Today's poem is "Upside Down Feelings" by Elisabeth Norton.
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Poem Video created by Sheila G.
Please drop by and drop a comment on the great poetry videos produced by my TWU students. They are posted daily. I am putting together a poetry prize for those who show love to these projects. I will draw a name at the end of the month. Margaret at Reflections on the Teche I am once again working with Anne Irza-Leggat, Candlewick Press to bring four interviews for Poetry Friday. Anne has graciously offered to send a book to a lucky commenter. You have all month to comment on the interviews. At the month's end I will select four names for the four books. JRM: I really enjoyed The Dream Train. The poems were a great combination of having fun just before bed and then settling into dreamland. I didn't ask a question about the moon poems but they are among my favorites. How did you come up with the idea for The Dream Train? ST: I’ve been writing poetry since my teens. The first times I read out writing to audiences were as a performance poet in the 1990’s. The first book I published (back in 1992) was a collection of poems for adults. The first writing I ever did for children was poetry. And I put together a collection of my poems for children 30 years ago. It was a mish-mash of poems, with many styles and themes, entitled SNAKES AND LADDERS. That came close to being published. But an editor had a change of heart, and the book never happened. Then I drifted away from poetry a bit. I started writing picture book stories and publishing quite a few. So stories for children became my focus for quite a few years. But I showed my mish-mash collection of poems to an editor I was working with. She had a read and wisely said that I should try coming up with a more focussed book of poems with one specific theme. I liked that. And, drawing off my experience of writing stories for bedtime, I decided to have a go at putting together a book of poems about night-time, sleep and dreams. The vision was a picture book of bedtime poems. And that became THE DREAM TRAIN. JRM: I have always had wild dreams (like just this week one about being in lock down because a cougar was roaming the school yard) so I especially loved “Run Free”. Was that poem or any of the poems the result of a dream? ST: No. None of the poems was sparked directly by a dream. Though dreams have given me stories and poems in the past. I wrote this once. It has an adult feel, and wouldn’t have made it into THE DREAM TRAIN! THE MAN OUTSIDE I dreamt a man with a hammer was outside. He was trying to break into the house where I grew up. I couldn’t see him. He was in the darkness beyond the blue-framed windows. I was indoors. And I was ready to do anything to keep him out of my family’s home. But I knew that the man outside, with the hammer, was me as well. And I do love to turn over pieces of writing in my head in the semi-dreaming, twilit mind-space that comes shortly before falling asleep. A lot can happen then. I’ll scribble thoughts and images in a bedside notebook, or find they comes back to me when sitting down to write in the morning. That was part of my process as THE DREAM TRAIN evolved. JRM: There is a lot of fun word play in this book such as “Rain, Rain, Rain” and “The World is Busy.” Do you keep an interesting words list? (I’m always writing down words). ST: Well guessed. Yes! I do have some strange and beautiful word collections that I’ve gathered over the years. Sometimes I look/think them through, when writing. Among these are … NAMES (handy when writing stories), GROWN-UP THINGS THAT CHILDREN LIKE SAYING, TONGUE TWISTERS, and EXPLETIVES THAT YOU CAN USE IN WRITING FOR THE YOUNG. (The latter includes Dog my cats! Geewhillikins! and Oh jiminy bliminy criminy!) JRM: I love how the poems in this book go back and forth with playful, animals and tenderness such as “The Blanket” and “Grandpa’s Guitar” Were those experiences you had as a child? ST: No. Neither THE BLANKET nor GRANDPA’S GUITAR is based on a personal experience I had. But I’ve known musical grandfathers. And I’ve known knitting grandmothers. Characters and images arrive, like guests, when writing poetry. And when you feel there’s truth in them, they’re warmly welcome to stay. JRM: What was the process in deciding the arc of the book and the sections? ST: That was down to good editorial thinking. The book was edited at Candlewick’s UK arm - Walker Books. I’m lucky to work with Maria Tunney and Tanya Rosie there (a very smart duo of editors.) I sent them my manuscript for THE DREAM TRAIN, with the poems ordered in no particular sequence. I’d just put them side by side in a way that I thought chimed. But Maria and Tanya came up with the idea of splitting the book into sections – one with a theme of heading for bed, one with a theme of being in bed and going to sleep, and one with a theme of sleeping in the middle of the night. This led to the three (equal) sections of the book: NIGHT ARRIVES, SHUT-YOUR-EYES TIME and DREAM WHEELS TURNING. And I think they work. JRM: Were there poems that didn’t quite make the cut for the book? ST: Yes. Five or six, perhaps. There was one about a river flowing on through the night: Lights go out. Darkness grows. But all night long, the river flows… Something along those lines. I quite liked that one! But my editors suggested cutting it - and you give and take, when making a book. There was another rather long poem called Its BEDTIME IN MONSTERLAND. And I suggested cutting that myself. You write long, then distil down. And – to extend the distilling metaphor - I find that books get better the more you take out. JRM: Would you have an early draft of a poem and then the final draft so readers can take a peek at the process? ST: Sure. Here are the first scrawling scribbles of the poem that gave the book its title. (See how I’m trying out a little collection of rhyming words in the lefthand margin.) ST: Here’s how I wrote the poem DUCKS LOVE TO DREAM. (At the bottom on the right, I’m thinking up alternative words for sleep. I suppose that’s what I do. I dream-up the possibilities. Then I settle on the ones that work best.) ST: And this one came out just about ready, first time. JRM: What is your next project? ST: I’m delighted to say that THE DREAM TRAIN is the first in a trilogy of poetry books for under-8’s coming out from Walker Books in the UK (and, I hope, Candlewick Press in the US.) YOU’RE A POET is due to be published in the spring of 2024. It’s a story-based book, for the very young, about poetry – with each story leading to a poem-writing challenge. Then FIVE LITTLE FRIENDS will follow in 2025. That’s a book of finger rhymes that I’ve come up with. I love using finger rhymes when doing poetry performances for small children. The combination of lyrical language and expressive finger movements has a wonderful, naturally interactive effect. Young children step right into the poems both physically and imaginatively. So it’s a life-filled form to work (and play) with. JRM: What wonderful news about The Dream Train being the first of a trilogy. Congratulations. Coming UP: I'm hosting Poetry Friday next week. Get ready for Classic Found Poem Palooza! On Friday, April 14. I am hosting Poetry Friday and the Classic Found Poem Palooza. Here's the Padlet link to upload your poem. I have put a permission to upload on it as I want to protect the space. Finally, please drop by and drop a comment on the great poetry videos produced by my TWU students. They are posted daily. I am putting together a poetry prize for those who show love to these projects. I will draw a name at the end of the month.
Happy National Poetry Month! Throughout April, I'll be sharing videos made by my graduate students enrolled in a "Poetry for Children and Young Adults" course at Texas Woman's University.
I put a call out to my poet friends to donate a poem and give permission for these students to create an original "movie" to feature that poem. These are great to have on had for small "Poetry Break" as well as being a model of how poetry and technology can go together. Today and tomorrow are two poems about basketball, fitting as this the weekend for the "Final Four." Today, please enjoy "Game On" by Karen Elise Finch.
Poem video created by Caitlyn G.
