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YOU ARE INVITED
to the launch of my first-ever chapbook,
THE UNIVERSE COMES KNOCKING: poems
by Kelly Ramsdell Fineman

When? One month from today, on March 13th at 7:00 p.m.
Where? In Mount Holly, NJ, at the Daily Grind, located at 48 High Street.
Cost of admission? Free. Plus I'll be reading, and there will be an open reading afterwards.
Cost of chapbook if you're so inclined? Probably $6.00 or so.

I sure hope you will come. Or send someone you know.

Especially since my sweetheart just got scheduled for dental surgery that morning and will likely be unable to attend, and I really, truly don't want to be all by myself in a coffee shop for the launch of my first-ever chapbook (a small paperback collection of poems, which may or may not be sold by peddlers, but is indeed published by a local small press called Maverick Duck Press).

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If you are able, please come to my poetry reading on Monday, May 19, 2014. I've been invited to be the Featured Reader at Poetry in the Round, a monthly poetry group that meets inside the Barnes & Noble store on Route 70 in Marlton, New Jersey. For those who haven't heard me before, here's your chance. For those who have, I promise to read a bunch of new material, so hopefully that's an enticement to attend. I promise not to take inexplicable gasps while reading. Or at least to try not to.

There will be an open reading after I'm done, so if you are inclined to want to share some poems (your own or that of others), please feel free!

Here's the invite in a more calendar-friendly manner:

WHAT: Poetry reading
WHEN: Monday, May 19th at 7:30 p.m.
WHERE: Barnes & Noble, 200 West Route 70, Marlton, NJ 08053

I hope to see you there!

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Melinda Palacio

Peter Nu accompanies hostess, singer, and poet Delia Tomino Nakayama

Poet Amanda Emily Smith

Singer and Pianist Kanako Fuwa

Gina Ferrara, Ava Leavell-Haymon, Melinda Palacio at the Latter Library on St. Charles

I caught the first of three coconuts at the Mardi Gras Indian celebration at Woldenberg Park.

My King Cake turned out crescent shaped rather than round, but delicious.

This is what a round, store-bought King Cake looks like.

People watching is so much fun during carnival.

Marilyn Monroe came to watch the parade with us. Photo by Anthony Posey

Photo by Anthony Posey. I caught a rose with a broken stem, so I blew the petals to the wind.

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As promised, a bit about my reading last night.

The reading took place at the Barnes & Noble in Marlton, New Jersey. I'd been invited by the host of the monthly "Poetry in the Round" series to read for a half an hour, following which there was an open reading, which means (for those unfamiliar with poetry readings, which is most people I know) that people can sign up to read their own poems in front of the assembled group. The number and length of poems is usually specified by the host, and is based on an idea of how many readers there are and how much time they have available. Anyhow, when I visited the store yesterday morning, in addition to the Big Sign at the front of the store, there was a small sign in the area where they set up for the readings. Can you see it on that far wall, past the auspiciously placed Jane Austen table? No?

How about now?

The empty space you see in the above photo actually was filled in with 21 folding chairs set up by the store - four rows of 5, plus one chair pulled to the side up front by the loudspeaker where Barney, our fearless leader, presides. When I got arrived with the kids at 7:10, who were guilted into attending were thrilled to attend, nobody else was there. By the time the reading started, however, there were 13 people in the rows of chairs - and I knew every single one of them. In addition to the kids, my husband and mother-in-law were there, along with several good friends: Heather, who was in a critique group with me a few years back and is writing a sci-fi novel; three friends I've made through the Jane Austen Society of North America - one of whom drove an hour from southern PA to be there; friends Lisa and Barb; local poet friends B.J. (whom I hadn't seen out in a few months) and Bruce Niedt, whom I've posted about before; and, to my delighted surprise, Dan Maguire, who drove all the way from Baltimore for my reading (a two-hour drive if you're speeding). Dan is an exceptional poet, about whom I've posted twice before, including a post with his spectacular poem, "The Lateness of the Day". The poets in the group were impressed with the turnout of pure audience members (as opposed to folks who were there to read their own work).

