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I’m on a JPat roll at the moment, happy to share news of another contribution of J. Patrick Lewis. He has invented a new poetic form, the zeno! Tricia scooped the news at The Miss Rumphius Effect earlier this week, but I think it bears repeating. I know teachers enjoy introducing the form of poetry to kids, as they model for children the different ways a poem can look and sound. And kids often enjoy this aspect of poetry too—approaching it as a puzzle to solve and understand. And I know poets themselves approach the form and structure of poetry with great intentionality and I’m always curious about why a certain choice is made. Well… drum roll… you can see Pat’s past as a professor of economics in the roots of his new poem form, the zeno. He describes it so:

"I've never invented a new verse form... until now… It was inspired by the mathematical "hailstone sequence," simply explained here…. I call the form a "zeno," so named for Zeno, the philosopher of paradoxes, especially the dichotomy paradox, according to which getting anywhere involves first getting half way there and then again halfway there, and so on ad infinitum. I'm dividing each line in half of the previous one. Here's my definition of a zeno: A 10-line verse form with a repeating syllable count of 8,4,2,1,4,2,1,4,2,1. The rhyme scheme is abcdefdghd. Naturally, I don't expect it to displace the sestina, villanelle, triolet, et al. But it would be grand if they all moved over one seat and made room for it.”

Here are a few examples to illustrate the form:

Nature’s Art Gallery

By J. Patrick Lewis

Wind’s paintbrush strokes in streaks the trees,

a miracle,

ages

old,

it knows without

being

told—

Novembering

maples

gold.

Traveling by Armchair

By J. Patrick Lewis

You can take a trip by Greyhound,

motorcycle,

paddle-

wheel,

ocean liner

(package

deal)—

I prefer a

bookmo-

bile.

I think kids will love it—the math of it and the brevity. I know they enjoy list poems and this form suggests a list, but requires a bit more thought and planning. I hope they’ll give it a go. In the mean time, for teachers (and kids) who are looking for other poets who specialize in experimentation with form, look for the work of Paul Janeczko (Poetry from A to Z: A Guide for Young Writers and A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms) and Avis Harley (Fly with Poetry; An ABC of Poetry and Leap into Poetry: More ABCs of Poetry), among others.

And if you're interested in more poetry creation activities, check out poet David Harrison's blog. He is hosting a poetry writing contest each month based on a single word ("dirt" for October) with a chance to vote for your favorite-- and help select Hall of Fame winners, one per month. Next up, David will be posting the word for November on Monday.

Finally, it’s not too late to join the Poetry Friday round up hosted by Jennie at Biblio File.

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2009. All rights reserved.

Image credit: research.haifa.ac.il; zenoroth.com

I’m a big fan of riddles and love sharing them with kids. Riddles exercise those higher level thinking skills and stretch young minds to use logic, deduction, analysis, and problem solving skills. Plus, I’ll never forget when my son, age 4 (and now 21), first realized that riddles usually followed a regular formula: Pose a question, suggest attributes, offer clues, wait… and provide answer. Unfortunately, he didn’t realize that riddles also involve subtlety and indirectness—so he would pick an object in the room, describe it, and ask us what it was—all while staring at said object! It was hilarious!

Many poets have used the riddle format for creating clever and fascinating poems, too. Especially the brilliant J. Patrick Lewis. His latest contribution, Spot the Plot; A Riddle Book of Book Riddles (San Francisco: Chronicle, 2009), illustrated by Lynn Munsinger, is a terrific addition to this oeurve. It features a baker’s dozen collection of rhyming poems, each describing a much-loved classic work of children’s literature. (I won’t spoil it by listing those works—which are identified on the last page.)

