Blurbs from the Branch: Concrete Poems

When I was in high school, I have to admit I was not fond of poetry and dreaded those units in my English classes.  However, if I had come across John Grandits’ concrete poems in Technically, It’s Not My Fault  and Blue Lipstick  I would have felt very differently.  Concrete poetry is poetry where words and art are arranged in the shape of the poem’s topic. 

 In Technically, It’s Not My Fault, Grandits writes in the voice of Robert, an eleven-year-old boy who chronicles his school and family life in 28 hilarious poems.  A recurring topic is his annoyance with his older teenage sister, Jessie, who suffers from Robert’s pranks in the poems “Bloodcurdling Screams” and “It’s Not Fair.”  However, don’t worry about Jessie – she gets her turn to get even with Robert in Blue Lipstick.  In addition to playing a few jokes on her brother, Jessie writes poems to her cat and describes the emotional ups and downs of teenage life in the poems “Bad Hair Day” and “A Chart of My Emotional Day.” 

 I laughed out loud while reading the poems in both books, as Grandits does a wonderful job depicting the thoughts and feelings of a tween boy and his older teenage sister. 

-Marianne

The inside scoop: Learning about poetry from Stephen Fry

The Ode Less Travelled: unlocking the poet within by Stephen Fry

 “Acrostics have been popular for years; nineteenth-century children produced them instead of watching television—those who were lucky enough not to be sent down chimneys or kidnapped by gangs of pickpockets did, anyway.”

           Reading The Ode Less Traveled, and working on the writing exercises, is like taking a class from a brilliant and charming professor who wants nothing more than to see you share his passion for the subject, but who isn’t going to go easy on you, either. 

          Fry is not a professional poet, but he takes the subject very seriously.  He covers form, meter, and rhyme patterns in a depth that would be perfectly acceptable in a college textbook.  Sestina, villanelle, acrostic, Petrarchan sonnet, trochee, spondee and hexameter are all terms he would like the reader to be familiar with and able to apply to their own verse by the end of the book.  But his style is conversational and witty, so (to continue the college analogy) it’s less like getting a lecture and more like being in a really laid back and interesting seminar.   

          And this is Stephen Fry we’re talking about.  He’s a very charming, very witty man and like every really good teacher he knows when to make you laugh: 

 “If you already know your feet and think that this is really an amphibrach, a dactyl and two iambs, I’m afraid I shall have to kill you.”

–Amy

Straight out of the box: Caroline Kennedy’s poetry collections

Pam recently discovered Caroline Kennedy’s A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children, which she called “quietly satisfying.”  This anthology collects over one hundred poems that have been meaningful to Kennedy throughout her life.  She has chosen them to be read aloud to children, but they are not all necessarily children’s poems.  Jack Prelutsky and Nikki Giovanni are here, but Robert Frost, Walt Whitman, Seamus Heaney and Ted Hughes are all represented, as well.  Kennedy includes her own thoughts and memories and there are illustrations throughout by Jon Muth, whose work you may have seen in the Caldecott Honor book, Zen Shorts.

Kennedy has edited several other poetry anthologies for all ages. All are also available as audiobooks narrated by the likes of James Earl Jones, Edward Kennedy, Campbell Scott, Hope Davis and Jane Alexander.

Best-loved Poems of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

A Patriot’s Handbook: songs, poems, stories, and speeches celebrating the land we love.  The audio version of this title includes archival recordings of many of the speeches and poems.

And, newly released in 2011, She Walks in Beauty: a Woman’s Journey Through Poems.

National Poetry Month

April is a big month in the world of poetry. Not only is it National Poetry Month, but two major awards were announced this month. The Pulitzer Prize in Poetry went to Rae Armantrout for her book Versed. And Governor Ted Kulongoski announced that Paulann Petersen will serve as Oregon’s sixth Poet Laureate.

Petersen succeeds Lawson Fusao Inada, and will serve as Laureate for two years.  Oddly enough, Lawson was the teacher of the first poetry class Petersen took! You can learn more about our newest Laureate at her website and place hold on her poetry books in the catalog.

Through the end of the month, a display in the Cedar Mill branch celebrates poetry. Check it out and discover some wonderful poetry

New Library Newsletter: Cedar Mill Reads

In addition to our posts here, we’re also offering a twice-monthly newsletter, edited by CMCL librarians, for ideas for your next great read, movie or audio experience. Available online, or subscribe for email or RSS delivery. 

In this first issue of Cedar Mill Reads, Liz offers an eclectic list from fiction to screwy haiku, with lots of serious thinking with time out for a bit of fun. Happy Holidays and Happy Reading!