Turkeys don’t seem like they would make for great poetry, but I’m a big fan of “A Romance for the Wild Turkey” by Paul Zimmer. Here it read as part of the Writer’s Almanac:
That last stanza gets me every time. I first encountered Zimmer’s poem as part of Poetry 180, which I highly recommend as a collection. This poem always comes to mind around Thanksgiving (or when I spot wild turkeys in the neighborhood). Happy Thanksgiving to all celebrating!
Guys, it’s Friday and I’m starting to breathe like a normal human being again. Take that, plague! Onto the fifteen-word (or fewer) book reviews:
1. The Voice on the Radio by Caroline B. Cooney
Don’t remember this nearly as well as its prequels. Reeve is no longer crush-worthy.
2. Questions about Angels by Billy Collins
Good balance of whimsy and thoughtful poetic turns. Maybe not groundbreaking, but they satisfy.
3. Many Waters by Madeleine L’Engle
L’Engle tackles a weird part of the Bible and, of course, handles it deftly.
4. The Best Creative Nonfiction, Vol. 2 by Lee Gutkind
Not quite as memorable as Vol. 1, but still excellent collection of essays.
5. Cherokee Bat and the Goat Guys by Francesca Lia Block
My least favorite of the Weetzie books. The band stuff is fun though.
I can hardly believe it’s Friday. Maybe a few book reviews in fifteen words (or fewer) will help me wrap my mind around it.
1. The Magician’s Nephew by C.S. Lewis
A prequel to The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, not as memorable for me.
2. The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot
Different from the movie in a good way. Must be that NY vibe.
3. Here’s to You, Rachel Robinson by Judy Blume
Strong sequel; I loved seeing ‘perfect’ Rachel and her secret family drama.
4. The Ruby in the Smoke by Philip Pullman
A Victorian-era mystery starring a clever orphaned girl? Sign me up.
5. The Collected Poems, Vol. 1: 1909-1939 by William Carlos Williams
“This Is Just to Say” is literature’s best “sorry not sorry” poem.
This week I’m taking part in Road Trip Wednesday, a weekly YA blog carnival:
This Week’s Topic: In honor of this month containing Halloween (the best holiday ever), what’s the scariest story you heard as a child?
I’m a total scaredy cat and generally avoid anything horror-related. (Confession: even the awesome Halloween movie Hocus Pocus freaked me out a little.) So at first I thought, I don’t remember hearing any scary stories.
Then I remembered.
My mom read my brother and I this poem by James Whitcomb Riley and, as a child raised on Annie the musical, I was so excited to hear a poem about my favorite redheaded orphan. Spoiler alert: it is not a poem about a spunky redheaded orphan and her musical friends.
Instead, it’s a poem about an orphan girl who tells tales about goblins who snatch kids who misbehave. For example:
“An’ one time a little girl ‘ud allus laugh an’ grin,
An’ make fun of ever’ one, an’ all her blood-an’-kin;
An’ wunst, when they was “company,” an’ ole folks wuz there,
She mocked ’em an’ shocked ’em, an’ said she didn’t care!
An’ thist as she kicked her heels, an’ turn’t to run an’ hide,
They wuz two great big Black Things a-standin’ by her side,
An’ they snatched her through the ceilin’ ‘fore she knowed what she’s about!
An’ the Gobble-uns ‘ll git you
Ef you
Don’t
Watch
Out!”
Guys, at no part of this does anyone sing “The Sun Will Come Out Tomorrow!”
Even as a kid who didn’t misbehave a lot, I was still so freaked out. Goblings who can steal you through the ceiling?! What kind of creepy Japanese horror movie is this from?! I spent the night huddled under the covers, listening to the trees outside my window and telling myself that it had to be goblins.
Needless to say, my mom never read to us this again.
Feel free to share your own childhood scary story trauma here or as part of Road Trip Wednesday!
Lots of good links for today:
Today the poetry world is saddened by the loss of Nobel Prize-winning poet Seamus Heaney. Some of his most famous works include Death of a Naturalist, North, and a translation of Beowulf.
I had the opportunity to see Seamus Heaney read when I was in college, during the Virginia Festival of the Book. He was an excellent reader (which isn’t always the case for even talented and accomplished poets) and really engaged the audience. At the time, I was also taking poetry classes (both literature and writing) and had read several of Heaney’s poems. They’re expansive but intimate, and the language is clear but has really awesome turns of phrase throughout. One of my all-time favorite poems is his “Postscript,” particularly the last lines:
You are neither here nor there,
A hurry through which known and strange things pass
As big soft buffetings come at the car sideways
And catch the heart off guard and blow it open.
Make sure to read the whole poem, and to check out Heaney’s other work if you’re not familiar with it already.
When you think “poetry,” you don’t necessarily think of Bill Murray. (Okay, maybe you do, but it’s probably because of the innate poetry in Ghostbusters.) But Murray can pull of a surprisingly good poetry reading. Here, at the 16th Annual Poets House Walk Across the Brooklyn Bridge, he reads Billy Collins’ poem, “Forgetfulness”:
I’ve seen Collins at a couple of readings and Murray really hits that Collins vibe–humorous at first, with that great thoughtful turn at the end.
Click through to see Bill Murray tackle more poetry readings.
(via Tweetspeak Poetry)
It’s mid-July. A lot of people are on vacation. Going to work can feel like you’re in a barren wasteland of tumbleweeds. But this Wednesday, you don’t have to battle it out alone with the freezing office AC–it’s Take Your Poet to Work Day! Cut out a picture of your favorite poet, decorate him/her, attach it to a popsicle stick, and take your poet-puppet to work.
My work poet has to be T.S. Eliot:
Whenever I’m shuffling on public transportation with a lot of other commuters, I think about The Waste Land. Particularly:
Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.
If anyone understands how necessary that extra cup of coffee is, it’s Eliot. My suggestions for Take Your Poet to Work Day activities:
Share your ideas for Take Your Poet to Work Day in the comments.
(H/T bookshelves of doom)
So glad it’s Friday! Let’s start the long weekend with some fifteen-word (or less!) book reviews.
1. Beauty by Robin McKinley
My favorite Beauty and the Beast novel. Love that Beauty is close to her sisters.
2. The Crucible by Arthur Miller
Excellent look at society terrorized by hate, hysteria. Would ove to see a good production.
3. Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel by Virginia Lee Burton
Burton’s illustrations are fantastic, and I love a good inanimate object story.
4. Dawn’s Wicked Stepsister (The Baby-Sitters Club #31) by Ann M. Martin
Not everything’s ideal when your mom marries your BFF’s dad? Who could have foreseen this?
5. Poems on the Underground ed. by Gerard Benson, Judith Chernaik, Cicecy Herbert
Collection of classic and contemporary poetry featured on the Tube. Such a cool project!
Today in linkage: