Whenever I’m on the subway, I’m always on the lookout for one of the MTA’s “Poetry in Motion” posters. “Poetry in Motion” is a joint project between the Poetry Society of America and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Poetry is placed in “transit systems of cities throughout the country, helping to create a national readership for both emerging and established poets.”
Earlier this week, on my way to hear Colum McCann interview Elizabeth Strout about her new book, My Name is Lucy Barton (Random House, 2016), I was on a packed rush hour train and couldn’t tell if there was a poem in the car or not. However, later in the evening, the train was almost empty and I easily spotted this beauty by Patrick Phillips:
This was a perfect end to a perfect evening. McCann, author of Let the Great World Spin, which won the National Book Award, and the critically acclaimed Thirteen Ways of Looking, and Strout were smart, funny, and insightful. Their conversation revolved around My Name is Lucy Barton in particular and writing in general. And although both Strout and McCann are primarily novelists, their finely observed prose is infused with poetry.
I couldn’t keep up trying to write down all of McCann and Strout’s wise words about writing, but I do remember Strout saying that her eyes and ears are always open, that she loves to listen. I also found this on McCann’s website: “Put your faith in language.” And this “So this, then, is a word, not without love, to a young writer: write.”
Please be sure to visit Keri Collins at Keri Recommends for the Poetry Friday Round Up.
“The stories humans tell are a long conversation about what it means to be human.” Gene Luen Yang
Twitter and Facebook were filled with reading challenges for 2016 over New Year’s weekend. Because I’m always reading at least 2 books, I don’t usually pay much attention to these challenges. But I was drawn to the last item on New York City’s Strand Book Store’s “Reading Resolution” list: “Read the book you’ve lied about reading.”
There is one Very Famous Children’s Classic that I have never been able to get through. As an English major and a reading teacher, this has bothered me for many years. I have tried reading it as an adult to no avail. So I vowed this would be the year. (I’m not telling which book, but I am currently on page 112.)
Back at school last Monday, I was meeting with Anita, our 5th grade Language Arts teacher, about their current reading unit when I noticed their 40 book challenge display. Some kids were making great progress, but others only had one or two books listed. “Why don’t we make reading resolutions with the kids?” I suggested. She loved the idea, but we agreed that we should change lying about having read a book.
A quick Google search led me to Modern Mrs. Darcy’s challenge. She has twelve categories, one for each month. I took a few categories from her list, along with a few from the Strand’s list to create a list of resolutions for the fifth grade.
Modern Mrs. Darcy’s list
I introduced this list with a general discussion about why we read in the first place, and shared the above quote from our new Ambassador for Young People’s Literature. Then we talked about resolutions and setting goals in general, and the importance of making a resolution that was realistic. I pointed out to the kids that even though some of them were making great progress toward forty books, the categories on our list might help them if they weren’t sure what to read next.
Our Reading Resolutions
I offered a few suggestions, including confessing to them about the Very Famous book I’ve never read, although I told them it intimidated me when I was a kid. I think that made a few of them quite determined to read it now! These kids were born in 2005, the year after The Tale of Despereaux was published, so I brought that along as a possible option. The movie version of Roald Dahl’s classic, The BFG, is coming out in July, so I suggested that as a book they could read before they see the movie. We also watched the movie trailer, and quite a few of them thought that would be a good place to start their reading resolutions.
Soon there was a long list of recommendations from friends on the board, and kids were encouraging their friends to try a book they’d abandoned earlier in the year. I created official “Reading Resolution” forms that we all filled out, including Anita, our principal, and myself. These are on display so we can help each other along as we work toward keeping our Reading Resolutions.
A week later, most of the kids are still buzzing about their books, although a few confessed to me yesterday that they hadn’t read over the weekend because they were too busy. I resisted my urge to scream and gently reminded them that there must have been at least ten minutes somewhere over two days when they could have read a few pages. Maybe that’s where our resolutions should have started!
I’ll keep you posted about our progress. What are your reading resolutions?
