Matt at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme has hosting duties this Poetry Friday.  Matt  has a terrific interview with  Leslie Bulion.
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Here I have an interview with Sally Walker.  Thanks to Mary Lee, I got in touch with  Anne Irza-Leggat at Candlewick Press. She connected me with two poets for this month that have new books coming out in April.  In the fall, I will be interviewing two more poets when their books arrive in the world.

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Meet Sally Walker.  This picture tell me that she and I could be great friends as I love a good hug with a tree.  from early readers to nature books STEM books, history and picture books, Sally has written so many.  Earth Verse was her first book written in haiku.

Her latest, Out of This World: Star-Studded Haiku, is as she says a  "language spaceship" . Through haiku, readers will travel the universe.  There's great back matter at the end of the book.

​Sally was gracious to answer questions I had for her. I loved learning about the diamonds that a certain planet has (read the interview to find out).

JRM: How did you get the idea for Out of This World: Star-Studded Haiku? What was your process for writing this book?
SW: The idea began with a haiku that I wrote about Saturn: Rings of rock and dust/circle around Saturn’s waist/cosmic Hula-Hoops. It made me smile, as I remembered summer days spent playing with a Hula-Hoop.
 
It became part of a manuscript with the working title Sci-ku.  As I have done in many of my books, I wanted to create a book that would as a bridge to connect science with literature—one that combined facts and language play. Sci-ku’shaiku ranged from geology, to space, to physics, and to biology. I submitted the manuscript to Hilary Van Dusen, my editor at Candlewick.  She liked the idea, but felt that the book would be more effective if all of the haiku immersed the reader in one particular scientific field. She was absolutely correct! I narrowed the focus to geology, my number one science love. The manuscript became Earth Verse: Haiku from the Ground Up. The haiku about Saturn ended up on the cutting room floor. Sadly, because I really liked that one.
 
After completing Earth Verse, Hilary asked if I was working on anything else. I wasn’t, but suddenly the “cosmic Hula-Hoops” haiku popped back into my mind. My email reply to her suggested that I do a companion volume to Earth Verse that could be titled Out of This World: Star-studded Haiku. Of course I included the haiku about Saturn among those that I submitted in my formal proposal! 
 
Part of my process for writing Out of This World was paying attention to the stars, planets, and the moon as they appear to move across the sky as Earth rotates. Early morning, just before dawn, is my favorite time to be outside.  Even on the coldest days, I go for a walk and look at the moon and the stars.  Another part of my process was to look at the stellar—ha, ha, that pun was too good to resist—photos on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) website, www.nasa.gov. It’s an awesome website where one can spend hours immersed in all kinds of space-related information.  The photos are beyond belief!!

JRM: I think one of the best parts about writing is doing research for a topic. What kind of research did you do for Out of This World?
SW: Research is, hands down, my favorite part of being an author!  An important part of writing this book, which later morphed into research, came from re-living experiences from my childhood. For example, I remember sitting in the backyard with my father on summer nights.  He would point out different constellations—Orion and the Big Dipper are two vivid memories—and tell me stories about how they got their name.  My family always watched lunar and solar eclipses. We always used the pinhole in cardboard way to view a solar eclipse safely. 
 
One Christmas, when I was about 10 years old, my cousin received a telescope as a gift. He invited us to his house one night so we could see Saturn’s rings.  That blew me away!  Maybe that’s how Galileo felt when he first saw them.
 
In July 1969, half the people in our neighborhood crowded around the television in my family’s livingroom and watched the Eagle land on the moon.  We all held our breath until it touched down and then cheered!!  Reality TV at its absolute best!!!  
 
I researched scientific papers, books, old newspapers, and NASA’s website about all of these topics for additional information, as well as important updates, to material that I remembered from childhood.  
 
Interestingly, research that I’d done for other books gave me a lot of information for Out of This World. My research adventures for Boundaries, my book about the Mason-Dixon line, led to planetarium visits and lots of stargazing.  Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon drew their famous line of latitude guided by the position of stars. 
 
My husband, a volcanologist, was happy to talk with me about the Martian volcano Olympus Mons, the largest volcano in our solar system. In college, when I majored in geology, I learned that scientists theorize that an asteroid strike 65 million years ago likely led to the extinction of dinosaurs on Earth. It seemed natural for me to write a haiku about that.
 
JRM: What was the most surprising discovery you had in writing this book?
SW: Good question! One discovery that I knew absolutely NOTHING about was that it rains diamonds on the planet Uranus.  That planet, one of our solar system’s four planets that have no solid land surface, has a slushy plasma ocean that surrounds the planet’s solid core.  The pressure within the ocean forces carbon atoms to crystallize as diamonds. Because the diamonds are heavier than the surrounding “slush,” they rain downward, toward the core.
 
