Greetings, Poetry Lovers! Happy NATIONAL POETRY MONTH 2022! (Click here for the poets.org link.)
So much goodness is planned for our Kidlit corner of the online universe; be sure to check out Jama's Roundup at Jama's Alphabet Soup. And be sure to follow along with this year's Kidlit Progressive Poem, kindly hosted again by Margaret at Reflections on the Teche.
As for my own little corner of the corner, I plan to get a little jump on celebrating 10 (!) years of artsyletters later this year with some 'perfect-for-poets' gift ideas each Friday. I'll share poetry each week, too, of course!
When I ponder poetry, I often let my mind wander to the privilege I had of meeting Nancy Willard decades ago at a writer's conference. (You might recall her A VISIT TO WILLIAM BLAKE'S INN won the Newbery Award in 1982, and the Provensens received a Caldecott Honor for it.) One of my favorite books about writing is her TELLING TIME - Angels, Ancestors, and Stories. I've mentioned it before, I know. (Willard was born in 1936 and died in 2017; you can read more about her here.)
I especially love her first chapter, "How Poetry Came Into the World and Why God Doesn't Write It." This essay includes some banter between Adam and Eve, and both find that poetry helps them to communicate. Here are a couple of treasures Willard includes from The Rattle Bag, by anonymous authors:
I will give my love an apple without any core,
I will give my love a house without any door,
I will give my love a palace wherein he may be
and he may unlock it without any key.
and
It is late last night the dog was speaking of you;
the snipe was speaking of you in her deep marsh.
It is you are the lonely bird through the woods;
and that you may be without a mate until you find me.
If all this talk of love has your heart a-flutter, take it over to my juicy little universe, where Heidi has much more to love in the Roundup this week. Thanks for hosting, Heidi! And here's to a Happy Poetry Month to all. I look forward to starting off mine with an online Haiku Society of America Southeast Region workshop on Saturday. :0)