Robyn Hood Black - children's author, poet

Hope you are having a terrific poetry Friday.

My household is hopping with graduation preparations for this weekend � events and incoming family and general hoopla. Our youngest, Seth, is about to become a high school alumnus on his way to college.

What would be a good poem to share with him here? Dr. Seuss�s OH, THE PLACES YOU�LL GO comes to mind, as does Frost�s �The Road Less Traveled,� of course. The Academy of American Poets has a list of appropriate poetic offerings for graduates here.

I�ve decided to borrow one from a THE ESSENTIAL RUMI that Seth recently received at a school honors program as co-president of the Honor Council. This is the New Expanded Edition of translations by Coleman Barks (2004, HarperCollins). Selected and presented by a teacher much beloved to our whole family, and one of the hands-down smartest (and most compassionate) folks I know, this book will be treasured by Seth, I�m sure.

Perhaps he�ll like this selection, which speaks to me:

TENDING TWO SHOPS

Don�t run around this world
looking for a hole to hide in.

There are wild beasts in every cave!
If you live with mice,
the cat claws will find you.

The only real rest comes
when you�re alone with God.

Live in the nowhere that you came from,
even though you have an address here.

That�s why you see things in two ways.
Sometimes you look at a person
and see a cynical snake.

Someone else sees a joyful lover,
And you�re both right!

Everyone is half and half,
like the black and white ox.

Jospeh looked ugly to his brothers,
and most handsome to his father.

You have eyes that see from that nowhere,
and eyes that judge distances,
how high and how low.

You own two shops
and you run back and forth.

Try to close the one that�s a fearful trap,
getting always smaller. Checkmate, this way.
Checkmate, that.

Keep open the shop
where you�re not selling fishhooks anymore.
You are the free-swimming fish.

Congratulations to all who are moving the proverbial tassel this season!

For more great poetry, visit Ed at Think Kid Think for this week�s Poetry Friday Roundup. (And find out what Doritos could possibly have to do with the history of Poetry Friday....)

I LOVE student work.

The art, stories, plays, and poetry of children often stop us in our tracks, don�t they?

If I�m in front of a few dozen or hundred kids at a school visit and I solicit some creative contribution from them, there�s a moment of sheer delight when some young mind tosses out an idea or association that I wouldn�t have thought of in a million years. It�s an honor to explore the creative process together.

As we wrap up another school year, I�m thinking of author visits from this year as well as two school visits I still have coming up. Also, my middle school Language Arts teacher friend left me a message yesterday asking if I could judge some work for the county�s creative writing contest (again!). A young student from a school visit years ago has gotten back in touch asking for some guidance regarding his writing. It�s a privilege to be welcomed into a young person�s creative pursuits. And while I hope I can provide a little guidance here and there, the most important thing I can offer is encouragement. On a good day, maybe a dash of inspiration.

Speaking of inspiration, today�s Poetry Friday host and talented poet Elizabeth Steinglass got me to playing with limericks afresh this spring, with her posts about them. (Here's a terrific one from just last week.)

Right before spring break, I visited one of my favorite groups of people around: the students and faculty/staff at Fair Street School, An International Baccalaureate World School, here in north Georgia. We talked all about writing and rang in National Poetry Month. Limerick-fueled, I decided to adapt a creative writing exercise with them especially for Poetry Month.

I started out in my usual way, in the last few minutes of each presentation, asking the students to come up with a humorous character. This character is always a combination of two very different animals, which they name and classify, and which I draw on a large easel pad. Instead of going on to make a group story about this character as is my custom, we made a limerick about it!

The fun we had speaks for itself. You�ll see in these poems that I provided a basic structure for them to jump from. (We discussed the limerick form and clapped out the rhythm before diving in.) Here are the poems from the presentations, combinations of K-5 classes. Since I don�t have the goofy portraits to show (I leave these at the school with the writing), I�ll mention the animal combo before each one.


*************

(Kangaroo/Wolf)

There once was a kangawolf named Ferret
who said, "I think I would like a parrot!
Because it is spring
I must tie a string
and I'm eating a juicy carrot!"

*************

(Horse/Frog)

There once was a horsefrog named Kevin,
who said, "I wish I was eleven!
Because it is spring
I must sing with a ring,
And act my own age, which is seven!

*************

(Cheetah/Snake)

There once was a cheesnake named Mimi,
who said, �I want a boyfriend named Jimmy.
Because it is spring,
I must buy a ring,
And cruise in my new Lamborghini!�

*************

(Bird/Dog)

There once was a birddog named Tuchi,
who said, "I think you're a moochie.
Because it is spring, I must find the king,
and give him a great, big smoochie!"