This discovery also led to a funny research story. When Matthew Trueman was creating the illustration for the haiku diamonds rain, unseen/in a slushy plasma sea/sunken treasure trove, he asked what color the sea was likely to be.  I had NO idea.  So, I did some research.  I emailed Dr. Dirk Gericke and asked him.  He is a professor at the Centre for Fusion, Space & Astrophysics, in the Department of Physics, at the University of Warwick, in the United Kingdom. Dr. Gericke has written several papers on Uranus’s plasma sea.  He helped me tweak the haiku so it was accurate, but he also consulted with his colleagues about the color of the plasma ocean.  While no one can actually see it, their consensus (based on the chemical composition) is that the sea is bluish. I passed this information along to Matthew!
 
JRM: What led you to write this book in haiku? How do you decide if you want to write in prose or haiku?
 SW: It was always intended to be a combination of haiku and nonfiction prose.  My favorite haiku are those that not only make me think or feel about something, but also make me want to discover something new about the “moment” that I encountered while reading a particular haiku. I hope that the haiku in Out of This World will make readers think and ask questions.  The narrative section of the book, hopefully, provides answers to some of those questions. 
 
Haiku is pretty much the only kind of poetry that I write.  But I did not always enjoy it.  I remember being taught about haiku in fourth grade.  The teacher explained what it was: a short poem that did not rhyme, had only seventeen syllables, and revealed a profound, seasonal moment in nature.  We didn’t talk about Japanese culture at all. Nor did we discuss how “less” can actually be “more.” She just read us a few haiku written by Basho and Issa. Sadly, I was too young to appreciate them—at least the ones she read to us.  They made me feel “itchy” because I didn’t understand what they were about.  When she asked us to write haiku, I felt like I was being asked to write something so profound that it was incomprehensible. Forcing the incomprehensible into a seventeen-syllable, non-rhyming poem made the assignment essentially impossible for me. Now, as an adult, I read a haiku like Basho’s The Old Pond  (An old silent pond/a frog jumps into the pond--/Splash! Silence again.) and marvel at it.  But the nine-year-old me wouldn’t have understood and appreciated all it encompasses.  I would not have savored that exquisite last moment. I would have splashed into the pond and caught the frog.
 
Today’s young readers meet haiku through the mastery of poets such as Paul Janeczko, Janet Wong, and J. Patrick Lewis. Children easily relate to their poems. They meet the reader in a place or moment that she or he can understand. A park bench, a curbside puddle, a beloved pet. That is incredibly powerful and freeing. Modern haiku poets often step outside the traditional guidelines of including a seasonal reference. And they frequently inject humor.
 
Many of the haiku in Earth Verse and Out of This World explore moments in nature, but they are moments that exist for eons.  I remember one of my geology professors telling us that in the timeline of life on Earth, humans have existed in the length of time that it takes to light a match and immediately blow it out. The formation of stars, land surfaces being eroded by glaciers and wind, an asteroid that wipes out millions of years of dinosaur existence are natural, cosmic “moments.” They exist on a timeline, the length of which we can scarcely comprehend.  Why not write haiku about them? 
 
Although some poets write haiku that don’t strictly adhere to the seventeen-syllable format, I choose to do so.  I like the challenge of seeking the perfect combination of words to convey an idea or impression in exactly seventeen syllables.  It’s a game with language that lets me play with words, something I love to do. It requires lots and lots and lots of mental revision to get the syllable count for each line correct.  That’s cool too, because many of the haiku that I write finally reach their “Eureka!” word-choice completion while I am outside walking and appreciating nature!  

JRM: What are your upcoming projects?
SW: My next book is UNDERGROUND FIRE: HOPE, SACRIFICE, AND COURAGE IN THE CHERRY MINE DISASTER. The 1909 Cherry Mine fire is one of the worst coal mine disasters in United States’ history.  My home is only 50 miles from Cherry, Illinois, and the story is one that I have wanted to bring to young readers for some years.  It’s especially timely, given that it’s a story of immigrants and fossil fuel, both of which figure prominently in the news today. The publication date is October 2022.  I do have another haiku book in the pipeline, scheduled for publication in Spring 2023. At the moment the title is TREES: HAIKU FROM ROOTS TO LEAVES. It's a bit early to share much more about it, but I can say that the illustrations are wonderful!   Both books are with Candlewick Press.

BONUS I:
In another email, Sally and I shared an exchange about writing haiku for adults as well as the haiku structure. 
She shared this haiku
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Language meanders,
words channeled into patterns.
Poetic rivers

BONUS II:
Regarding haiku versus senryu Sally shared this little fact, I enjoy senryu a lot. In fact, I had to avoid producing them when I wrote Earth Verse and Out of This World.

Thank you so much, Sally!

Congratulations to Leigh Ek.  Please email me your address so I can send you a copy of Africantown by Irene Latham and Charles Waters.

There's time to comment on the celebration of Imperfect II in the world posted on April 1. Check out the blog post to see the prize.  If you like to draw  or you know someone who does, you should comment. Deadline is April 15.

PLUS...leave a comment here to win a copy of Out of This World.   I choose a winner and announce on April 22.

