Poetry Friday: Sail Away to Fairyland

September 30, 2016September 30, 2016 Catherine Flynn10 Comments

Once again, I’m down to the wire meeting Michelle Heidenrich Barnes’s ditty challenge. This month, Jane Yolen challenged Michelle’s readers to “Write a poem in which reading and or writing is featured in the form of a septercet.” How hard could that be?

As it turns out, I had a very hard time figuring out my way into this poem. How to narrow down a lifetime of reading and writing? Then, this line, from “Do-Re-Mi” and The Sound of Music came into my head: “Let’s start at the very beginning…” Suddenly, I was on my grandmother’s lap and she was reading Jack the Giant Killer, by Harold Lentz, to me. This book belonged to my uncle when he was little, and it was a favorite of mine and my cousins because of its fabulous pop-up scenes.

Here is a draft of the septercet inspired by this book.

“Sail Away to Fairyland”

Nestled on my grandma’s lap,
she opens a book and I’m
sailing off to fairyland.

A magic castle rises,
princess slumbering within,
the prince arrives to wake her.

Turn the page. Red Riding Hood
knocks on Grandma’s door. Beware!
A devious wolf awaits.

One story ends, another
begins. “Fee, fi, fo, fum,” hums
a hungry, fearsome giant.

Just in time, Jack saves the day,
rescues friends from a sad fate.
But Giant, enraged, gives chase,

lumbering down the beanstalk.
Will Jack get away? He grabs
an axe, chops with all his might.

Tales now told, the book is closed.
You know how this story ends.
Happily ever after.

1310744-3 — My favorite pop-up, Sleeping Beauty’s castle.

Thank you, Michelle and Jane, for sparking this trip down memory lane. Please be sure to visit Karen Edmisten at The Blog With the Shockingly Clever Title for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Poetry Friday: The Roundup is Here!

September 22, 2016September 22, 2016 Catherine Flynn35 Comments

Welcome to the Poetry Friday Roundup! I’m so glad you stopped by. You’re in for a real treat! Not only will you find links to other Poetry Friday posts, I’m thrilled to share poems and illustrations from Grumbles From the Town: Mother-Goose Voices With a Twist (WordSong, 2016), Jane Yolen and Rebecca Kai Dotlich’s hot-off-the-press companion volume to Grumbles From the Forest (WordSong, 2013), with illustrations by Angela Matteson. I was lucky enough to receive an F&G (folded and gathered) of this book when I was at The Highlights Foundation’s workshop, “The Craft and Heart of Writing Poetry for Children” with Rebecca Kai Dotlich and Georgia Heard.

These poems, that “remix old songs anew,” have broad appeal. Jane and Rebecca chose fourteen favorite nursery rhymes and gave voices to objects, (Jack’s plum), real or imagined secondary characters (Old King Cole’s daughter), or let the main character speak for him or herself (the Queen of Hearts). Young readers will love the playful nature of these poems. Older readers will appreciate the wordplay, such as learning that the dog from “Hey Diddle Diddle” always “hated playing second fiddle.” Some of the poems, such as “Not Another Fall,” explore the backstory of the original rhyme. What was Humpty Dumpty doing on that wall in the first place?

“A Neighbor Gossips to the Gardener
“Not Another Fall” about the Humpty Brothers”

Humpty Dumpty Here’s what I heard:
skates on a wall, SPLAT!
another big tumble, Said to myself, what was that?
another pratfall. A Humpty had fallen
Another big grin to the other side.
when he jumps to his feet. He was roundish,
He’s got loads of jokes and small. Fell from the wall.
that just cannot be beat. Always in places
He’s our class clown; they shouldn’t be.
that’s never in doubt, The the other one tumbled
but that why he’s sitting from an apple tree.
again News came in twos: a cut and a bruise.
in time-out. (Lucky they didn’t break any legs.)
Those Humpty boys
© Jane Yolen, 2016 are mischievous eggs.

Angela Matteson’s whimsical illustrations are perfectly suited to these lively rhymes. Her artwork is infused with personality; who wouldn’t want to live in this shoe?

“Shoe Speaks” “Summer in the Shoe”

I love the sound of giggles It was so hot, living in leather
From the lace-swings in the tree, all day and all night. Sunlight
The thump of running feet spilled through the open top,
As children race on home to me. tumbled down stairs,
rested on the cat.
But best is how I love them Imagine this, imagine that….
When they dream inside my toe. read books in a heel,
Do you doubt a shoe can love? ate supper in a toe.
I have a sole, you know. Blew bubbles
from small windows,
© Jane Yolen, 2016 rolled marbles down the tongue,
bump, bumpity, bump.
Played next door
in a pirate ship–
lots of space to roam.
Still, we liked going home.

Grumbles From the Town also includes the texts of the original nursery rhymes, and I appreciated the fascinating end notes about the origin of each rhyme. The roots of some rhymes have been lost to history, but in most cases the background includes stories that are always interesting, if not always child-friendly.

This collection is a must-have for all elementary classrooms. Students of all ages will enjoy exploring point-of-view through these poems, and the opportunities for children to write their own nursery rhymes “with a twist” are endless! In addition, the possibilities for lessons about vocabulary and word choice abound. But the best reason for sharing this book with children is that these poems are fun to read and full of humor. Thank you, Jane, Rebecca, and Angela for so generously sharing your work today!

Poetry Friday: “Ode to Teachers”

August 19, 2016August 19, 2016 Catherine Flynn16 Comments

I saw a meme on Facebook recently that said something like “August is the Sunday night of summer.” And it’s true. Most teachers I know spend August gearing up for the return of our students. But any grumbling from me is really about the loss of summer’s pace and not about returning to work. For me, this poem by Pat Mora explains why we show up, everyday, with a smile for every child we see.

“Ode to Teachers”
by Pat Mora

I remember
the first day,
how I looked down,
hoping you wouldn’t see
me,
and when I glanced up,
I saw your smile
shining like a soft light
from deep inside you.

“I’m listening,” you encourage us.
“Come on!
Join our conversation,
let us hear your neon certainties,
thorny doubts, tangled angers,”
but for weeks I hid inside.

I read and reread your notes
praising
my writing,
and you whispered,
“We need you
and your stories
and questions
that like a fresh path
will take us to new vistas.”

Read the rest of the poem here.

Wishing you all a year filled with fresh paths and new vistas! Please be sure to visit Dori at Dori Reads for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Poetry Friday: “The Young Poets of Winnipeg”

August 12, 2016August 12, 2016 Catherine Flynn12 Comments

For the past week, I’ve been at the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project August Reading Institute. Every educator deserves to spend a week learning from the passionate, brilliant people here. Each day, keynote speakers share their latest thinking about reading and reading instruction.

The message this week has been loud and clear: WE ARE WHAT WE READ

Matt de la Peña told us on Tuesday that he believes the job of a young person is to “discover the different possibilities that are in front of you.” If a young person is a nonreader those possibilities are very limited.

Stephanie Harvey implored us to “table the labels.” A student is not a number or a letter. A student is a human being with hopes and dreams and desires. When we label them and allow them to read only books that match that label, we are limiting the possibilities they see for themselves. That is unconscionable.

With all this in mind, this poem, by Naomi Shihab Nye, seemed especially appropriate to share and keep in our minds and hearts as we head back to our classrooms.

“The Young Poets of Winnipeg”
by Naomi Shihab Nye

scurried around a classroom papered with poems.
Even the ceiling, pink and orange quilts of phrase…
They introduced one another, perched on a tiny stage
to read their work, blessed their teacher who
encouraged them to stretch, wouldn’t let their parents
attend the reading because parents might criticize,
believed in the third and fourth eyes, the eyes in
the underside of leaves, the polar bears a thousand miles north,
and sprouts of grass under the snow. They knew their poems
were glorious, that second-graders could write better
that third or fourth…

Read the rest of the poem here.

Wishing you all a wonderful school year! Please be sure to visit Julieanne at To Read To Write To Be for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Poetry Friday: Where Poems Hide

August 5, 2016August 5, 2016 Catherine Flynn11 Comments

As summer winds down, thoughts turn to the start of school. Each new year brings new faces new challenges, new curriculum, but poetry remains a constant. Krista Tippet’s interview with Naomi Shihab Nye on last week’s episode of On Being (a must-listen!) prompted me to revisit “Valentine for Ernest Mann” and think about where poems are hiding in my life.

Here is a draft of one I found outside my kitchen window one morning this week:

Poems hide.
They lie crouched in the tall grass
at the edge of a thicket
where each morning
a tawny rabbit emerges
to nibble his breakfast
of grass and sweet clover.
His ears stand at attention,
alert for the slightest sound,
eyes peeled
for the shadow of a hawk,
legs coiled in readiness
to flee back into
the safety of the thorns.

By M2545 (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

I’m looking forward to returning to school and learning where poems are hiding in the lives of my students.

Please be sure to visit Tara Smith at A Teaching Life for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Poetry Friday: “The Peace of Wild Things”

July 29, 2016July 29, 2016 Catherine Flynn16 Comments

“The Peace of Wild Things”
by Wendell Berry

When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the lease sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things…

Read the rest of the poem here

By Dcordero7965 at English Wikipedia (Transferred from en.wikipedia to Commons.) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Please be sure to visit Margaret Simon at Reflections on the Teche for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Poetry Friday: Play Ball!

July 22, 2016July 22, 2016 Catherine Flynn9 Comments

My sister’s dog, Lily, loves chasing balls. During a recent visit to my sister’s, Lily’s joy and exuberance were on full display as she and my brother-in-law played ball.

Black fur blurs,
a rocket zooming across the lawn.
She leaps, her quarry captured,
then tumbles to the ground.
Sphinx-like, she waits,
guarding her ball on the sun-dappled grass,
ever eager for the next round of fetch.

Please be sure to visit Chelanne at Books 4 Learning for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Poetry Friday: Grains of Sand

July 15, 2016 Catherine Flynn7 Comments

How can we make sense of yet another horrific act of senseless violence? Yesterday’s events in France have me in a state of despair. The light-hearted poem I had planned to share today now seems inappropriate. What to share instead?

As I walked my dog this morning, I was hyperaware of my surroundings, noticing traces of spider webs, ripening blackberries, and the cacophony of bird songs. Noticing the beauty of the world right in front of me. Somehow all this noticing reminded of me of this poem, which I wrote several years ago.

994867_638109806210034_1779419702_n — Sand, magnified 250x via Science is Awesome http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m0rvfs8x3j1qbwfjko1_500.jpg

The Sand Beneath Our Feet

Sometimes in our busy lives,
we brush others aside
as carelessly as we brush
the sand off our feet
after a day at the beach.

But what if we stopped,
took a moment
for a closer look?

What wonders might be revealed to us?

The geologist, turning
her microscope to those few
grains of sand,
is rewarded with
an astonishing menagerie:

crystal jacks,
ivory sea urchins,
golden honeycombs,
swirls of pink cotton candy,
amber snails, spiraling ever inward.

Shaped by forces beyond our ken,
each one as different from the other
as you and I.

What pressures shaped you?
What winds and rains have buffeted you about?
What marvels have been forged
in the depths of your heart?

Please be sure to visit Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Poetry Friday: Slipping into Summer Mode

July 1, 2016July 1, 2016 Catherine Flynn11 Comments

Summer. Thoughts turn to mornings of clearing away the clutter of a busy school year and lazy afternoons with a book, days at the beach, adventures near and far. But most of all, TIME to write! It’s been a slow transition for me this year, though, as I’ve been writing curriculum and taking care of other work obligations that seem to have no end. I’ve been de-cluttering like mad, but my writing has come in fits and starts and feels stale and stilted. The best remedy for this? Read poetry, of course!

So I revisited one of my favorite anthologies from the past few years, Firefly July (Candlewick Press, 2014). This entire collection, selected by Paul B. Janeczko and brilliantly illustrated by Melissa Sweet, radiates joy. On every page, poets surprise and delight with perfect images and metaphors. “A Happy Meeting”, by Joyce Sidman, is just one example.

Joyce’s poetry always gives me a jump start, and I remembered she has a new book coming out, so I went searching for more about that. As you may know, Before Morning, with illustrations by Beth Krommes, will be published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in the fall. And although I didn’t find too much about that book, I did find this interview, from 2010, with Julie Danielson at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

At the very bottom of the page, this treasure is waiting:

“How to Find a Poem”
by Joyce Sidman

Wake with a dream-filled head.
Stumble out into the morning,
barely aware of how the sun
is laying down strips of silver
after three days’ rain,
of how the puddles
are singing with green.

Read the rest of the poem here.

Wishing you all sweet, dream-filled summer days! Please be sure to visit Tabatha Yeatts at The Opposite of Indifference for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

Poetry Friday: “Stanzas for a Sierra Morning”

June 24, 2016June 24, 2016 Catherine Flynn6 Comments

Sometimes when we read a poem there’s an instant connection between us and the poet. Someone we’ve never met, maybe even never heard of, has managed a magical transformation of words into phrases into stanzas that reach into our heart, like the first rays of sunlight bathing the tips of tree branches in its yellow glow. In that moment we know we’ve found a treasure worth keeping.

In her poem “Wish”, Linda Sue Park captures this process perfectly:

Wish
by Linda Sue Park

For someone to read a poem
again, and again, and then,

having lifted it from page
to brain– the easy part—

cradle it on the longer trek
from brain all the way to heart.

From Tap Dancing on the Roof; Sijo Poems (Clarion, 2007)

Not every poem we read, and certainly not every poem we write, makes that journey. And yet, we soldier on. We keep reading, we keep writing, because, as Katherine Bomer reminds us, “the journey is everything.”

When I first read this poem by Robert Haas, I knew I’d found a treasure that made that journey.

“Stanzas for a Sierra Morning”
by Robert Haas

Looking for wildflowers, the white yarrow
With its deep roots for this dry place
And fireweed which likes disturbed ground.

There were lots of them, bright white yarrow
And the fireweed was the brilliant magenta
Some women put on their lips for summer evenings.

The water of the creek ran clear over creekstones
And a pair of dove-white plovers fished the rills
A sandbar made in one of the turnings of the creek.

You couldn’t have bought the sky’s blue.

Read the rest of the poem here.

Please be sure to visit Diane Mayr at Random Noodling for the Poetry Friday Roundup.

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Tag: Poetry Friday

Poetry Friday: Sail Away to Fairyland

Poetry Friday: The Roundup is Here!

Poetry Friday: “Ode to Teachers”

Poetry Friday: “The Young Poets of Winnipeg”

Poetry Friday: Where Poems Hide

Poetry Friday: “The Peace of Wild Things”

Poetry Friday: Play Ball!

Poetry Friday: Grains of Sand

Poetry Friday: Slipping into Summer Mode

Poetry Friday: “Stanzas for a Sierra Morning”