It the Eve of National Poetry Month! Mary Lee at A(nother) Year of Reading is hosting and sharing what her month of poetry will be: Cheritas! I am once again working with Anne Irza-Leggat, Candlewick Press to bring four interviews for Poetry Friday. Anne has graciously offered to send a book to a lucky commenter. Today I have a wonderful interview with Elizabeth Bicknell, longtime editor for Paul B, Janczko. His final collection, Where I Live, was published on March 14, 2023. It explores a the places and spaces of where we live. JRM:How long were you Paul B Janeczko’s editor? LB:I started working with Paul back in 1996, when I was still at Harcourt Brace. When I moved to Candlewick Press in 1997, I brought him with me, and we published the anthologyVery Best (Almost) Friends, illustrated by Christine Davenier. Lovely to have started with a collection of poems about friends, since that is what we became over twenty-plus years, till his passing in 2019. JRM: Did you work with him on Requiem: Poems of the Terezin Ghetto? LB: I edited nine of Paul’s books. Seven of them were anthologies, including two of my favorites--A Poke in the I and A Kick in the Head, both illustrated by Chris Raschka--and two were his own, longer collections of poems, such as Requiem. The other one is Worlds Afire, poems about a circus fire in Hartford, CT, 1944. Both of these collections (Paul refused to refer to them as verse novels) are powerful meditations on terrible events, focusing on individual experience. He made history vivid in that way. PBJ, as we called him in-house, was an excellent poet, teacher, and appreciator of poetry. I learned so much from him. JRM: I’m curious. What are one or two things Paul taught you? LB: Paul taught me a lot about the various poetic forms. I knew the basics, like the haiku and the sonnet, but I didn’t really know the more complex forms—sestinas, villanelles, aubades! He also taught me that these rules—just like those of his beloved baseball—are actually exciting to know and enhance your experience of the “game.” JRM: How did he come up with the idea for Where I Live? LB: Paul had anthology ideas bubbling away all the time. He kept paper folders of printed poems, and when there seemed to be a collection forming, he’d email me and say, “Hey, Ducky, how about this idea?” I turned down some of them, which went on to be happily published elsewhere, of course. JRM: Janeczko passed away in 2019, I am curious as to where in the process of creating the book? Were all the poems selected? LB: Yes, nearly all of the poems were there. In winter 2019, we had just finished The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog--Paul saw the bound book a couple of weeks before he passed. After a little while, we put ourselves back together at Candlewick and opened the file on Where I Live. We added some poems, and then we began the search for an illustrator. JRM: What is the story about how this book will go into the world four years after Janeczko’s passing? LB: For me, personally, it feels very fitting that Paul’s last anthology should be about home. JRM: What kind of insight can you provide about how a poem gets selected for a collection? LB: There are so many aspects to this process. First and foremost, the anthologist selects poems that they love and which fit the theme they have chosen for the book. For most young anthologies, you’d want about 30 to 35 poems. As an editor, I look to ensure that the anthologist has selected a good variety of new poems as well as previously published poems; included a diverse collection of poets; featured a variety of poetic forms; considered age-appropriateness for content and comprehension; and, finally, understands the likelihood of obtaining permissions at a reasonable cost for inclusion. JRM: Could you share a little bit about the process for getting permissions? LB: Every poem—apart from those that are in the public domain and therefore free to use—needs a permission from the rights holder before it can be included in an anthology. The rights holder could be the poet, the poet’s estate, the poet’s agent, or a previous publisher of that poem. The anthologist’s job is to track down who owns the rights to the poem. Then, the anthologist will give the rights holder the details of the book where the poem will appear. The rights holder will want to know whether the book is hardcover, softcover, e-book, or all three, and where it will be published. They will probably ask for the retail price and the print run. Then they will ask for a fee, based on that matrix of information. JRM: Readers are