*************


Aren�t those terrific?

Several of our creative, multi-tasking Poetry Friday bloggers who are teachers feature student creations now and again. Here are a few recent favorites of mine; please feel free to leave more links in the comments!

Mary Lee brought us a wrap-up of her �Common Inspiration � Uncommon Creations� project at a A Year of Reading, with all kinds of enchanting results, including some original sculptures and poetry from some of her students.

At Hubbard�s Headlines, Betsy shared colorful, dusty student masterpieces from her Chalk-A-Bration! 2013 project.

Jone shared lots of student poetry in April at Check it Out
� So, go check it out!

Last but not least, you know there�s always something exciting going on at My Juicy Little Universe, when Heidi shares the adventures of her Mighty Minnows. Enjoy the wonderful kindergarten poetry she posted this week!

(Friday a.m. update) - Just saw Laura Shovan's wonderful post today featuring third graders writing poetry about math. Really! The poems are wonderful. She'll be posting more as her residency continues.

(Sat.) Margaret has some wonderful Mother's Day poetry from students over at Reflections on the Teche.

For more great poetry from writers of all ages, head back over to see what Liz has rounded up for us this week!

(Oh - and for more about how Amy Ludwig VanDerwater's Drawing into Poems project has continued to inspire me to think about drawing, writing, and blind contours - :0) - check out my column this month at Janice Hardy's The Other Side of the Story.

The talented and generous Irene Latham started the Progressive Poem last year and kindly coordinated a new one for 2013. Each day during National Poetry Month , the poem visits a different blog and receives its next line. We�re in the final stretch!

I�ve enjoyed seeing it take shape and peeking behind the scenes as hosts/poets share their ideas about lines they�ve contributed.

Because I can make over-thinking into an art form, I tried not to do that with my little part today. Diane Mayr offered a solid line with delicious ambiguity. (Thanks, Diane!) I liked Diane's idea about bringing the reader in for this last stanza. I wanted to leave room for our four strong finishers, so I hope I�ve left Ruth some play in the steering wheel, too. (The �them� � are they the readers, words, both, something else??)

Here�s the poem:

When you listen to your footsteps
the words become music and
the rhythm that you�re rapping gets your fingers tapping, too.
Your pen starts dancing across the page
a private pirouette, a solitary samba until
smiling, you�re beguiling as your love comes shining through.

Pause a moment in your dreaming, hear the whispers
of the words, one dancer to another, saying
Listen, that�s our cue! Mind your meter. Find your rhyme.
Ignore the trepidation while you jitterbug and jive.
Arm in arm, toe to toe, words begin to wiggle and flow
as your heart starts singing let your mind keep swinging

from life�s trapeze, like a clown on the breeze.
Swinging upside down, throw and catch new sounds�
Take a risk, try a trick; break a sweat: safety net?
Don�t check! You�re soaring and exploring,
dangle high, blood rush; spiral down, crowd hush�
limb-by-line-by-limb envision, pyramidic penned precision.

And if you should topple, if you should flop
if your meter takes a beating; your rhyme runs out of steam�
know this tumbling and fumbling is all part of the act,
so get up with a flourish. Your pencil�s still intact.
Snap those synapses! Feel the pulsing through your pen
Commit, measure by measure, to the coda�s cadence.

You've got them now--in the palm of your hand!
Finger by finger you�re reeling them in�

All yours, Ruth!

Here�s the lineup of where this poem has travelled, and where it has yet to go:


April

1  Amy Ludwig VanDerwater

2  Joy Acey

3  Matt Forrest Esenwine

4  Jone MacCulloch

5  Doraine Bennett

6  Gayle Krause

7  Janet Fagal

8  Julie Larios

9  Carrie Finison

10  Linda Baie

11  Margaret Simon

12  Linda Kulp

13  Catherine Johnson

14  Heidi Mordhorst

15  Mary Lee Hahn

16  Liz Steinglass

17  Renee LaTulippe

18  Penny Klostermann

19  Irene Latham

20  Buffy Silverman

21  Tabatha Yeatts

22  Laura Shovan

23  Joanna Marple

24  Katya Czaja

25  Diane Mayr

26  Robyn Hood Black

27  Ruth Hersey

28  Laura Purdie Salas

29  Denise Mortensen

30  April Halprin Wayland



And, whether you prefer poetry that flits from place to place or stays put, you�ll find plenty more at Writing the World for Kids, where Laura is hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup. Thanks, Laura.

