April is Poetry Month. While you Stay at Home, Here are a Few Recommendations

First, I hope all of you are doing well. Today marks the beginning of the fourth week of being affected by the COVID19 pandemic. As Wednesday, March 11, 2020 rolled around I was packing a bag and getting ready to fly to Michigan for the MCTE Spring Conference. By the end of the day, the conference was cancelled, the flight was cancelled, and things across the country were starting to shut down in earnest. By the end of the day, there were 1,301 cases of the disease in the US. Last night the us marked 400,335 cases. The death total moved from 38 to 12,841. Okay, I think it is fair to say, Houston we have a problem. Clearly, we don't understand how this thing works or how quickly it spreads. It seems that most of the people I know are taking the issue seriously. Oh, sure, some are complaining, but people are being careful, staying home, keeping their distance when out and about, and checking on people in online formats.  So, stay safe, but keep in contact with the people you are close to. In fact, it might be time to reach out to some people you haven't talked with in awhile.

For the past several years. I have posted a poem a day during April. I have friends who try to write a poem a day during this month. I admire their efforts. You go Sarah J. Donovan. I can't wait to see what you come up with by the end of the month. As much as I like poetry, that just seems beyond me. Nevertheless, I like the notion of thinking about poetry every day for a month. I like thinking about my favorite poems and poets. Last year, I wrote a brief post about my relationship with poetry and about how I was posting a poem a day. You can read it here. In the post I provide links to some of the poets I admire and few YA novels in verse or verse novels. Other people with more expertise than I have talk about that distinction and you can find links to some of their posts in my older post. 

Today's post will be brief. While I am at home, I seem to be busy.  I am learning to teach online, I worry about my students (this semester most of them are graduate students who are teaching and have their own students), I worry about my family in different parts of the country and the world, and I think about my church community. I know some of them will be struggling with work issues. In addition, I am on the verge of deciding the fate of the UNLV 2020 Summit on the Research and Teaching of Young Adult Literature. We will have a decisions by next week. Cancel, stay the course, or move to an online platform.

Now for some poetry and YA literature

YA Literature in Poetic Form
Kwame Alexander Makes a Few Picks

First, I had a messenger exchange with Kwame Alexander a couple week ago and he said I could use and build on something he wrote in a Facebook post on March 24, 2020. Here it is:

If I were stranded in the house indefinitely, five novels-in-verse I’d want to have on my nightstand are...
(Brown Girl Dreaming is a genius memoir-in-verse NOT a novel-in-verse, people. Same goes for Enchanted Air and Shout. I obviously did not include my books, well at first i did, but the list ended up being only my kid said that was kinda wack. Of course I’m gonna have a Versify title. It’d be irresponsible not to, y’all. These are in no particular order).
1. Out of the Dust
2. Love that Dog
3. The Way a Door Closes (pt. 1)/Keeping the Night Watch (pt. 2)
4. Long Way Down
5. White Rose
What are yours?

MY PICKS!

Consider the rest of the post a visual essay and series of suggestions for your further reading enjoyment.

Until next time.