jazz giant,
he heard steam engines whistling past,
Cousin Mary giggling at jitterbuggers,
and Bojangles tap-dancing in the picture show.

Becoming Billie Holiday is a fictional verse memoir that tells the story of Holiday's life from birth through age 25. The poems carry titles from Billie’s songbook. The writing is tender and vivid, matter-of-factly portraying the ups and downs that dominated the singer's life. Here is one of the poems from this book.

How Deep Is The Ocean

Without the microphone
there would be no spotlight,
no band backing me
with bluesy swing.

My voice was too small,
barely an octave,
but the mic enlarged my songs,
let me hold listeners close.

With the microphone,
my voice was an ocean,
deep as my moods,
and audiences dove in.

If you haven't seen these two books, I highly recommend you look for them. They are vastly different, but both inspiring portraits of the artists.

One additional book of Carole's that came out last year is also a picture book biography told in verse. You can learn more about it at Nonfiction Monday - I, Matthew Henson: Polar Explorer.

I'd like to close this with the video poem Carole created for the inauguration of President Obama. The images are great, but it's Carole's recitation of the poem that gets me. After all, poetry is not just meant to be read, it's meant to be heard.

If you'd like to learn more about Carole and her work, check out the sites below.

• Carole's web site
• NPR segment where Carole reads her poem December 1, 1955: Before Rosa Altered History in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the Montgomery bus boycott
• Cynsations interview
• Interview at The Brown Bookshelf
• A Poetry Workshop in Print by Lee Bennett Hopkins
• Video interview at Reading Rockets
• She Shall Overcome article at SLJ
  
• Author profile at Children's Literature
• Podcast of interactive presentation at Peabody Library (Vanderbilt University) on using poetry in the classroom
• Carole's original poem written for the 30 Poets 30 Days event at GottaBook.
  

Many, many thanks to Carole for participating in the Poetry Makers series.

All poems ©Carole Boston Weatherford. All rights reserved.

Curious Garden Drawing Contest

Over at Brimful Curiosities, there is a review of the book The Curious Garden by Peter Brown. There's also a book giveaway going on, so be sure to read all the details.

In her post, Janelle also wrote about the Curious Garden Drawing Contest sponsored by Hachette Book Group. Kids ages 3-13 should create a color drawing/rendering of a garden. Winning designs will receive exclusive Curious Garden seed packets, flowerpots and a copy of The Curious Garden. Here are the details.

Enter one of two (2) ways:
(1) Online: You may enter by filling out the entry form (located at the end of the Official Rules), having a parent or guardian sign it on the child's behalf, TOGETHER WITH A COPY OF THE SUBMISSION and emailing it to:

lbkidsmarketing@hbgusa.com

The subject heading of the email should be “Curious Garden Contest”.

(2) Regular Mail: You may enter by filling out the entry form (located at the end of the Official Rules), having a parent or guardian sign it on the child's behalf, TOGETHER WITH A COPY OF THE SUBMISSION and mailing it postage prepaid, to:

Entries
Curious Garden Contest
Hachette Book Group
237 Park Avenue, Attention: AM 15-161C
York, NY 10017

Entries should be received by May 8th 2009.

Here is William's entry. When you say garden to him he immediately thinks of vegetables! I, however, think of Monet. *Sigh*

Poetry Makers - Betsy Franco

I've been a fan of Betsy Franco's for quite a while now, as I have used her poems, picture books, and professional books for teachers regularly in my classroom. However, it was her book Mathematickles! that made me stand up and take notice. A girl and her cat take readers through the seasons, from fall through summer's end. Each page is filled with math problems in which the numbers are replaced with words. Whether it's addition, subtraction, multiplication or division, the connection between the math and language makes for an irresistible combination. Here are a few examples of what you'll find in this inventive book.

crisp air
shadows tall
+ cat's thick coat
signs of fall

holes + nuts - nuts = squirrel hide & seek

sphere
sphere
+ sphere
snowman

kitten + leaves + branches - meow = pussy willow

You'll also find poems here that use graphs, fractions, and division, but I can't easily reproduce them in Blogger. From the selections above you should have some sense of what you'll find in this book.

Before I talk further about Betsy's work, let's learn a bit more about her.

***************
How did you get started writing poetry?

Betsy: I was a freelance writer, and the math textbook author I was working with asked me to write some math poems for the chapter openers. I never stopped.

Who/what made you want to write?
Betsy: I was a painting major at Stanford and continued painting while working at educational publishing houses. When my first two sons were born, they were so mischievous, I couldn't set up my oil paints, but I desperately needed to do something creative. Creativity keeps me sane and makes me feel alive. I switched my creative energy from painting to writing, as an experiment, and it worked.

What got you hooked on children’s poetry?
Betsy: I respect children and their world and always have. They're fresh, growing, honest, curious, and full of potential.

Have you had any formal poetry training? If not, how did you learn to write what you do?
Betsy: My mentor, Maria Damon, an English professor at the University of Minnesota, taught me most of what I know, mainly about avant garde poetry. I also took a course at Stanford Continuing Education and audited poetry classes at Stanford.

Can describe your poetry writing process?
Betsy: It's different every time. If I'm writing a collection, I collect snippets of ideas in a folder, all on the same theme, and start writing one poem at a time. The actual writing consists of a horrid first draft that I know I'll revise about twenty times. While revising, I get a tingling feeling, as if something magical is happening. I play with the words, and through a sort of improv process, I figure out what the heck I'm trying to say and how. On the other hand, some of my picture books that are poetry, such as Pond Circle or Bees, Snails, and Peacock Tails, came out on paper without a horrid first draft. Nature inspires me. But, of course, I revised them, too.