always interested in the arc of a poetry book. My guess is that the sections go from the innermost circle of “Home” to the larger circle of “Town/” What does that look like to decide the arc and order of a book? LB: This is definitely a fun part of the process! In Firefly July, we divided the poems into seasons. In Where I Live, we decided to expand the horizon from the home to the neighborhood and beyond, as you surmised. Since we wanted to include urban, suburban, and rural neighborhoods, there was a fair amount of futzing, i.e. moving poems in and out of sections till we were satisfied that Paul would have been happy with the collection. Then my colleague Carter Hasegawa cleared the permissions on Paul’s behalf. JRM: What is your favorite memory of Paul B Janeczko? LB: I have so many, but hearing him rave (or rant) about his beloved Red Sox was always fun! Classic Found Poem Palooza Almost Here!On Friday, April 14. I am hosting Poetry Friday and the Classic Found Poem Palooza. Here's the Padlet link to upload your poem. I have put a permission to upload on it as I want to protect the space. Come back tomorrow and enjoy the first of the month long poetry videos created by the students of the Texas Women's College, Poetry for Children and Young Adults! 'They are fun, thoughtful and will be perfect for a poetry break. Thanks to Sylvia Vardell for pointing me toward this opportunity. Also a huge thanks to the poets who donated a poem to the project. Welcome to Poetry Friday. Rose at Imagine the Possibilities is hosting us this week with whispers of spring, daffodils, and hummingbirds. This week, I've been busy getting things ready for National Poetry Month 2023. Between Friday poet interviews and daily poetry videos from my students at Texas Women's University, and the Classic Found Poem, it will be chock full of poetry. You're Invited. Share a Classic Novel Found Poem!I wrote this found poem from Frankenstein by Mary Shelley in response to a prompt in February about Frankenstein.
Frankenstein, Chapter Five, a found poem I. A dreary night I might infuse a spark of being Into the the lifeless thing the rain pattered against the panes the candle nearly out the creature opened the dull yellow eye The wretch his limbs in proportion his yellow skin, hair a lustrous black teeth, pearly whiteness his watery eyes and straight black lips II. Different accidents of life not so changeable Deprived of rest and health I threw myself on the bed the dream vanished I was disturbed by the wildest dreams I held the corpse of my dead Mother I saw grave-worms crawling I started from my sleep The wretch The miserable monster I had created III. I took refuge in the courtyard, catching and fearing each sound My pulse beat, my palpitating of every artery. I sank to the ground. Langor and extreme weakness. Dreams had been my food Now a hell Avoid the wretch. © 2023, Jone Rush MacCulloch I will have a Padlet ready to be loaded next Friday. I will feature the Padlet on April 14. I can't wait to see your found poems on what you consider to be classic reads! |
AuthorAll photos and poems in these blog posts are copyrighted to Jone Rush MacCulloch 2006- Present. Please do not copy, reprint or reproduce without written permission from me. Categories
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April 1 Mary Lee Hahn, Another Year of Reading April 2 Heidi Mordhorst, My Juicy Little Universe April 3 Tabatha, The Opposite of Indifference April 4 Buffy Silverman April 5 Rose Cappelli, Imagine the Possibilities April 6 Donna Smith, Mainely Write April 7 Margaret Simon, Reflections on the Teche April 8 Leigh Anne, A Day in the Life April 9 Linda Mitchell, A Word Edgewise April 10 Denise Krebs, Dare to Care April 11 Emma Roller, Penguins and Poems April 12 Dave Roller, Leap Of Dave April 13 Irene Latham Live You Poem April 14 Janice Scully, Salt City Verse April 15 Jone Rush MacCulloch April 16 Linda Baie, TeacherDance April 17 Carol Varsalona, Beyond Literacy Link April 18 Marcie Atkins April 19 Carol Labuzzetta at The Apples in My Orchard April 20 Cathy Hutter, Poeturescapes April 21 Sarah Grace Tuttle, Sarah Grace Tuttle’s Blog, April 22 Marilyn Garcia April 23 Catherine, Reading to the Core April 24 Janet Fagal, hosted by Tabatha, The Opposite of Indifference April 25 Ruth, There is no Such Thing as a God-Forsaken Town April 26 Patricia J. Franz, Reverie April 27 Theresa Gaughan, Theresa’s Teaching Tidbits April 28 Karin Fisher-Golton, Still in Awe Blog April 29 Karen Eastlund, Karen’s Got a Blog April 30 Michelle Kogan Illustration, Painting, and Writing |