Lewis’s clever use of language and wordplay is ever evident and the subtle humor is playful and fun. Double-page spreads highlight each poem against a story-like backdrop illustration provided by the talented creator of Tacky the Penguin, Lynn Munsinger. A boy in Sherlock Holmes attire and a girl in a trenchcoat skip through each poem-riddle looking for clues and participating in the visual story. So appealing and inviting. Even the bookflap content is a riddle poem! I asked Pat about his choices of poem forms and he shared this nugget:

“Prior to SPOT THE PLOT, I'd written four books of riddles on various themes. I love the form, the challenge of coming up with the obliquely perfect definition—telling the truth, but telling it slant. Riddles are inherently interactive, so they make great read-alouds at school visits. In SPOT THE PLOT, I was trying most often to tell the book riddle in as few words as possible, as in, “Her hair’s/The stairs.” Or, a new one, “This trail becomes/A trail of crumbs.” The fewer words, the better, that is, the cleverer, to my way of thinking. Just as often, though, I had to rely on a tercet or a quatrain to tell the tale, but with a hint of confusion, as in “Pre-teen plays/a starring role/as she surveys/ a rabbit hole.” But, you see, perhaps that “rabbit hole” gives too much away. Writing riddles, especially for children, which means making them all equally but not too perplexing, is damnably difficult.”

As usual, Pat makes it look easy and offers “book review” poems in a variety of poetic formats. Here’s just one that I know kids and grown ups alike will enjoy:

A magical telling,

a pig for the selling,

a spider is spelling

out words that amaze.

Do you know this spider,

this spiderweb writer?

The pig will delight her

the rest of her days.

From: Lewis, J. Patrick. 2009. Spot the Plot; A Riddle Book of Book Riddles. San Francisco: Chronicle.

I’m so struck by what a teaching tool this could also be for teachers searching for a fresh approach to book reports: challenging kids to describe their favorite books via riddle poems. And if you’re looking for more examples of riddle poems, here’s a list you may find helpful. (Please let me know of any others you know about.)

Poetry Books with Riddle Poems

1. Calmenson, Stephanie. 2005. Kindergarten Kids: Riddles, Rebuses, Wiggles, Giggles, and More! New York: HarperCollins.

2. Dotlich, Rebecca Kai. 2001. When Riddles come Rumbling: Poems to Ponder. Honesdale, PA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press.

3. Ghigna, Charles. 1995. Riddle Rhymes. New York: Hyperion Books for Children.

4. Lewis, J. Patrick. 2002. Arithmetickle. San Diego: Harcourt.

5. Lewis, J. Patrick. 1996. Riddle-icious. New York: Knopf.

6. Lewis, J. Patrick. 1998. Riddle-lightful. New York: Knopf.

7. Lewis, J. Patrick. 2004. Scien-trickery: Riddles in Science. Orlando: Harcourt.

8. Lewis, J. Patrick. 2009. Spot the Plot; A Riddle Book of Book Riddles. San Francisco: Chronicle.

9. Livingston, Myra Cohn. 1990. My Head is Red, and other Riddle Rhymes. New York: Holiday House.

10. Morrison, Lillian. 2006. Guess Again! Riddle Poems. Little Rock, AR: August House.

11. Nims, Bonnie Larkin. 1992. Just Beyond Reach and other Riddle Poems. New York: Scholastic.

12. Shannon, George. Busy in the Garden. New York: Greenwillow.

13. Sidman, Joyce. Butterfly Eyes and Other Secrets of the Meadow. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

14. Spires, Elizabeth. 1999. Riddle Road: Puzzles in Poems and Pictures. New York: McElderry Books.

15. Spires, Elizabeth. 1995. With one White Wing: Puzzles in Poems and Pictures. New York: McElderry Books.

16. Swann, Brian. 1998. The House with No Door: African Riddle- Poems. San Diego: Harcourt.

17. Swann, Brian. 1998. Touching the Distance: Native American Riddle-Poems. San Diego: Harcourt.

18. Swenson, May. 1993. The Complete Poems to Solve. New York: Macmillan.

Posting (not poem) by Sylvia M. Vardell © 2009. All rights reserved.

Image credit: tptb.co.uk;chroniclebooks.com

I am already starting to think about summer and daydream about what I want to do (and not do!). It’s the perfect moment to highlight a new book coming from the always wonderful J. Patrick Lewis: Countdown to Summer: A Poem for Every Day of the School Year due out this fall.

This potpourri of poetry runs the gamut from serious to silly, from thoughtful to topical, for every conceivable occasion and just for fun. There are 180 poems and I love how they are numbered beginning with #180 and counting down to #1 (“School’s Out!”) with a big black dot encircling each number on every page. Kids will love this actual counting down of the school year (and most school years are about 180 days long). I didn’t actually map each poem day to the corresponding day/month (Poem #180 to Sept. 5, for example), since the start of school varies across the country. However, as a former classroom teacher, it seemed to me that the poems jived nicely with holiday and seasonal happenings across the calendar year. That is such a fun construct. Go, Pat!