It's our fourth Friday of the year. Wow!
 Irene at Live Your Poem has the round up for us this week.

I like writing my posts on Thursday and posting early.  Yesterday, I was coming up empty and went to bed without a post. 


This morning gifted me with one as I was making tea

morning moon
side smile of wolf pup
​sings the wind
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©2022, jone rush macculloch

Congrats Mary Lee Hahn and Bridget Magee! Mary Lee, will send out today. Bridget, I need your address.

How can it be Christmas Eve already?  This Friday Buffy at Buffy Silverman is hosting us. She's sharing her poetry gift from her Winter Swap and her poetic response.

one candle flickers
the light shines in the darkness
while we wait with hope

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For those of you, who celebrate, Merry Christmas.

Earlier this week, I posted the #inktober and #poemtober for Days 8 through 13 on Instagram.  Today I have Days 14 and 15 for Poetry Friday.  I admit both were a challenge, one more than the other for an autumnal theme.  

Day 14: tick
ancient clock
midnight spooky time
tick, tick, tock

Day 15: helmet
in  the field
crow on a helmet
not afraid

©Jone Rush MacCulloch

Today Irene at Live Your Poem is hosting us in the Poetry Friday community.  And she's sharing a great opportunity that will be available in 2022.
And she has a gorgeous autumn poem.  I love this line: "how time eats daylight." It's a great mystery.

I've been attempting to be intentional in writing a haiku each day in response to the #inktober prompt. October 6 was "spirits" and October 7 is "fan".

cirrus clouds
wrap the Hunter's Moon
night spirits

 ©Jone Rush MacCulloch

nature's fans
float on autumn's breeze
lucky day

 ©Jone Rush MacCulloch


*ginko biloba
​It is a sign of luck to catch a leaf as it falls.

 My goal this month is to return to the practice of daily small poems.  Some years it's been called #Poemtober.  I am using the #Inktober words for inspritation. On a walk this week, I took this photo.

I am playing with two versions.

leaf shadow
after the rain
memory

©Jone Rush MacCulloch
memory
after the rain
leaf shadow

©Jone Rush MacCulloch

The first word for #Inktober is 'crystal'.

​crystal stars
shimmer on the lake
wish makers
©Jone Rush MacCulloch

Molly at Nix the Comfort Zone has the Poetry Friday this week. She's thinking about summer using the mento text from Pat Schneider’s The Moon, Ten Times.  It sparked a a poem for me.

Welcome to Poetry Friday. Today, Margaret at Reflections on the Teche, is sharing a fabulous project  as a result of COVID and writing through the Ethical ELA.  Go check it our along with all the other fabulous poetry in our world.

BTW, #poetryeverywhere is from a Naomi Shihab Nye quote, "See poetry everywhere." 
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I almost didn't post this week. Sometimes I take July off from blogging.  This little haiku has bee rumbling in my head since the photo last Sunday.  I am in love with this sky and sunset.  So many textures.

Welcome to Poetry Friday.  We are so close to half way through the year.  Does anyone know how to slow down time? This week Buffy at Buffy Silverman is sharing observations and thoughts about spring time.  I love her photos and what she has cerated with the word 'time'.

Summer means swapping poetry with others.  This past week, I had poetry mail from Tabatha. She has a teaser in her post for Mary Lee a couple weeks ago. Blessings. They are rather fun to write.  This blessing from Tabatha speaks to anyone cultivating words. Yesterday I started collecting the poems that have lived on my blogs since 2006 and it indeed felt like I was a standing in a poem garden,

A blessing for those who cultivate words
by Tabatha Yeatts 
for Jone
 
May the sun find your seeds 
and rain settle on your sprouts 
and may you pick the weeds
of distraction and fear 
from around your precious seedlings.
 
May you invite birds to sing 
on your branches, bees to 
circle your blossoms, and 
praying mantises to stoutly 
guard your growth.
 
May your fingers be nimble
as you stand before rows of bushes,
ripe with the fruit of your imagination.
 
May your feet tread 
gently but firmly as you walk 
the dirt paths between these overflowing bushes,
​holding your words in your hands, 
your pockets, and cradled 
in the bottom of your shirt.
 
May you find the few you need
on the sparse bush that holds words
for hard times, for times when silence
and togetherness
are most necessary.
 
May you stand before 
the one you never 
thought would bear fruit 
and feel the joyous
bewilderment 
of seeing more than you can hold.

My response:
seeds of sprouts
nimble with imagination-
your blossoms

walk dirty paths
hold words in silence
feel joyous

~jone rush macculloch, 2021 draft

I have been taking classes in mixed media through Jennifer Chamberlin.  She had a two part class, Night Watch.  I also committed to sending out three "art poetry postcards" for National Poetry Month. So I combined the two.  This week has been the pink supermen which influenced my haiku.

I am laughing at myself because when I shared collage books with students, I always said I would never do collage because of the time.  Guess what?  I think this extremely relaxing.