So far I’ve been feeling pretty overwhelmed in 2016. This is my own fault. I am a procrastinator. I make piles of things to do tomorrow. Laundry to put away, magazine articles and books to read stack up until I don’t know where to start. I’m not proud of this, but there it is. I’ve come to realize that this leads me to nothing but regret, particularly about those things I just never do. I do know I can’t think of anything I’ve ever done that I truly regret. So I should just do it, right? But what is the opposite of procrastinate?
Online sources aren’t helpful. Forge, forward, and expedite are all listed, as is proactive. Each one of these is fine as a stance, but none appeal to me as a word to live by.
This morning, even though I was without a word, I decided not to procrastinate any longer and forged ahead with the vacuuming I’d been putting off. Sure enough, as I pushed the beater bar back and forth across the living room rug, the word present popped into my head.
Present. The more I considered this word, the more it appealed to me. It has so many meanings, but two immediately came to mind: The here and now and a gift. It seems to me these are really the same thing. To be present right here, right now, is a gift. To be able to sit in my warm kitchen and write these words is a gift. To look out the window and watch the rain drip off the maple tree’s bare branches is a gift.
I’m not under any illusion that it will be easy to give up my habit of procrastinating, although as I get older, putting things off makes less sense. What am I waiting for, after all? Or, more to the point, what am I afraid of? My yoga teacher always tell us that when we find our mind has wandered, return to the breath. This seems an appropriate response to procrastination as well. When I find myself stewing over where to start, I’ll remember to just breathe, and return to the present. Who knows what gifts I’ll find waiting there.
Created in Canva, using a photo of a gorgeous hawk I took while out on a walk last week.
Margaret Simon has invited bloggers to share their OLWs on her DigiLit Sunday Roundup today. Please be sure to visit her there to see her students’ Canva creations.
Winter has finally arrived in Connecticut. Despite the lack of snow, a blast of arctic air sent the temperature plummeting. When it’s this cold, our cat, Noodles, who spends most of the summer outside, is never far from my side. Most of the time, he’s snuggled up next to me, but he sometimes chooses some surprising napping spots.The other day I found him curled up in a laundry basket filled with old socks that need sorting, and I immediately thought of this poem.
“Cats” by Eleanor Farjeon
Cats sleep Anywhere, Any table, Any chair, Top of piano, Window-ledge, In the middle, On the edge, Open drawer, Empty shoe, Anybody’s lap will do, Fitted in a Cardboard box, In the cupboard With your frocks— Anywhere! They don’t care! Cats sleep Anywhere.
This is based on a true story, although it didn’t happen to me. When a friend told me she lost her Fitbit at Five Guys, I knew I had to write a poem using that line. I’ve taken a lot of poetic license in this draft, so please don’t judge my friend!
Be sure to visit Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading for the Poetry Friday Roundup. I wish you all a New Year filled with family and friends, happiness and good health, and success with your resolutions!
“Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.”
E.L. Doctorow
This quote is perfect and true.
Over a year ago, I began writing a story about a girl who falls out of a tree and breaks her arm. When I started writing, I didn’t know much more than that. I didn’t even know why she was in the tree in the first place. But that didn’t stop me. I kept writing and have learned much about this girl.
Then, last spring, I got sidetracked by another idea. All my writing energy went into this new project. However, as it often does, life intervened and both projects have been on the back burner for a few months.
Now, though, I feel ready to move on. I’m curious about what’s going on with this girl. More than a year later, she still has her arm in a cast. Surely that bone must be healed by now!
So yesterday I just started writing. I had no plan, no idea what what was going on with this character. But, true to Doctorow’s words, I figured it out (or at least got a better idea). It turned out that she wanted to make popcorn balls. So we made popcorn balls. This endeavor wasn’t completely successful, as the sugar and molasses tasted slightly burned. But the process of making this old family recipe revealed priceless details that I’d long forgotten.