The poems themselves also represent an amazing menu—which is key if you are sharing a poem every day BY THE SAME POET. If anyone can pull off this breadth and depth, it’s our buddy Pat. Not only does he tackle a plethora of topics, but the poetic forms are extremely varied, too—the perfect springboard for mini poetry lessons that grow organically out of poem sharing. Riddles, limericks, haiku, acrostics, rhyming narratives, free verse, list poems, rebus poems, concrete poetry, and on and on.

You know how I collect poems about libraries and librarians and I hit the jackpot here with FOUR, count ‘em, four wonderful libro-poems. (And there are even more book-related poems than these.) Save them all for next year’s National Library Week.

#174 The Librarian
#116 Library Fine
#89 New York Public Library
#66 The Hippopotabus (A Book-Boat)

Here’s just a sample to whet your appetite:

#66 The Hippopotabus
(A Book-Boat)
by J. Patrick Lewis

A bookmobile, extremely large,
A floating minibus
That travels like a steaming barge
Of hippopotamus,

Holds fables, facts, tiptoe tall tales,
Bookshelves of derring-do,
And poetry that never fails
To hippnotize the crew.

Turn any page. First port of call
On RIVER LONGAGO!
“We’ve reached,” says Book-Boat’s Admiral,
“The town of MAYBESO,

“Whose lovely tribe, the BRARIANS,
Keepers of verbs and nouns,
Will introduce you to WORDGRRRS,
The literary hounds.

“So this trip promises to be
Wordplayfularious,
A bonbon bon voyage to sea
By Hippopotabus!”

Lewis, J. Patrick. 2009. Countdown to Summer: A Poem for Every Day of the School Year. Ill. by Ethan Long. New York: Little, Brown.

I love the idea of a BOAT of books and I think kids would have fun envisioning this, drawing it, and perhaps constructing one! It also reminds me of Margriet Ruur’s book, My Librarian is a Camel (Boyds Mills Press, 2005), a terrific nonfiction picture book about all kinds of unorthodox libraries all around the world (including actual book boats). The wordplay (“wordplayfulariousness”) in this poem is also fun and kids will enjoy picking up on that and coining their own words like “the town of MAYBESO.”

In fact, the learning and activity connections for these poems just bubble up with a multitude of possibilities. For example, #98 “A Monthly Calendar” is a visual way to represent all the months poetically and could be a great bulletin board or door sign. Or the poems could serve as an addition to the morning announcements made at many schools every day. Start reading the poems out loud every day and the kids will have plenty of ideas of their own.

Finally, let me not neglect to mention the LOOK of the book. Illustrator Ethan Long has provided pen and ink cartoons for every single page and it gives the book visual verve and energy and makes it even more browsable. The bug-eyed characters and mini-comic-stories move across the bottom third or quarter of each page (and beyond) in appealing ways that complement the poems perfectly. I know the book will be published in hardback (which is great for a longer shelf life), but I loved the flippable newsprint paper format of my ARC which felt so handy, friendly, and bendable.

I’ve been working on my own long-term poem-a-day project, so I know what a challenge it is to create this kind of comprehensive anthology. Lee Bennett Hopkins’ has a terrific companion resource, Days to Celebrate: A Full Year of Poetry, People, Holidays, History, Fascinating Facts, and More (Greenwillow, 2005), along with many, many other holiday and school topic-based collections that teachers (especially) will also find helpful. These could form the perfect framework for regular poem sharing—and then you can build upon this by seeking even more poetry books to link with these, day by day.

Posting (not poem) copyright Sylvia M. Vardell 2009

Today is the day for the fifth annual Poetry Round Up at the annual convention of the Texas Library Association. This year, we’re featuring Georgia Heard, Betsy Franco, J. Patrick Lewis, Hope Anita Smith, and Tracie Vaughn Zimmer. I’ll be posting reviews of each of their new books bit by bit. Can you believe they ALL have new poetry books coming out this year? That’s a good sign!

Today I’m featuring the highly energetic Betsy Franco. She has had an impressive array of new books coming out over the last several years. This time, I’d like to focus on A Curious Collection of Cats, illustrated by Michael Wertz, an amazing debut for this illustrator-to-watch.

A Curious Collection of Cats features shape or concrete or visual poems that arrange the words in ways that suggest the poem’s subject. In this case, the subject is cats, in all their glory and foibles. I love how Franco grounds the poems in tiny details that ring true—like using cat names that are clearly based in personal history, such as Q-Tip, Prickles, Miss Book, Suki, and Binky. Kids will love that she included hairballs and cat pee, too, of course. :-)

Each page + poem is almost a stand alone mini-poster. Wertz’s art and design make the poems pop and his very graphic approach suggests retro 1960’s silk screen art in drenched pinks, blues, purples, and oranges.

In this case, however, I would argue that the poems also work on their own independently. Franco includes haiku, limericks, free verse, and rhyme—an impressive variety of poetic forms injected into the concrete poem context. The poetry is beautifully amplified and visualized by the amazing art—graphic and bold—showcasing both the poem and the cat attributes contained in the poem.

The poems even lend themselves to being read aloud—which is not always true of concrete poetry—and kids will surely want to share their own cat stories, or cut out cat shapes or create simple cat puppets to manipulate and accompany the reading aloud.

Here’s a fun sample poem that’s perfect for e-sharing:

TECHNO CAT
by Betsy Franco

SEND TO: [email protected]
FROM: [email protected]

WHEN WRITING FRIENDS AN EMAIL
I SOMETIMES &p*&%>$# HAVE A FIT
IF MITCHELL WALKS ACROSS THE KEYS
k:j<$% AND ADDS A NOTE
vpq#peifgu3gy TO IT!

Franco, Betsy. 2009. A Curious Collection of Cats. Ill. by Michael Wertz. San Francisco, CA: Tricycle Press.

Pair this with Joan Bransfield Graham’s collections of shape or concrete poetry, also illustrated in bold, graphic art:
Graham, Joan Bransfield. 1994. Splish Splash. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Graham, Joan Bransfield. 1999. Flicker Flash. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

And for the cat lover, here are more cat poem collections:
Poetry Books about Cats
Crawley, Dave. 2005. Cat Poems. Honesdale, PaA: Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press.
Creech, Sharon. 2008. Hate that Cat. New York: HarperCollins.
Lach, William. Ed. 1999. Curious Cats: in Art and Poetry for Children. 1999. New York: Atheneum Books.
Demi, comp. 1994. In the Eyes of the Cat: Japanese Poetry for All Seasons. Translated by Tze-Si Huang. New York: Henry Holt.
Farjeon, Eleanor. 1996. Cats Sleep Anywhere. New York: HarperCollins.
Field, Eugene. 1990. The Gingham Dog and the Calico Cat. New York: Philomel.
Florian, Douglas. 2003. Bow Wow Meow Meow: It’s Rhyming Cats and Dogs. San Diego: Harcourt Brace.
Ghigna, Charles. 1992. Good Cats/Bad Cats. Ill. by David Catrow. New York: Hyperion.
Grindol, Diane. 2008. Catku: Cat Haiku Poems. CreateSpace.
Hopkins, Lee Bennett. Ed. 1981. I am the Cat. New York: HarperCollins.
Isaacs, Anne. 1998. Cat up a Tree. Ill. by Stephen Mackey. New York: Dutton.
Kirk, Daniel. 2007. Cat Power. New York: Hyperion.
Kuskin, Karla. 2005. Toots the Cat. New York: Henry Holt.
Lear, Edward. 2007. The Owl and the Pussycat. Toronto: Kids Can Press. (There are MANY picture book versions of this poem.)
Leopold, Nikki Clark. 2002. K is for Kitten. New York: Putnam.
Livingston, Myra Cohn. 1994. Cat Poems. Ill. by Trina Schart Hyman. New York: Dutton.
Phinn, Gervase. 2002. Our Cat Cuddles. Swindon: Child’s Play.
Prelutsky, Jack. 2004. If Not for the Cat: Haiku. New York: Greenwillow.
Shertle, Alice. 1999. I am the Cat. New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard.
Sidman, Joyce. 2006. Meow Ruff. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.
Tiller, Ruth. 1995. Cats Vanish Slowly. Atlanta: Peachtree.
Turner, Nancy Byrd. 2000. When it Rained Cats and Dogs. Marshfield Hills, MA: Meadow Geese Press.
Walsh, Caroline. 1996. The Little Book of Cats. New York: Kingfisher.
Yolen, Jane. 1993. Raining Cats and Dogs. San Diego: Harcourt Brace.

FYI: Betsy was a delightful presenter today and our TLA poetry panel was a big success with over 100 people in the audience, by my count. Betsy shared cat poems and math poems and selections from her new cumulative "pond" poem-- all well received and delivered with spirit and humor! Thank you, Betsy (and Pat, and Tracie, and Georgia, and Hope Anita)! More details to come...

Image credit: www.schoollibraryjournal.com

I’m in Houston now for the annual Texas Library Association conference—always one of the professional highlights of the year. And for the fifth consecutive year, I am pleased to be hosting the TLA Poetry Round Up, a concert of children’s poets—inspired by the ALSC Poetry Blast held at the ALA convention every summer. My session is this Thursday (April 2) and one of the poet panelists is… drum roll… Georgia Heard. So, I’ll kick off National Poetry Month with a short review of her new book, Falling Down the Page; A Book of List Poems.

This fun collection includes 32 selections of list poems in multiple variations of the list form by the likes of Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Avis Harley, Bobbi Katz, Kathi Appelt, David Harrison, Allan Wolf, Marilyn Singer, and many more. The unique “skinny” size of the book (about 4’ x 12’) has the poems “falling” longways and sideways and spread across the page in all kinds of ways—which kids will love.

Inspired by Walt Whitman’s famous list poem, “Song of Myself,” Heard’s collection mirrors the school year and the school day with poems of moments that will resonate with young readers and listeners. Plus, the poetry really lends itself to engaging activities of all kinds. Here are just a few ideas.

*Collecting: “Lost and Found” and “Show and Tell Rocks” are perfect poems to pair with displays of objects itemized in the poem or to use as a springboard for discussing collecting as a hobby and what kinds of collections the kids enjoy.

*Pantomiming: “Helping Hands” and “Things to Do Today” offer clear and explicit motions and actions for children to pantomime while the poems are read aloud. Kids familiar with ASL (American Sign Language) may want to demonstrate signing the poems.

*Chanting: “Why Poetry” and “Book Time” are extremely rhythmic and lend themselves to chanting or shouting (if you can take the kids outdoors!).

*Group reading: “What is Earth” can be read in a call-and-response fashion by two groups and “Chorus of Four Frogs” can be read by four voices.

*Art: “Clay Play” and “Spinners” are highly visual poems that reference clay and circles, two things kids enjoy playing with.

Of course kids will want to try creating their own list poems and there are so many wonderful and varied examples here that young writers are sure to find helpful and inspiring. Here’s just a taste— a poem “recipe” written by Georgia Heard herself:

Recipe for Writing An Autumn Poem
by Georgia Heard

One teaspoon wild geese.
One tablespoon red kite.
One cup wind song.
One pint trembling leaves.
One quart darkening sky.
One gallon north wind.

Heard, Georgia. 2009. Falling Down the Page; A Book of List Poems. New York: Roaring Brook, p. 24.

Image credit:us.macmillan.com

I’ve written about Helen Frost’s poetry several times in the past:
• I wrote about her Printz honor book Keesha’s House and her use of the sonnet form on April 23, 2007 in Happy birthday, Mr. Shakespeare
• And about one of my favorite books of 2006, her wonderful novel in verse, The Braid on July 19, 2006
• And again last fall, when she read from her latest book at the Nov. 23, 2007 Poetry Blast at the NCTE convention in New York.

Now I’d like to herald the arrival of that new book, Diamond Willow (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 2008). The twelve-year-old protagonist and narrator, Willow, lives in a small town in the interior of Alaska where frequent snow, bitter cold, and dogsledding are all a part of daily life. Her story unfolds in a series of diamond shaped poems created by Frost to echo the (diamond shaped) scarred wood of a tree that grows in northern climates. Interspersed between the diamond poems are brief vignettes from the perspectives of her animal ancestors that add an element of magical realism. Willow’s journey is both physical, as she proves her strength and independence, as well as emotional, as she copes with secrets and changes that come her way.

