Happy World Poetry Day!

Today  today – March 21st – is World Poetry Day, didcha know? Established by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) in 1999, the purpose of celebrating today is: “to promote the reading, writing, publishing and teaching of poetry throughout the world” and, as the UNESCO session declaring the day proclaims, to “give [...]

The Boy Who Loved Words by Roni Schotter

*And just in time for upcoming National Poetry Month, in April!       For young readers (and/or parents, teachers, caregivers) who hone a passionate predilection for spry, savory and scrumptious tales, which with real gusto (and giggles galore) celebrate the often-tantalizing (if not tintinnabulating) pulsing rhapsody of the harmoniously luscious poetry of WORDS, then have I got a [...]

Langston Hughes (Poetry for Young People series) edited and with introduction by Arnold Rampersad & David Roessel; illustrations by Benny Andrews

“There are words like Freedom / Sweet and wonderful to say. / On my heartstrings freedom sings / All day everyday.” “There are words like Liberty / That almost make me cry. / If you had known what I know / You would know why.”      As one of more than 25 poems – [...]

Redneck Haiku/Double-wide Edition by Mary K. Witte

For would-be versifiers, writing haiku can be a rewarding early attempt at poetry.  The challenge with writing haiku is keeping within the 5-7-5 syllable structure.  It’s easier (supposedly) to write haiku in its original context of Japanese, which captures a more concise idea within the structure.  With the English language, the words are shorter and [...]

Spring Garden: New and Selected Poems by Fred Chappell

This is one of my favorite books of poetry.  I love it because Fred Chappell is a local author, and often his imagery includes places that I know — such as Walker Avenue (mentioned in this book) or the mountains of Western North Carolina (the setting of some of his novels).  I don’t claim to [...]

The Vintage Book of Contemporary World Poetry, edited by J.D. McClatchy

The Anchor Book of Chinese Poetry: From Ancient to Contemporary, the Full 3000-Year Tradition. Edited by Tony Barnstone

The Gorgon Goddess by Evie Shockley

Very Bad Poetry edited by Kathryn Petras and Ross Petras

I once read a magazine article on encouraging children to read that stated, “How can children know what constitutes a good book, if they’ve never read a bad book?”.  The article basically said that we should encourage children to read.  They might become fixated on individual books or series that aren’t of great literary merit, [...]