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Back in 2011 I wrote a post called Poetry Month Ideas: Try Something a Little Different (note the conspicuous disappearance of ALL the images from said post and sigh along with me).  Well, time has passed but my quest to find new and interesting ways to teach poetry, aside from the standard set of haikus and limericks, continues.  Today we update ye olde post with some old and new forms.  If you should find yourself this month in the position of having to instruct some kids in the ways of poetry, consider doing one or more of these exercises with them:

Fibonacci Poems – Good old Fibonacci poetry.  In late 2013 our beloved children’s literary blogger Greg Pincus finally published his very first middle grade work of fiction.  The 14 Fibs of Gregory K dared to combine the uncombineable: math and poetry.  Mr. Pincus, you see, is the creator behind this particular form.  Back in 2006, long before the term “Common Core Aligned” graced this nation’s lips, Motoko Rich even went so far as to write the New York Times article Fibonacci Poems Multiply on the Web After Blog’s Invitation.  As he explained on his blog GottaBook: “I wanted something that required more precision. That led me to a six line, 20 syllable poem with a syllable count by line of 1/1/2/3/5/8 – the classic Fibonacci sequence. In short, start with 0 and 1, add them together to get your next number, then keep adding the last two numbers together for your next one.”  And call me crazy but doesn’t this just sound like the most CCSS thing you ever did read?  Time for someone to hand Greg another book deal.  A POETRY book deal.

Newspaper Blackout Poems – I’ve enjoyed this form for years, but it wasn’t until I tried it out on a couple different groups of kids that I saw how effective and interesting it can be.  Consider it a forced found poem.  The poet’s job is to find a newspaper article or horoscope and to blackout everything except the words in the poem.  Intrigued?  Read a whole swath of them here.  Kids, as it turns out, are preternaturally gifted in this area.  Some glom onto the form instantly.  Others need some help.  Whatever the case, just be sure you have enough black markers on hand when you try this.  Here’s a rather erudite example:

Reverso – Best illustrated by children’s book poet Marilyn Singer.  She perfected the form in books like Mirror Mirror and Follow Follow (though I harbor a very great love for her Nixon reverso in Rutherford B.: Who Was He?).  The poet writes broken lines down and then uses the same lines but reverses them to tell the other side of the story.  Example A:

Single Word Poetry – I call it this because insofar as I can tell Bob Raczka made up this kind of poetry and I can’t find it in existence anywhere but his book Lemonade: And Other Poems Squeezed From a Single Word.  Basically you take a word and then turn the letters in that word into a poem.  To read it, your eye has to follow the letters down the page in a very specific order or the poem won’t make any sense.  See, here’s an example:

Can you see it saying “A silent lion tells an ancient tale”?  Because that’s the poem and it’s a darn clever one too.  Try this with your kids if you want to, y’know, watch their heads explode or something.  It’s poetry as codebreaking as far as I can tell.

Snowball Poetry – According to BoingBoing, “A ‘Snowball’ is a poem ‘in which each line is a single word, and each successive word is one letter longer’.”  In other words, not too different from a Fibonacci poem in that math is involved in some way.

Spine Poetry - Though he didn’t originate the form (I don’t think) I still consider Travis Jonker the king of the Spine Poem.  If nothing else his post yesterday should prove that.  Spine Poems, as you may know, are poems that come out of the judicious placement of one book on top of another.  My favorite recent example (by Travis):

But seriously, go to his site to see what he’s done.  It’s breathtaking.

Any other peculiar forms of poetry come to mind?  Let me know about ‘em!

Morning, folks.  Bird here.  Seems this book I’ve written with fellow bloggers Peter Sieruta of Collecting Children’s Books and Jules Danielson of Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast is in the last stages of completion.  Fun With Copyedits is the name of the game this week, which means that my blogging may suffer a tad here and there.  Mea culpa.  I give you a bright and shiny blog posts to make it up to you.  Eat it in good health.

• First off, April’s only here and that can only mean one thing.  There’s a call for new spine poetry.  Do you have what it takes to stack books in a coherent and literary manner?  Well, do you?  Punk?

• I love Cracked online but honestly sometimes their headlines tip a little too far into the realm of the hyperbole.  Consider the following: 5 literary classics that put x-rated movies to shame.  It’s actually not inaccurate to say that of numbers one through three, but by the time you get to number five (Where’s Waldo) it’s stretching it a tad.  Then again, the naked clown on the pogo stick isn’t exactly normal . . .

• In case you missed it, Marjorie Ingall alerted me to the children’s literature reference name dropped by Bob Balaban on a recent episode of Girls.  Sorry I missed this one.  I’ve been too busy catching up on episodes of Once Upon a Time which is admittedly corny, but weirdly similar to LOST before the show went haywire.  Hence the fix.

• And what will YOU be doing on April 2nd of this year?  Celebrating International Children’s Book Day, I certainly hope.  Seriously, are you going to let this Ashley Bryan poster go to waste?  For shame!

• Speaking of worldwide travels, care to attend an Irish children’s literary conference?  Would I kid?  Observe:

“We are delighted to announce that the CBI 2013 Conference Rebels and Rulebreakers is now open for booking! We’re really looking forward to a weekend with some of the most exciting names in writing, illustration, publishing and criticism in the fabulous surroundings of Lighthouse cinema on May 18th and 19th. Click here for the booking form or call CBI on 01 8727475 to secure your place. Remember the conference is open to everyone with an interest in children’s books so tell your friends! We’ve started counting down to the conference weekend with blog features on Sarah Ardizzone, Sarah Crossan and Colmán Ó Raghallaigh.”

• Though she was by no means the first children’s librarian in the country, NYPL’s own Anne Carroll Moore was a force to be reckoned with, back in the day.  Now there’s a picture book bio of her coming out called Miss Moore Thought Otherwise by Jan Pinborough.  A Women’s History Month series celebrates the book and Ms. Pinborough discusses why she wrote it in the first place.  Thanks to Lisa Taylor for the link.

As my recent review of the Matilda musical will attest, I’m a sucker for stage adaptations of children’s books.  So how completely and utterly delightful does this version of Owl Moon look to you?  Picture book adaptations are always difficult, whether it’s to the stage or the screen.  Dance is honestly the only way to go sometimes. Consider this post your required reading of the day.

Hey!  In all the flutter and kerfuffle surrounding the ALA Youth Media Awards it’s mighty easy to forget about the 2013 Notable Children’s Books list that was announced at the end of February.  Nice to see my beloved Zombie Makers getting some love.

Daily Image:

Oh good.  Something new to desire.  I was running low.  It seems that a certain Charlotte Olympia has taken it upon herself to create a fairytale line of shoes.

If you happen to purchase that $985 froggy pump for me, I honestly won’t be embarrassed by the largess of your generosity.  Scout’s honor.  You know where to reach me.  Many many thanks to Marjorie Ingall for the link.