I have to admit, I had never heard of sijo, a traditional Korean verse form, until we received a review copy of Linda Sue Park’s gorgeous little book Tap Dancing on the Roof. What a wonderful partnership the poems and Istvan Banyai’s adorably quirky illustrations make!
A sijo is typically divided into three lines of fourteen to sixteen syllables each – though apparently in English they are sometimes divided up into six lines. Unlike their sister genre, the haiku, they can be about anything and they usually have a twist/ joke at the end. It is amazing how much can be conveyed in those few, succinct sound bites! With poems like these, there’s no excuse for missing out on that bedtime story. A beginning, a middle and an end are conjured up in less than a minute.
I would love to quote some of these sijo here at length but obviously that is not possible for copyright reasons. I will content myself with this tantalising beginning of the last gem in the book entitled “Wish”:
For someone to read a poem
again, and again, and then,
Now you must all rush out and buy/ pester your libraries to get hold of a copy so you can find out the rest of it – and read the others - both for yourselves and with the young people in your lives.
I know I’m slightly behind the times on this – several blogs have already waved the flag, including A Year of Reading, PACL Kids and Three Silly Chicks – I do like their conclusion that
It’s the book equivalent of a hot fudge sundae with a cherry on top.
Hmm. I’m sure there’s a sijo in there somewhere! Anyway, it’s definitely one of those books worth making a noise about – with or without the dancing shoes.
We are including Tap Dancing on the Roof in our choices for the PaperTigers Reading Challenge (have you made your mind up yet?). I can’t wait to see if my boys will start writing some sijo of their own. And if you do, please do add them on here so we can all read them.
Mentor Texts, Read Alouds and More is the gathering place for this week’s Poetry Friday… see you there!