Happy last week of National Poetry Month 2013!

Smack dab in the middle of National Poetry Month is National Haiku Poetry Day � on Wednesday the 17th this week. Let�s continue the celebration with a spotlight on a terrific poet/volunteer from my neck of the woods, and the amazing haiku weekend she�s cooking up for October in Atlanta.

When I started my own haiku journey nearly three years ago, I got in touch with a couple of folks listed as Haiku Society of America members in my region. They were very kind, but there didn�t seem to be an active group at the time.

Then lo and behold, in swoops Terri L. French from Alabama to reach out and rev up the Southeast Region. Before you could catch a falling cherry blossom, she�d arranged the first annual Ginko (haiku walk) Haikufest last fall in Alabama! I was out of town and unable to make it that weekend, so I was thrilled to learn she was putting together another one for this coming fall. More about that in a minute. First, meet Terri!

BIO: Terri L. French lives in Huntsville, Alabama. She is a Licensed Massage Therapist and has been writing haiku and various related forms seriously for the last seven years. In 2012, she placed third and received an honorable mention in The Haiku Society of America's (HSA) Gerald Brady Memorial Award senryu contest and third place in the HSA haibun contest. Terri currently serves as the HSA's southeast regional coordinator and edits the senryu and kyoka journal, Prune Juice .

Here�s Terri�s take on why she became so involved:

The southeast region of the Haiku Society of America has been a little inactive for the last few years. Geographically we are quite spread out. The region includes Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands! Our first annual Ginko Haikufest was held last year in Guntersville, Alabama. This year the conference will be in Atlanta, Georgia. My hopes are that by moving the conference around the region we can garner more interest and become a more cohesive group.

This year's conference "gazing at flowers," celebrating the 250th birthday of Japanese haiku poet Kobayashi Issa, will be even bigger and better than last year's. We will have a special presentation by HSA's president, David Lanoue; an introductory workshop and "blind" critique; a sumi-e Japanese brush painting class; a performance by a taiko drum troupe; a ginko bird walk; and much, much, more.

I am thrilled to be participating and helping out for this event. Here�s the conference info in a nutshell � mark your calendar!

The 2113, SE Haiku Society of America, 2nd Annual Ginko Haikufest, "gazing at flowers," will be Friday October 25 - Sunday, October 27, at the Artmore Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia. Contact Terri French at terri.l.french for registration information and see our events page and the Facebook Haikufest page.

Now, to whet your appetite, two original haiku graciously shared by Terri:

a spot of blood
on the unfinished quilt -
harvest moon

Sketchbook, Vol. 4, issue 5, Sept/Oct, 2009

reflecting pool
trying to see past
what she's not

Frogpond, 34:3, 2011

Poems �Terri L. French. All rights reserved.

Many thanks for joining us today, Terri!

For a thoughtful haiku in response to the tragic events in Boston this week, see Daine Mayr�s poem at Random Noodling.

*** a couple of different notes:

1.) Guess What? The Authors Guild Folks - evidently also known as �Knights of the Internet� - recovered all my lost comments from Poetry Friday two weeks ago! The Roundup itself was lost, but you can find all the links here in the post just under this one (dated 4/18/2013). The content of my original post for that day is here.

2.) How about this for fun? April Halprin Wayland, Irene Latham, and yours truly made the Children�s edition of Publisher�s Weekly yesterday, with a picture of our �Take Five � Create Fun with the Poetry Friday Anthology� workshop at the Fay B. Kaigler Children�s Book Festival in Hattiesburg last week. Click here (and scroll down) to see. Woo hoo!

Speaking of lovely Irene, go see what she�s rounding up for Poetry Friday today at
Live Your Poem.

Today, April 17, is National Haiku Poetry Day!

Go get lost in the links at The Haiku Foundation!

Here's a recent one of mine:

my small insights
a hummingbird
at the trumpet flower

Modern Haiku, Winter-Spring 2013

Friend and poet Elizabeth Steinglass posted some great thoughts for Poetry Friday last week on "Why Haiku?"

And there's always thoughtful haiku love over at poet/librarian Diane Mayr's Random Noodling, where you'll find her "Haiku Sticky" poems and "Happy Haiga Day" offerings, along with links to her other great blogs.

Enjoy!

