Celebrating National Poetry Month normally begins by reading or listening to poetry, but one recent film which distills the vivid imagery conjured by poetry into a distinct and celebratory narrative is the film Howl . Howl tells the story of the famous poem created by Allen Ginsberg and the following...
Then the Poetry Writer’s Workshop is for you! Instructor Shawna Rodenberg, local poet and Creative Writing MFA candidate, will lead this two part workshop on poetry. Participants will explore traditional poetry styles and forms and learn techniques to develop their own work. For teens and adults...
A Snack Attack Sonnet Alas! Snack Attack where have ye gone!!! We broke bread, we listened to song We cracked jokes, we celebrated in style And regaled one another with tales of heady times bearing imagination's sails. Around the world, we traversed the miles From China and its explosive New Year...
98 young poets in grades K-12 submitted 130 poems to McCollough Branch for our first (annual?) Poetry Month celebration and contest. Subjects ranged from the African Plains to a humble Hoosier mushroom, from love and friendship to the wisdom of starting over. We hope that all those who participated enjoyed...
Jon Agee has a new book called Orangutan Tongs , and the subtitle is a perfect description -- Poems to Tangle Your Tongue. I found myself wanting to read them out loud. Here's the beginning of a real tongue twister: A three-toed tree toad tried to tie/ A two-toed tree toad's shoe. / But tying...
If I had discovered a book like this when I was in the fourth grade trying to write all different kinds of poetry for school assignments life would have been a whole lot easier. And more fun. Each page of this delightful book is an independent haiku. Taken together the haiku form the complete story of...
That poem by Frank G. Burgess might be the first one I ever learned, and I got a lot of enjoyment out of it. At least until I turned 8 or so. I don't think of myself as much interested in poetry, and certainly don't write any. (Well, except for when I write new words for familiar tunes and drive...
Another post to this blog mentioned Sherman Alexie's book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian , which I checked out, read, and thoroughly enjoyed. "I want more ," I said to myself, and set out to discover more about this writer. Wow! I didn't realize I'd already crossed...
Miss Stretchberry loves poetry, and makes it part of her classroom every day. In Love That Dog , we meet Jack, who thinks poetry isn't for boys, and that he can't understand it. The story is told through Jack's poetry assignments. As the year unfolds, he finds that poems do have something...