HOPE YOU HAD A GREAT POETRY MONTH!
There was much poetic goodness going on in the Kidlitosphere, including the 2013 PROGRESSIVE POEM. Click here for the final version!
photo by Beck McDowellApril Halprin Wayland, yours truly (Robyn) and Irene Latham serve up Poetry Friday Anthology
poetry at the 2013 Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival at USM in Hattiesburg. Publishers Weekly Children's Bookshelf Edition
featured this pic and a write-up here (scroll down)!
Two of Robyn's poems are included in each of these collections: Sylvia Vardell's and Janet Wong's The Poetry Friday Anthology
(Pomelo Books, 2012), The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School
(Pomelo Books, 2013), and in Georgia Heard's anthology of found poems, The Arrow Finds Its Mark
(Roaring Brook Press, 2012). Her poetry has also been published in Ladybug, Hopscotch for Girls
, and Berry Blue Haiku
. Her haiku has appeared in Frogpond, Modern Haiku, Acorn, A Hundred Gourds, Notes from the Gean, The Heron's Nest
, Prune Juice
, and Chrysanthemum
.
Check out Robyn's new HAIKU page with haiku resources, guidelines for students, and examples of her published work.
In April, Robyn served up poetry on a panel with Irene Latham and April Halprin Wayland in a workshop titled, Take Five! Create Fun with The Poetry Friday Anthology at the Fay B. Kaigler Children's Book Festival at The University of Southern Mississippi.
Robyn presented a "Haiku How-To" workshop at the 43rd Annual Children's Literature Conference at The University of Georgia in March 2012.
So happy to share that my poem, "Gray Fox," appears in the Nov. - Dec. 2012 issue of LADYBUG. It has a wonderful illustration by Hyewon Yum. Click the photo on right to access the TEACHER'S GUIDE. (Scroll about half-way down the page to find suggestions for my poem.)
I featured this poem when I hosted Poetry Friday on Dec. 7. Click HERE to read more!
March 2013 - Hats off to Hyewon Kim for winning the Ezra Jack Keats New Illustrator Award, which is presented at the Hattiesburg conference I referenced above re. our poetry panel. :0)
The whole gang at the Highlights Founders "Poetry for All" workshop in May 2012. Woo-hoo! What a great group of poets!
photo by Donna H. BowmanLeading a hiaku workshop at SCBWI Southern Breeze fall conference, Oct. 2011
left photo by Donna H. Bowman
I led an optional "Haiku Huddle" - Nancy Story listens in. photos by Jo S. Kittinger
Heather Montgomery reads our collaborative poem
Donna, Jo, Rebecca, Robyn, Heather
Here's a slithery little poem, an answer to a poetry challenge on the
Miss Rumphius Effect blog last fall. Enjoy - and watch your step!
S
Serpentine S
goes this way and that
Trail in the sand
Tail of a cat
Slithering S
goes that way and this
Starts every snake
Ends every hiss
©Robyn Hood Black
All rights reserved.
I had the honor of judging the Hall County (Ga.) Middle School poetry contest for seventh and eighth grades in 2010 and for seventh grade in 2012. Entries ranged from fun and clever to piercing and moving. Congratulations to all the young writers whose work was considered - you are all winners!
Scroll down and around to read some more poetry. But first, enjoy these photos from the "Wordplay" Highlights Founders Workshop in September 2009 (led by prolifically poetic Rebecca Kai Dotlich).
Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Alice Schertle, and Joy Acey have fun acting out Alice's BUTTON UP!
Molly Lorenz and Tricia Stohr-Hunt listen to Susan Pearson read some of her favorite selections
What a thrill to meet award-winning poet and anthologist
Paul B. Janeczko at the 40th Annual Conference on Children's Literature at the University of Georgia (March 2009)! "Good poetry explodes with possibilities," he says.
Lee Bennett Hopkins, renowned poet and anthologist and 2009 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children winner, taught a Poetry Master Class at the 2007 SCBWI Summer Conference in LA. I was blessed to receive his insight and encouragement. An "assignment" for the class was to compose a poem that weekend. I came up with the following, a Shakespearean sonnet inspired by his books:
How to Buy a Book of Poetry
Copyright Robyn Hood Black. All rights reserved.
I prowl around displays of stacked-up books,
a quiet hunger gnawing deep inside.
Some volumes catch my silent, stealthy looks,
while slowly stalking now, I must decide.
A vibrant cover takes my breath away -
I linger, stop, then claim it with my hand
to seize the book, a panther with her prey -
surveying what she knows to be her land.
While poems leap from pages crisp and new,
lines capture my attention as I read
their sparkling thoughts, at once unreal yet true -
mystical, magic words my deepest need.
A hunter with her prey? I'm not so free.
This poetry I bought - it now owns me.
Rebecca Kai Dotlich came to the Voices in Children's Literature conference in Georgia in late 2007, and I took every workshop she offered! Her
Highlights Founders Worskhop in Sept. 2009 was terrific as well, and I joined her again there for "Poetry for All" in 2012. I also brought her to Georgia for an SCBWI Southern Breeze retreat in 2011! Explore her love for
lyrical language in her many books and her poems in anthologies.
I Paper-trained my Puppy
I paper-trained my puppy -
he reads the New York Times.
He starts at the beginning:
the news, the views, the crimes.
Then he reads the comics,
while rolling on the floor.
He moves on to the book reviews,
the fashion, arts, and more.
After that he grabs a pen
and holds it with his muzzle.
He won't get up until he's done
the daily crossword puzzle.
I paper-trained my puppy.
I made one small mistake.
The puddle in the corner
is looking like a lake.
Copyright Robyn Hood Black. All rights reserved.
Heel
A hound dog is hard
to train.
Nose on the ground, he sniffs, he pulls -
You strain.
Nose in the air as if you're not there -
You complain:
This dog has got to go!
He looks at you with soulful eyes;
you fall in love
(again).
Copyright Robyn Hood Black. All rights reserved.
Copyright ©2005-2013 Robyn Hood Black. All rights reserved. Please ask permission before using any text or images on this website, except for reproducible
"4 Kids 2 Do" and "Press Kit" pages.