Greetings from Mississippi, where I�m heading home today after the wonderful Fay B. Kaigler Children�s Book Festival at The University of Southern Mississippi. April and Irene and I had a blast sharing the Poetry Friday Anthology and the Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School (Sylia Vardell and Janet Wong, eds.) with workshop attendees! [Details in my post last week, which was to my utter shock gobbled up somehow in cyberspace, with all the dozens of links folks had left and I�d rounded up - 60-plus comments. Sigh. I reposted my text part here, with our PFA poems.]

I love connecting with other children�s poets, writers and readers. Almost a year ago I had the good fortune to attend my second poetry workshop up at Highlights (post about that here).

Guess whose small group I was in? Eileen Spinelli�s. Yes, that Eileen Spinelli, whose work I�ve admired for many years.

Eileen has poems in these Poetry Friday Anthologies as well. I asked her if I could share her PFA poem from Fourth Grade, Week 29 � �Poetry Poems� � because to me it�s just perfect for National Poetry Month. She kindly agreed.

Today

Today I�m going to pay attention.
To the broken blueness of sky.
To the high weeds in the vacant lot.
To the rusted pot in the alleyway.
Today I�m going to leap across puddles
and steep in green
and all the wild colors in between.
I�m going to listen to
what the birds are singing about,
and to the happy shouts of toddlers on swings.
Today I�m going to gather all my heart can hold
of lemony light and yawning cats
and the bright blur of traffic on the bridge.
Today I�m going to pay attention.
Today I�m going to find myself a poem.

�Eileen Spinelli. All rights reserved.

This poem is particularly delicious when read aloud!

Speaking of Eileen, who is an amazingly generous and prolific writer (of more than 40 books and counting), I�d like to offer a shout-out here for her brand-new picture book, NORA�S ARK (illustrated by Nora Hilb, Zonderkids, 2013).

The ark is just what you�d think, except in Nora�s case the �passenger list includes two backyard spiders, a pair of battery-operated monkeys, and a couple of unimpressed cats.� And Nora does everything just like Noah� well, not just like Noah.

Publisher�s Weekly praised �the respectful exploration of the power of a child�s imagination.�

I absolutely love this book and its ending � perfect for sharing with a child on a rainy day, or any day!

Now, are you ready for some more Eileen Spinelli poetry? Check out �April Foolery,� the poem of the month at her website.

For links to more great poetry all over the Kidlitosphere, please visit the terrifically talented, kitty-loving Diane at Random Noodling for today�s Round Up. Unless you are a cyberspace gremlin.

UPDATE!!! The "Knights of the Internet" recovered all our comments! Click HERE for the links! Hi, folks - On Sunday afternoon a band of virtual Gremlins made off with my Poetry Friday Round Up post with all your wonderful dozens of comments. :0( I have no idea where it is hiding or if it can be retrieved... I've emailed the webhosting folks for help. Apologies if you've come looking for the Round Up (it was such a great week with so many great links!) and reached this message. Fearing the worst, I'll go ahead and re-post my original article here, so you can enjoy some Poetry Friday Anthology poems and interviews.

HAPPY NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!

(from Friday, April 5)
I�m thrilled to be your Poetry Friday Rounder-Upper today � please leave your links in the comments and I�ll post them as the day unfolds. [As noted above, these links have vanished! My apologies for this inconvenience. There were 65 comments...!]

I look forward to hitting the road next week on a long drive to Hattiesburg, Mississippi, for the Fay B. Kaigler Children�s Book Festival at the University of Southern Mississippi. (Yep � they have the wonderful deGrummond Collection, curated by the ever-effervescent Ellen Ruffin.)

April Halprin Wayland , Irene Latham and yours truly will present a poetry panel workshop on Wednesday: Take Five! Create Fun with the Poetry Friday Anthology. We get to share the Poetry Friday Anthology and the new Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School with eager teachers, media specialists, and other interested folks. Thanks to Pomelo Books editors extraordinaire Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell for helping to support this adventure.

Here�s a poem from each of us that we�ll share in our presentation, along with a 10-item Q & A just for fun.

First up, April. Here�s her poem from Grade 6 Week 29 (�Poetry Poems�) in PFAMS:

In the Word Woods

I�m sure there�s a found poem somewhere here.
There usually is this time of year.

Didn�t a red-haired boy lose words
that were found last May by a flightless bird?

And then that search and rescue hound
dug up sixteen poems he�d found.

Listen for falling bulletin boards,
and scowling poem-poaching hordes

who stomp all over this hallowed ground
until the hidden poems are found.

