Happy National Poetry Month! Here at Live. Love. Explore! I'll be hosting a month-long Poetry Party with poetry quotes, trivia, craft tips, publishing resources & free books!
Okay. So we'll start with the basics. WHAT IS POETRY?
For some great definitions, check out this book:
I use it whenever I speak to teens or adults about poetry. With entries like "It is far far cries upon a beach at nightfall" and "Poetry is what can be heard at manholes echoing up Dante's fire escape," it'll open your mind!
Another one of my favorite definitions comes from Marianne Moore: "Imaginary gardens with real toads in them."
Yes!
If you're not sure how to celebrate, the Kidlitosphere can sure fix you up:
Susan Taylor Brown will post Lessons Learned (Mostly About Me) in a Poem-a-Day
April Halprin Wayland will be writing and posting an original poem a day during April.
Liz Garton Scanlon will give us her third year of a Haiku-a-Day every day in April!
Jone MacCulloch will post 30 Days-30 Students: A poem a day from students
A Poem A Day: A Personal Journey
Poetry Postcard Project: Have a student written and decorated poem sent to your
home. Email her at macrush53 @yahoo. com.
Gregory K. will present 30 Poets/30 Days -a whole month of never-before-seen poems by a slew of fabulous poets writing for kids.
*** Greg also has a fantastic, exciting, INSPIRING project in the works: Poetry: Spread the Word!
Jama Rattigan will present her 2nd Annual Poetry Potluck (original poem and favorite recipe by guest bloggers)
Andromeda Jazmon will be doing her fourth year in a row of haiga (original haiku + my photos) at A Wrung Sponge
Janelle at Brimful Curiosities will host a National Poetry Month Kids Poetry Challenge in which kids are invited to create pictures for the poems she posts each Friday.
Biblio File will be featuring a poem or review of a novel-in-verse every day in
April.
Anastasia Suen has set up a blog and a Twitter account for students (of all ages) to write
Haiku (about what they leaned at school that day).
Also on Twitter: http://twitter.com/EduHaiku
Tricia Stohr-Hunt will host a Poetry in the Classroom series, which will highlight a topic, theme, poet, or book and talk about uses in the classroom.
Stasia Kehoe will be including poetry links, a giveaway of signed arc of debut YA verse novel AUDITION and reviews every Thursday of verse novels.
The Poem Farm will introduce a different poem idea-strategy or poetic technique for children and teachers every day. Each idea-strategy/technique will be followed by links to a few poems from this past year. The blog will also feature poem sharing ideas through “Poetry Peeks” into classrooms.
Lee Wind will present sprinkled-throughout-the-month GLBTQ poetry posts.
Mary Lee Hahn will be writing a poem a day again this year, and posting them at A Year of Reading.
Oh, and today's POETRY FRIDAY ROUNDUP is at The Poem Farm!
What an awesome list, Irene! Thanks so much!
ReplyDeleteExcited about your Poetry Party!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the roundup of April fun and the heads up about WHAT IS POETRY? Must check it out :).
Thank you so much for making this list!! It is going to be an amazing month. I hope I can keep up!
ReplyDeleteThank you, Irene! I am excited to get meself a copy of that book! A.
ReplyDeleteThanks again for gathering the list of Kidlitosphere events!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the book recommendation -- going to look for it. In thinking about what poetry is, I like Alice Walker's "How Poems are Made: A Discredited View": "... There is a place the fear must go. / There is a place the choice must go. / There is a place the loss must go. / The leftover love. ..."
ReplyDeleteThanks, too, for the list of this month's poetry celebrations!
Yay for poetry month! I hope it is indeed a celebration for you.
ReplyDeleteHappy Poetry Month, Irene! Thanks for the great links.
ReplyDeleteLove that idea of poetry drifting up from the manholes near Dante's fire escape! Thanks for the post, Irene.
ReplyDelete