To some it might seem that Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday is not a friend to poetry when it sponsors primarily narrative fiction within the large classification of Young Adult Literature. Nothing is further from the truth; but is often difficult to figure out when to include a post on poetry. I also need to recruit scholars and teachers to write about it other than me. I am clearly not the expert, although I enjoy it and love the abundance of YA verse novels that have appeared over the last few years.
To be clear, if you have an idea for a post that includes poetry please suggest it; then, we can get you in line.
Lots of good stuff has been posted already. Many thanks to Lesley Roessing (find here and here), Padma Venkatraman (find here), and Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong (find here). And, in many other blog post, poetry and verse novels are referenced. Browse around a bit through past posts listed on the contributor's page
As most readers know, April is poetry month. Many colleagues have posted notices and work about poetry on social media. Some have engaged in community practices about writing poetry during the month. You might check out the Facebook pages of Sarah Donovan, Lesley Roessing, Sylvia Vardell, and Janet Wong. I admire their work. I might it try to tune up a couple of my poetic efforts during the month.
To be clear, if you have an idea for a post that includes poetry please suggest it; then, we can get you in line.
Lots of good stuff has been posted already. Many thanks to Lesley Roessing (find here and here), Padma Venkatraman (find here), and Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong (find here). And, in many other blog post, poetry and verse novels are referenced. Browse around a bit through past posts listed on the contributor's page
As most readers know, April is poetry month. Many colleagues have posted notices and work about poetry on social media. Some have engaged in community practices about writing poetry during the month. You might check out the Facebook pages of Sarah Donovan, Lesley Roessing, Sylvia Vardell, and Janet Wong. I admire their work. I might it try to tune up a couple of my poetic efforts during the month.
If you need a few suggestions to hold you over, here are some of my favorite YA verse novels.
Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming, Virginia Euwer Wolff’s True Believer, Chris Crowe’s Death Coming up the Hill, Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover, Laurie Halse Anderson’s Shout, and Margarita Engle’s Enchanted Air.
Jacqueline Woodson’s Brown Girl Dreaming, Virginia Euwer Wolff’s True Believer, Chris Crowe’s Death Coming up the Hill, Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover, Laurie Halse Anderson’s Shout, and Margarita Engle’s Enchanted Air.
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One final author and book of note: Padma Venkatraman’s A Time to Dance. In a lucky turn of events, Padma Venkatraman will be joining the 2019 Summit on Teaching YA Literature.
My commitment for the month is to post a poem each day on my own Facebook page and on the Facebook Page of Dr. Bickmore’s YA Wednesday. I hope you check them out. Each day will feature a different poet and each poem will be a favorite of mine by that poet. To review this impulse to post a poem each day, I have written a few paragraphs about how I came to be more enthusiastic about poetry in college.
Who Brought me to Poetry?
—Well, the answer to that simple question is William Shakespeare. When I learned to understand the language, it was transformative for me. I was always a reader of narrative. Shakespeare combination of poetry and narrative spoke to me. Marshall Craig and Arthur Henry King guided me through the craftsmanship of Shakespeare’s language. The language lived and my ability to explore rhyme, rhythm, and structure grew.
This experience provided me with confidence and the poetry of other started to come a live for me. I discovered John Donne, Gerard Manly Hopkins, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickenson, Langston Hughes, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Frost, William Wordsworth, Derek Walcott, Hart Crane, Robinson Jeffers, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, H. D., Maya Angelou, Sylvia Plath, and Robert Lowell.
Who Brought me to Poetry?
—Well, the answer to that simple question is William Shakespeare. When I learned to understand the language, it was transformative for me. I was always a reader of narrative. Shakespeare combination of poetry and narrative spoke to me. Marshall Craig and Arthur Henry King guided me through the craftsmanship of Shakespeare’s language. The language lived and my ability to explore rhyme, rhythm, and structure grew.
This experience provided me with confidence and the poetry of other started to come a live for me. I discovered John Donne, Gerard Manly Hopkins, Walt Whitman, Emily Dickenson, Langston Hughes, Elizabeth Bishop, Robert Frost, William Wordsworth, Derek Walcott, Hart Crane, Robinson Jeffers, T. S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, H. D., Maya Angelou, Sylvia Plath, and Robert Lowell.
Of course, there were others, but the poems of those above still creep into my mind at odd times. I am forty years away from my college graduation and slightly more and a dozen years from teaching AP literature courses. As a reluctant reader in high school myself, I loved slowing down and helping students ease into poetry. Every Monday was poetry day and over time it worked well. Students read three to five poems by the selected poet over the weekend. If they were on task they took the time to read them several times, to read them around, to consider the themes and symbols, and to explore their ability to figure out some literary devices—assonance, consonance, alliteration, anaphora, pentameter, metonymy.
Not every student joined in the spirit endeavor, but many did. I found that reading poetry every week bred familiarity and pushed out fear. Poetry became manageable and the terminology was no longer an obscure jargon that they only heard once a year for 2 or 3 weeks. My AP students slowly developed confidence that served them well. As a result, post AP test discussion were about how they manage the poetry prompt and not about how awful the experience was. Hurrah, success.
I hope you find a poem to love, a poem to share, and a poem that helps you see the world a new.
Not every student joined in the spirit endeavor, but many did. I found that reading poetry every week bred familiarity and pushed out fear. Poetry became manageable and the terminology was no longer an obscure jargon that they only heard once a year for 2 or 3 weeks. My AP students slowly developed confidence that served them well. As a result, post AP test discussion were about how they manage the poetry prompt and not about how awful the experience was. Hurrah, success.
I hope you find a poem to love, a poem to share, and a poem that helps you see the world a new.
Check out the details of the 2019 Summit on Teaching YA Literature
(click image below)
Register Here
Until next week
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