I�ll bring a flashlight, you bring a rake
we�ll get down on our knees and make

a poem from words that have trampolined
off an Internet ad or a magazine

into the woods some starry night
waiting for searching kids who might

find a poem if they�re brave and follow
the hoot of an owl to the end of the hollow.

�April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved.

Quick, April, answer these fast!

Coffee or tea?
Single shot soy latte in a huge cup so they fill it to the top with FOAM!
(My version of whipped cream without the cream)

Milk or dark chocolate?
Dark, sweetened with unsweetened pineapple juice & pear juice concentrate.
(Despite what my husband says, it tastes wonderful!)

Beach or mountains?
Mountain meadow. Even though I live a mile from the beach�

Free verse or forms?
I have to choose?

Drafts: pen and paper or digital?
Both. Either. Depends.

What�s usually playing on your iPod or on Pandora when you are:
Working � instrumental folk, classical piano trios; sometimes NPR
Working out � whatever my gym class teacher is playing

Favorite place to read poetry?
In my home office.

Favorite place to write poetry?
In my home office.
(I love my home office. *sigh*)

Funniest question you�ve ever been asked at a school visit:
"How many books do you write in a week?"

Quick! Three of your favorite-sounding words:
cuspidor, bubble gum, tiddlywinks


Next, Irene�s poem from Grade 5, Week 2 (�More School�) from PFA:

Backpack

I�d say paper
Is my favorite feast �
I love it spiraled,
bound or loose-leaf.

(Pencils poke,
rulers break.
Textbooks give me
A belly ache.)

Whatever you feed me,
I�ll do my best;
you�re the one
Who takes the tests!

�Irene Latham. All rights reserved.

Q & A time, Irene � hit it!

Coffee or tea?
tea

Milk or dark chocolate?
dark

Beach or mountains?
beach at night, mountains by day

Free verse or forms?
freeeeeeeee!

Drafts: pen and paper or digital?
digital all the way

What's usually playing on your iPod or on Pandora when you are:
Working - nada. I work best with silence (though I have learned to write through son's drumming)
Working out - shhhhh, I don't work out.

Favorite place to read poetry?
in bed

Favorite place to write poetry?
in bed (hey, I really like my bed!)

Funniest question you've ever been asked at a school visit:
Would you sign my arm?

Quick! Three of your favorite-sounding words:
honeysuckle, hydrangea, heliotrope

Finally, running out of room on the handout - ;0) � my short little poem from First Grade, Week 10 (�Food�) from PFA:

Snack Rules

Don�t talk with your mouth full �
full of peanut butter:
Anything you try to say
will cmmm out as a mmmttrr.

�Robyn Hood Black. All rights reserved.

And my 10 answers:

Coffee or tea?
Morning coffee; afternoon tea

Milk or dark chocolate?
dark

Beach or mountains?
Beach, but I love the mountains too.

Free verse or forms?
Sucker for forms�

Drafts: pen and paper or digital?
Scribbles in journals or on Post-It Notes

What's usually playing on your iPod or on Pandora when you are:
   Working - Writing: *must*have*quiet*
            Drawing: Bach or Classic Rock, Carving/Printing: *must*have*Celtic*
   Working out -
Ummmm�..

Favorite place to read poetry?
On my couch with my dogs

Favorite place to write poetry?
In my head when I�m walking and talking to the birds

Funniest question you've ever been asked at a school visit:
From a kindergarten girl on a cafeteria floor with 400-plus K-2�s: How do you know if it�s a man wolf or a lady wolf? (Last week a second grader asked me AFTER my presentation, �Are you an author?�)

Quick! Three of your favorite-sounding words:
sassafras, twinkle, persnickety

Be sure to check in over at The Poetry Friday Anthology blog for ideas and inspiration on using the PFA in the classroom. The Poetry Friday for Middle School blog features short �poem movies� this month created by Sylvia�s graduate students, highlighting some of the wonderful PFAMS poems for grades 6 - 8!

For an extensive Poetry Month roundup of events in the Kidlitosphere, check out Jama�s gracious post on Alphabet Soup.

Two last links from me: On Wednesday at Janice Hardy�s great blog, The Other Side of the Story , I featured Irene�s new novel, DON�T FEED THE BOY (Roaring Brook), as a way to look at how a poet�s sensibilities might inform the way she writes fiction.

My art blog post this week celebrates found poetry and Austin Kleon.

Friday's now missing-in-action post then included the Round Up of dozens and dozens of wonderful poetry posts last week. Sigh. If you search for "Poetry Friday" and start visiting blogs of other commenters, you'll find some wonderful offerings.