What are the things you enjoy most about writing poetry for children/young adults?
Betsy: It keeps me looking closely at the world around me, it keeps me in the present. I notice all the details and nuances of their world. Children and young adults are unpredictable and I love that. I visit an elementary school around the corner every morning and a high school on occasion.

Do you have a favorite among all the poems/poetry books you have written?
Betsy: I suppose Mathematickles is my favorite because it is the most unusual. But my favorite is always my most recent, so my 2008 and 2009 books, A Curious Collection of Cats, Messing Around on the Monkey Bars, and Falling Hard: 100 Love Poems by Teenagers are my favorites of the moment. My forthcoming novel, Metamorphosis: Junior Year (October 2009) is both prose and poetry, and I had a wonderful time writing that.

Pop Quiz!
Your favorite dead poet?
Betsy: bp nichols, a Canadian poet, is my favorite dead poet and Bob Grumman, who does math poetry, is my favorite living poet.

Your favorite place to write?
Betsy: I love to write in my office, looking out at the backyard, the hummingbird feeder, and the squirrels trying to eat the grain from the other birdfeeder. My cats, Frida and Jayda, sit on my desk. They're my muses.

Favorite quote on writing/poetry?
Betsy: "It has a tune, but not rhyming." Young-Ju Lee, third grade (from my book Conversations with a Poet, Inviting Poetry into K-12 Classrooms)

Your nominee for the next Children’s Poet Laureate?
Betsy: Lee Bennett Hopkins

***************

In her book Math Poetry: Linking Language and Math in a Fresh Way, Betsy wrote:

Before it was common practice, my seventh-grade algebra teacher made a link between literature and math. After he introduced us to the math in Lewis Carroll's Alice Through the Looking Glass, I never looked back.

Never looked back indeed. In Counting Our Way to the 100th Day! Betsy offers up 100 poems that include the number 100 in some form. The poems come in a range of sizes, shapes, forms, and topics. Here are a few examples.

100 Cats' Eyes

Two eyes,
four eyes,
six eyes bright—
glowing cats' eyes in the night.
Counting's easy in the dark
when each eye's a flashing spark.

As you're counting, use these clues:
Find the pairs and count by twos.
Count beneath the moonlit skies
till you've reached one hundred eyes.


Dandelions

Blow gently on a dandelion
when it's changed its clothes to white,
and then your very special wish
will actually take flight.

One hundred little parachutes
will float around the town
and plant themselves in people's yards
to spread the wishes around.

In Lee Bennett Hopkins' anthology Marvelous Math: A Book of Poems, you'll find this piece by Betsy.

Math Makes Me Feel Safe

Math isn't just adding
and subtracting.
Now for me.

Math makes me feel safe
knowing that my brother will always be
three years younger than I am,
and every day of the year will have
twenty-four hours.
That a snowflake landing on my mitten
will have exactly six points,
and that I can make new shapes
from my Tangram pieces
whenever I feel lonely.

Math isn't just adding
and subtracting,
Now for me.

Math makes me feel safe.

In January I reviewed one of Betsy's newer books, Bees, Snails, & Peacock Tails (2008). Illustrated by Steve Jenkins, Betsy's poetic text explores surprising and hidden shapes and patterns in nature. Here are the excerpts on moths and snakes.

Moths show their symmetry
every spring,
flitting at night
on fragile wings.

Notice the colors
and stunning "eyes,"
perfectly matched
on either side.

Attracted to windows
or candlelight,
moths are kaleidoscope shapes
in flight.


On diamondback snakes
and on copperhead snakes
you'll recognize diamond and triangle shapes.

The snake rubs its nose on a branch or a rock,
then takes off its skin like a knee-high sock.

Off comes the old skin and waiting below,
repeating designs appear in a row.

Betsy has been very busy and already mentioned she has a number of poetry books coming out this year. A Curious Collection of Cats received a glowing review over at A Fuse #8 Production. Messing Around on the Monkey Bars: and Other School Poems for Two Voices will be released in July. Here's a poem from that collection.

Anatomy Class

The chair has
arms.
The clock,
a face.
The kites have
long and twirly tails.
The tacks have
heads.
The books have
spines.
The toolbox has
a set of nails.
Our shoes have
tongues,
the marbles,
eyes.

The wooden desk has
legs and seat.
The cups have
lips.
My watch has
hands.
The classroom rulers all have
feet.

Heads, arms, hands, nails,
spines, legs, feet, tails,
face, lips, tongues, eyes.

What a surprise!

Is our classroom alive?

In the Simon & Schuster poetry brochure entitled Celebrate Poetry, Betsy had this to say about her secret poetry desire.

What’s my secret hope? I hope that mathematicians become poets and poets become mathematicians after reading my books. I’ve seen it happen over and over. It could happen to you.

Now that's one dream I'd love to see come true.

If you'd like to learn more about Betsy and her work, check out the sites below.

• Betsy's web site
• Interview at Young Adult (& Kids) Books Central Blog
  
• Author profile at teenreads.com
• Scholastic biography
• Who Wrote That? interview with Patricia Newman
  

Hats off to Betsy for participating in the Poetry Makers series.

All poems ©Betsy Franco. All rights reserved.