Who knows what lies ahead for this character, or if this scene will end up as part of her story. I have an idea of how events will go, but I don’t know for sure. And that’s why I love Doctorow’s quote. I don’t have to know. I’ll figure it out. All I have to do is keep writing.
The minstrels played their Christmas tune
To-night beneath my cottage-eaves;
While, smitten by a lofty moon,
The encircling laurels, thick with leaves,
Gave back a rich and dazzling sheen,
That overpowered their natural green.
Through hill and valley every breeze
Had sunk to rest with folded wings:
Keen was the air, but could not freeze,
Nor check, the music of the strings;
So stout and hardy were the band
That scraped the chords with strenuous hand.
And who but listened?–till was paid
Respect to every inmate’s claim,
The greeting given, the music played
In honour of each household name,
Duly pronounced with lusty call,
And “Merry Christmas” wished to all.
Wishing you all a joyous holiday season! Be sure to visit Irene at Live Your Poem for the Poetry Friday Roundup.
My husband loves Harry & David’s Royal Riviera pears and I give him a box every year for Christmas. I thought of this poem when I bought them yesterday.
“While Eating a Pear”
by Billy Collins
After we have finished here
the world will continue its quiet turning
and the years will still transpire,
but now without their numbers,
and the days and months will pass
without the names of Norse and Roman gods.
Time will go by the way it did
before history, pure and unnoticed,
a mystery that arose between the sun and moon
before there was a word for dawn
or noon or midnight,
My One Little Word for 2015 was “discover.” I feel now like the housekeeper in the Bing Crosby movie White Christmas when she says, “sometimes you find out things you wish you hadn’t.” How could I have known that I’d discover what it was like to watch my 32 year old daughter-in-law lose her battle with metastatic melanoma? Or that I’d learn that hearts really do ache when they’re broken?
Everything else I discovered this year has the shadow of Julia’s death hanging over it. We’ve gone back to a semblance of daily life; I’ve even done most of the Christmas baking I usually do. But thoughts of Julia and Michael are never far from the surface. My grief for their lost life together is sometimes paralyzing, as is my worry about Michael’s life to come.
I know that our family is not the only family missing a loved one this holiday season. Sadly, the headlines have been too full of violent and untimely loss. That doesn’t make it any easier.
I’m not sure I’ll choose a word for 2016. Maybe I’m being superstitious, but it feels like tempting fate. Or maybe I will choose a word. That word is love. Because love is truly what has helped us all survive the past four months. And maybe that’s the most important discovery of all.
Scrolling through Twitter earlier this week, I came across this:
Sounds intriguing, right? So I checked it out. Susanna Leonard Hill is the author of several picture books, including Punxsutawny Phyllis (Holiday House, 2005). The contest, which ends at midnight, is to:
“Write a children’s story (children here defined as approximately age 12 and under) beginning with any version of ‘Rocking around the Christmas tree at the Christmas party hop.'”
Immediately, the wheels started turning. After several false starts and many revisions, here’s my entry:
“Pouncing Around the Christmas Tree”
Pouncing around the Christmas tree, while the humans are away. Such a happy, joyous spree, It’s a feline holiday.
Pouncing around the Christmas tree, now the garland’s in a heap. Spying an angel on the crown, I can reach her if I leap.
Shiny tinsel dangles, It’s a sight I do adore. Candy canes and twinkling lights. Look at that angel soar!
Pouncing around the Christmas tree, ribbons to frazzle and fling. Batting at ornaments with glee, watching them sway and swing.
No more tinsel dangles, and the ornaments are smashed. All the lights are in a tangle, Oops, the tree toppled and crashed!
Yowling under the Christmas tree, Now my fun is at an end. Through bent branches I try to flee, before they catch me and I’m penned!
![© Nevit Dilmen [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0) or GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://readingtothecore.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/happy_new_year_01-svg.png?w=247&h=241)
![By Hovey, C. M. (Charles Mason), 1810-1887 [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons](https://readingtothecore.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/curc3a9.jpg?w=259&h=400)
Reading to the Core 