So maybe I havent put away the Christmas decorations yet, but Ive started off the New Year with a couple of poetry posts on other blogs.
First, I was thrilled to be able to interview our most recent recipient of the NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children, Joyce Sidman, for the PACYA (Poetry Advocates for Children and Young Adults) blog.
Ive admired Joyces work for a long time, and she kindly agreed to let me share a poem here today, too.
From one of my favorite books, the Newbery Honor-winning DARK EMPEROR & OTHER POEMS OF THE NIGHT, illustrated by printmaker Rick Allen (Houghton Mifflin, 2010), here is the opening poem:
Welcome to the Night
To all of you who crawl and creep,
who buzz and chirp and hoot and peep,
who wake at dusk and throw off sleep:
Welcome to the night.
To you who make the forest sing,
who dip and dodge on silent wing,
who flutter, hover, clasp, and cling:
Welcome to the night!
Come feel the cool and shadowed breeze,
come smell your way among the trees,
come touch rough bark and leathered leaves:
Welcome to the night.
The nights a sea of dappled dark,
the nights a feast of sound and spark,
the nights a wild, enchanted park.
Welcome to the night!
Joyce Sidman. All rights reserved.
To read the PACYA interview, click here, and to peruse Joyces wonderful website brimming with resources for readers, writers, and teachers, click here.
Second, my monthly poetry column on Janice Hardys terrific blog for fiction writers, THE OTHER SIDE OF THE STORY, has moved to the first Wednesday of the month this year. (Though it wont appear in Feb.) This week were exploring verse novels, and I have some amazing book excerpts and insights from three wonderful, award-winning authors: Eileen Spinelli, April Halprin Wayland, and
Susan Taylor Brown.
Im so thankful to each of these poets Joyce, Eileen, April, and Susan for sharing their gifts and their thoughts in this bright New Year.
For more great poetry, go visit the multipl-y gifted Matt at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme for todays Poetry Friday Roundup.
Comments
Hi, e - thanks for coming by. Happy New Year!
What a great start to the year! Thanks for the poem. Sometimes repetition is just right. I'm heading over to read your blog about verse novels.
Happy New Year!
Hi, Ruth - I love everything about that poem. :0)
Myra, Happy New Year! Joyce's writing is so wonderful. Thank you for checking out both blogs and keeping up the amazing work on yours. I'm a devoted fan of your many talents!
Hi, Joyce! It's hard to imagine life without all the writer/book/poetry blogs and websites now - as you say, so much to learn! Happy New Year.
Hello, Linda. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful story. I am nodding along as we've contemplated moving, and I'd also have to have some kind of wildlife connection. Those coyotes are among the most adaptable animals around. Happy New Year in your new home.
Violet, hi! What a terrific grandmother you are. Growing up with the words and pictures in Dark Emperor will be a wonderful thing for your grandson. How fun to go on a hunt for those creatures in the illustrations! This was Rick Aiken's first children's book, I believe, and I'm thrilled he and Joyce are working on another one.
I especially loved these lines because they put me even closer into that wonderful night:
come smell your way among the trees,
come touch rough bark and leathered leaves: