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LAST DAY! $50 Gift Certificate Holiday Giveaway Enter here:   Mudpuppy Holiday Giveaway  . Orangutanka: A Story in Poems Written by Margarita Engle Illustrations by Renée Kurilla Henry Holt & Company     3/24/2015 978-0-8050-9839-6 32 pages     Ages 4—8 “All the orangutans are ready for a nap in the sleepy depths of the afternoon . …

Coming this month, Poems in the Attic is a collection of poetry that creates a tender intergenerational story that speaks to every child’s need to hold onto special memories of home, no matter where that place might be. We interviewed master poet Nikki Grimes on her process for writing poetry and if she has any tips to share.

In Poems in the Attic, the reader is introduced to free verse and tanka styles of poetry. Why were you drawn to the tanka form?

Poetry, for me, has always been about telling a story or painting a picture using as few words  as possible.  Haiku and tabla are forms that epitomize that.  I’d previously played with an introduction to haiku in A Pocketful of Poems, and I have long since been intrigued with the idea of incorporating tanka in a story.  Poems in the Attic provided such an opportunity, so I jumped on it.

Many readers are intimidated by poetry or think it is not for them. For people who find poetry difficult, where would you recommend they start?

Start with word play.  I sometimes like to take a word and study it through the lens of my senses.  Take the word “lemon”, for instance.  What is its shape, its scent,  its color?  Does it make a sound?  Does it have a taste?  How would you describe that sound, that taste?  Where is a lemon to be found?  What does it do or what can you do with it?  In answering such questions, in a line or two in response to each question, one ends up either with a poem or the makings of a poem.

Is there something people can do to be “good” at writing poetry? Where do you find inspiration when you get stuck?

There are a few answers to that question.

1. Read poetry voraciously.  If you aspire to write good poetry, you must first know what that looks like.
2. Practice, practice, practice.  Writing is a muscle that must be exercises, no matter the genre.
3. Play.  Build your vocabulary.  Experiment with a variety of forms.  For too many trying poetry, rhyme is their default.  But rhyme is bot synonymous with poetry.  It is merely one element of it.  Explore metaphor, simile, alliteration, assonance, and all the other elements of poetry.  Think interns of telling a story and painting a picture with words.  These practices will lead you somewhere wonderful.

What’s one of your favorite lines from a poem?

I love lines from my poem “Chinese Painting” in Tai Chi Morning: Snapshots of China.  In seeking to describe the magic of a master painter, I wrote

“a few strokes

And a bird is born

A few more,

And it sings.”

Do you prefer poetry on the page or poetry read aloud? Who is your favorite poet to hear or read?

I especially love poetry on the page, in part because not all poets read their work well.  I do love to hear Naomi Shihabe Nye, though, and I especially loved to hear the exquisite Lucille Clifton.

Learn more about Poems in the Attic on our website or Nikki Grime’s website.

What goes around comes around -
Coincidence is yet to be proven -
While mekhtoub is railed
And Chance thrown to the dogs -
What is left us is the ability to judge curvature.




Back on the road
Things happen in the blink of an eye
Like a shaft of sun on a lepidopteron.

 
Gangue de nuages gris sur fond d'aurore
Comme une chaîne de montagnes lointaines
Se découpe sur le premier horizon du printemps
Comme un Oural improbable mais tangible
Une invitation à marcher plus loin que d'habitude.
 

The Mitchell Library is a magnificent building and a beautiful location for the Biennial Book Awards. Margaret Whitlam came along which was special. I remember her when she was the feisty and brilliant wife of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. She’s elderly now but she is still so smart and involved.

Felicity Pulman for her Janna Mysteries- Weeping for Willows and my book, for ‘That’s Why I Wrote This Song’ were short listed. Libby Hathorn’s Georgiana Woman of Flowers won the award.

Beverly George, children’s author and internationally award winning poet, spoke about the international conference she organised on the Central Coast NSW. People from all over the world especially Japan came together to create, celebrate and discuss haiku and tanka poetry.

Susanne Gervay and Beverly George

Felicity Pulman

There's a draft in here
No. There are a thousand drafts in here

I wish I had a digital camera
to show the infinite piles of paper
strewn on the floor and desks and shelves
surrounding me
like soldiers guarding the gate

Are they locking me out
or locking me in?

Is it just me or are computer printers the devil?

I don't know what to toss out. I don't know what to keep. I don't know why I compulsively print out and save everything I think is worth committing to paper.

I'm sorry, Trees. I really am.

Tanka on a Monday morning because I'm in the mood to try to flesh out what's going on here, and since photos are not available...

Regeneration

Old words never die
They come in handy, they heal
You borrow, you steal
But they are still yours to type
Born again words, my saviour

OK, the form of tanka isn't the problem. But, having skipped Miss Rumphius' Poetry Stretch for a week or two due to schedule chaos, I was determined to participate this week!

I love haiku and feel comfortable with the form. I thought tankas would be a piece of cake.

Nuh-uh.

These were much more difficult than I thought. I don't know that it's the form itself. It's more likely that I write more naturally in haiku, and when I start to write an image-based brief poem, I tend toward haiku. So the tanka form felt totally unnatural to me. Anyway, enough hedging. It's just for fun, and I do love trying new forms, so here are the three tankas I eked out.


After

claws shrink
blood slows and breath returns
wildness calms
the werewolf in me dissolves
I am human again

Dog-Sitting

flanks shake
muscles tremble, tail thumps floor
I squeeze hope
I don’t want her to die
but I know her time is soon

 Last Snow

snow falls
thick flakes tumble down
simple snow
makes my entire world
solitary and at peace

--all by Laura Purdie Salas
 

A brother and sister live together (and of course have a mother) and go to a street fair and Matt gets Kidnapped!!!Kate and Matt have been reading a story for years, Abadazad, and Kate actually has to GO to Abadazad to save her little brother!!! Abadazad is a place where it has half-rabbit half-turtles and it has sour trees and it has trees that grow food - and not just apples and pears it grows hamburgers,hot dogs,and pizza. Then dessert trees grow cupcakes,cookies,cakes,and pies. Abadazad has grouchy rocks that glare at you whenever you walk by them. It just seems really cool!

I like this because it's like a fantasy book like Narnia or Harry Potter. This book is like Harry Potter and Narnia because the girl goes into a different land like Narnia and it has magic like Harry Potter. This book is also like Holes because Holes is two stories in one because it talks about Stanly the main character going into the Holes camp and then it talks about Sam and the school teacher. In this story it tells about what's happening with Kate and Matt then sometimes it just tells the story about Abadazad. I think it's neat it is also text on a page when she is narrorating and writing in her journal, and when it's telling about Matt and Kate it's in comic form.

I'm disappointed because more people need to notice it like when it was in the library I didn't even notice it, my step-mom did.I think that maybe the reason why is that maybe it should be advertised because it's not like Harry Potter book that just came out because everybody wants it, but since Abadazad is such a odd name for a book more people will want to read that too if it was advertised.