Public Announcement – April is 30 Poets / 30 Days

Please stop by Gotta Book this month (the sooner the better) to follow along with new, unpublished poems posted daily from a wide range of poets including Jon Agee, Doug Cushman, Nancy Bo Flood, Mary Lee Hahn and Naomi Shihab Nye, to name only a handful.  The full list is found in the left-hand column at Gotta Book.

I signed up last year and enjoyed reading a different poem every day.  This is a great way for me to open a portal into an area that I don’t feel is my strong suit.  I like poetry but I’m not drawn to it in the same way I’m drawn to other forms of narratives.

And speaking of poetry, I’d like to drawn your attention to Spinning Through the Universe: a novel in poems from Room 214 by Helen Frost. (A poet who participated in last year’s 30 Poets/30 Days event.)

A school year is depicted through poems written by a fictional fifth grade class that introduces us to the everyday realities of their lives (homelessness, abuse, teasing, death of a parent) and the ups and downs (good marks, bad marks, being late, homework, supporting each other)  that make up a year in Mrs. Williams’ classroom.

There’s a section at the back of the book that explains the poetic forms the author chose and how she sometimes deviated from the rules occasionally.   She’s used a good many different forms (many I've not heard of) including blank verse, tanka, pantoum, acrostic, kyrielle, bragi, rondelet, haiku and many others.

A lovely, short read filled with everyday details that I’d recommend for middle school grades (5-8).