The look of the book with diamond poems on opposing pages is quietly pleasing and the tone of the telling is oddly stirring. There are many layers here in this gentle coming-of-age story for the young reader to return to again and again—in the form, as well as in the characters. My favorite poem is the final one, but I decided I couldn’t share it, since it’s a bit of a “spoiler” if you haven’t read the whole book. So, here’s another nugget that reflects Willow's growing wisdom:





















From: Frost, Helen. 2008. Diamond Willow. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, p. 87.

For much more on Diamond Willow, check out the author’s Web site.

And for more about Helen and her work, allow me to plug the entry about her in my book, Poetry People. Here’s an excerpt:

Helen Frost was born in Brookings, South Dakota on September 3, 1949, one of ten children. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Syracuse University in New York and her master’s degree from Indiana University. She is married and the mother of two sons. She has worked as a teacher in Scotland, Alaska, and Indiana and has long been involved in the YWCA and teen youth groups. She lives in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and her hobbies include hiking, cross-country skiing, kayaking, and raising and releasing monarch butterflies. Frost earned the prestigious Michael Printz honor distinction from the American Library Association for her first book of poetry for young people, Keesha's House. She has authored a play and a screenplay, as well as a resource book for adults who work with teen writers, When I Whistle, Nobody Listens: Helping Young People Write about Difficult Issues (Heinemann 2001). Frost is also a prolific author of nonfiction series readers for young readers reflecting her interest in science and biology.

One of the most outstanding features of Foster’s work is her creative use of poetic form in each of her books. This includes haiku, blank verse, sonnets, sestinas, rondelets, acrostics, and more. And she includes explanatory notes on these forms and her reasoning for choosing them for each book. Aspiring writers and poets may enjoy exploring this aspect of her writing in particular. If so, additional guidance and worksheets for trying different poetic formats are available on Foster’s personal web site. Children who want to read more works like Frost’s may enjoy exploring the poetry of Craig Crist-Evans, Karen Hesse, and for older readers, Marilyn Nelson.

ALSO THIS WEEK: Happy new CHILDREN'S BOOK WEEK: May 12 – 18, 2008.

Join the rest of the Poetry Friday Round Up at Two Writing Teachers.

Picture credit: http://www.helenfrost.net/

I've written a new poem. Here it is:

Though others may be fair
Fabulous, free and fine
I love being a bear

My life is without care
No finer life than mine
Though others may be fair

I no longer grump and glare
Instead I sing and shine
I love being a bear

From my stuffing to my hair
I feel simply divine
Though others may be fair

Yes you may stop and stare
Wondering why I do not whine
I love being a bear.

If you're wondering about the form, this poem is a villanelle. The structure of the form is based around the first and third lines of the opening stanza, which form the essence of the poem and are each repeated as the concluding lines of the other four stanzas.

If you want to read some of the other poems I've written, I have previously tried:
A triolet
An acrostic
A diamante
An abbreviated haiku
An a haiku

Writing poetry is fun, and good for the spirit. You should try it some time.

I’ve written another poem, again all about ME. Here it is:

I used to sit upon my shelf
Quiet and alone
Preferring to keep to myself
I used to sit upon my shelf
It wasn’t so good for my health
To sit and moan and groan
I used to sit upon my shelf
Quiet and alone


This one is a triolet, which is a French poetry form. You might have spotted the pattern. In a triolet the first line is repeated on lines four and seven, and the second line is repeated in line eight. Lines three and four rhyme with line one, and line six rhymes with line two.

Have you written a poem lately? If not, why not write a triolet? There’s a wonderful article with a better explanation and some more examples here.

Well my goodness. Y'all sure know how to make a girl blush! Bonny Glen and Lilting House got nominated in a total of five categories for the 2006 Homeschool Blog Awards. Thank you so much! The link above will take...

It's time once again to nominate your favorite home education blogs for the Homeschool Blog Awards. This year there are more categories and a nifty new website. Nominations will be accepted from March 26th- April 7th. Voting for these nominations...