Barney kindly introduced me, and I started the reading. S was kind enough to take some pictures for me. Of course, she preferred to take them when I wasn't looking, which means that I'm looking at my page in this one, but hey, them's the breaks sometimes. I opened with the five-line poem that won third place in the Writer's Digest Poetry Contest, "Inside the New Mall", then read a few more of my regular adult poems before reading five of the poems from my biography of Jane Austen in verse using period forms, since I knew for a fact that the women from JASNA were hoping to hear some of them. I started with the first poem in the collection - a poem in blank verse based on a letter that amounts to Jane's birth announcement, which I've shared before. The Jane poems went down well across the board (I could tell by the happy-making yet indescribable murmur/hum that greeted the endings on two of them that they had made an impact, which was sososo fulfilling). I was happy that the Jane project went over well, only I have a wee confession to make. In error during last night's introduction, I said I had 172 of the Jane poems done, which meant that when I wrote a new poem today and added it to my Tables of Contents (one to print in Word, one that has lots more info in Excel), I

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Yesterday, I shared some of the ways I try to engage young kids, especially pre-readers, in poetry reading during school visits. I don't want to just stand there and recite my poems. I want the kids to own the poems, too. But there's always limited time, so I can't repeat poems three and four times to have kids start to learn them by heart. Here are a few more ways we have fun with poems. (And again, these could be adapted for use with rhyming picture books, non-rhyming rhythmic picture books, and even, sometimes, passages from totally prose books, depending on what you want to demonstrate/emphasize.)

Alternate lines: I do some traditional partner reading, where the kids read one line and I read the next. I choose short poems with very simple language for this one, and I make sure to give myself the harder lines. I review the kids' lines with them once before we start, and, as usual, their lines are featured in a bright color (below, their lines are in red).

Prickly

When I’m feeling
porcupine-y,
I get nasty
I get whiny.

Stay away or
I might stick you.
My sharp words are
quills to prick you.

(from Stampede, all rights reserved)

Rhyme it: One way to share a longer rhyming poem that the kids wouldn't be able to easily keep up with is to have them just say the rhyming words. This reinforces to pre-readers what rhyming words are, and it's easier for them to keep track of the next word if they know it sounds like the word before. As always, I review their words once beforehand. Here's the start of "Here Boy!" from Stampede.

Lunch bell starts ringing,
down the hallway I bound.
I’m a dog who’s just heard
the can-opener sound.

I use a fun pointer to gesture when it's their turn to say a word.

Repeat it: I want kids to know it's fun to play with language and poems, and one thing we all enjoy is repeating a poem several times, changing it up each time. For the above poem, for instance, which is four stanzas long and is all about a boy racing to the cafeteria for lunch and eating more, more, more food in an excited frenzy, we start out slow. But then we repeat it two more times, faster each time. I call the first time the warm up. Then, after the second time, we take a few deep breaths to really prepare for the workout that the speedy third time is going to give us. The kids are watching me, the pointer, and the words so intently so they don't miss shouting out their words. We're all out of breath and laughing by the end of the third run-through! It's also fun to play with mood instead of speed. You could read a poem three times, giving it a different inflection each time to make it sound like a different mood or emotion. Kids love this, especially if they have at least a few words to say in the poem each time.

Sound it out: Kids love to add sound effects. For my animal poems in Stampede, I often have them make the appropriate animal noises after each poem (just make sure you have a signal that will let them know when to stop!). After the poem "Stampede," they not only make elephant noises but they stomp their feet while sitting to create the noise of a thundering elephant stampede. They love the rare opportuni

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To celebrate the holidays we asked some of our favorite people in publishing what their favorite book was. Let us know in the comments what your favorite book is and be sure to check back throughout the week for more “favorites”.

Stephanie O’Cain is an Exhibits Coordinator at NYU Press.

For over five years, Jeanette Winterson’s novel Written on the Body has been the book I return to when I need to renew my sense of admiration for the human body and condition. Winterson gives no hint as to the narrator’s gender in this torrid love affair, forcing the reader to cast aside any preconceived notions about love, loss and redemption and instead focus simply on the complexities of relationships. (more…)

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