Hello and Happy Poetry Friday! Be sure to visit wonderful Jone Rush Maculloch for Roundup.Today I am excited and delighted to welcome co-anthologists June Cotner and Nancy Tupper Ling to share about their newest project BLESS THIS EARTH, illus. by Keum Jin Song, brought to us by Convergent. Divided into five chapters, young readers, ages 3-7, are invited to explore a colorful world filled with musical rainforests, majestic birds, sea creatures, stars, and much more!
June Cotner is the author of almost forty books, including the bestsellers Graces, Bedside Prayers, and House Blessings. Her books altogether have sold more than one million copies. Cotner has appeared on national television and radio programs and her books have been featured in many national publications, including USA Today, Better Homes & Gardens, Woman’s Day, and Family Circle. She lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband and their rescue dog, a Border Collie/Corgi mix (a Borgi!).
Nancy Tupper Ling is a children’s author, poet, bookseller, and librarian. Her most recent books are One Perfect Plan: The Bible's Big Story in Tiny Poems and a collection of poetry entitled For Every Little Thing: Poems and Prayers to Celebrate the Day, which she coauthored with June Cotner, and was a Junior Library Guild Gold selection. Nancy is a bookseller at Blue Bunny Books, and lives with her family in Walpole, Massachusetts.June and Nancy have generously offered a book for giveaway! To enter, simply leave a comment on this post. I will announce the winner next week!
I'm honored my desert-coyote-stars poem "Hymn" is included along with so many other beauties. Look for it below.
But first, please welcome June and Nancy as they reply to a few simple prompts. Take it away, ladies!
FRESH: We think BLESS THE EARTH is especially fresh! Besides including a few well-loved poems, we also solicited for original submissions from award-winning poets. For example, in regard to “fresh,” here is the first stanza from a poem by Susanne Wiggins Bunch:
Darkness falls,
Creatures call,
The people’s prayers are said.
God is singing a lullaby
While earth prepares for bed.
DIFFICULT: While working on a children’s book, it is especially challenging to make sure a certain poem we’re considering works for children’s ages 3-7. We frequently will find an “older audience” poem that we’re tempted to include, and we often ask the other: “Wait a minute. Will young children understand it? Will they relate to it?”
In BLESS THE EARTH, we wanted to knit together humanity, the environment, and spirituality in an engaging way. While it would be difficult for one poem to include all three of these elements, we feel we achieved our overall goal with the book.
DELICIOUS: What a fun word in regard to a book! We think the delicious part of BLESS THE EARTH came as we saw the illustrations unfold. For example, we love all of the earth elements surrounding Nancy’s title poem, “Bless the Earth. The poem “Wonder” by Amanda Smith beautifully describes the wonder of Earth and it’s placed on a full-page spread showing earth from land to sea. The images throughout the book offer many topics for parents to discuss with their children. Another gorgeous spread features a poem written by Jillian Pappan when she was age 10. She is a member of the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska. Her poem closes with:
Baby in a cradleboard
Riding safe
In the sky.
The poem is accompanied by a stunning illustration of a brown eagle with a cradleboard carrying a young child.
ANYTHING ELSE: In addition to offering a book of universal prayers of gratitude and earth-related inspirational poems, we also wanted to include ideas about how children can contribute to helping the earth. Our last chapter is “Caring for Our World.” Rather than offer a list of practical suggestions, we asked our contributors to create poems and beautiful prose for ideas to introduce to young children. One free verse poem, Earth’s Voice,” by Theresa Mary Grass, “speaks out” in both a tender and empowering way about how we can speak out for the earth, from prairies and
deserts, to oceans and rivers, from mountains and valleys, to plants and animals. Another free verse poem, “I Take Care of the Earth,” by Barbara Younger, gives kids some practical ideas such as “When I’m finished with paper, I recycle it.” And “When I go to the store, I bring my own bag.” We hope we have succeeded with both the visual words and thoughts conveyed through the poems as well as creating a book that is relatable for children about how they can appreciate, honor, and care for our world.
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Thank you, June and Nancy! I can especially relate to that "Difficult" answer...so hard sometimes to cut poems that might be "too much" or "too adult" for our target audience. Many thanks for choosing to include my poem "Hymn."
HYMN
coyote sends
her song
spiraling
past sand
and saguaros—
she, too,
knows who
swirled the sky
with stars,
who sent
the wind
to carry
her voice
across centuries
- Irene Latham
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This week's ArtSpeak: FOLK ART features another Alabama artist, Trés Taylor. I love this bit from his website: "He paints about life's journey and the joy that resides within."
Now that's my kind of art!
When I approached Trés about permissions to use some of his work for this project, I was greeted with warm enthusiasm! I have been an admirer for a LONG time, and Trés' wife/Fellow Artist/Amazing Person Helene and I have run in some of the same artsy circles. As we discussed the possibilities, she brought up a vital point:
"My only reservation is that we no longer call Trés' work 'folk art' but rather 'contemporary self-taught.' But it is inspired by Southern folk art, Mexican magic realism, with a touch of Asian/Japanese influence."
What we call ourselves, how we identify...such a personal and important choice! So I wanted to be sure and acknowledge that here.
I also want to share with you Trés' Revolution of Joy community art (mural) project. SO COOL. I hope to pick up a paintbrush and participate myself! I'll also be featuring more of Trés' work in the coming weeks.
If You Want to Catch Light
dive into night-ocean
where a million fins
ripple-spark
learn the ways
light multiplies
in deep-dark places
how it moves—
gleam
beam
stream—
such mysterious currents!
changing you
changing me
—Irene Latham
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