Thursday, January 5, 2012

Poetry Friday - Once More With P*Tag

         


        Poetry Friday today is hosted by JoAnn at Teaching Authors – Please come read and relax; it’s Friday!

     I know at least some of the poem Beach Glass by Sara Holbrook has been shared before, so I’ll piggyback a bit on Elaine at WildRose Reader who shared part of the poem from P*Tag, shouted out as “the first ever electronic poetry anthology of new poems by top poets for teens”.  My husband has lately been doing some therapy at a local rehab center, and I wait for him as he does it.  Earlier this week, I had the chance to take my IPad and relax with a more thorough reading of this e-book, purchased quite a while ago when it came out, but not really READ by me until that morning.  If you haven’t already, please purchase this book.  It is marvelous to read, and I know will be a treasure also as a mentor text to use when writing poetry with older students, intermediate school and up.

           As I read and made notes of response to the poems, I realized that today I want just to focus on one line from Holbrook’s Beach Glass, a line that speaks to me for the coming year in my personal writing, my work as a literacy coach, and my reading life.  In my own writing, I keep my intent on the question of the story I am trying to tell.  When I speak with the teachers with whom I work, I often bring the focus to story.  Whatever genre we are planning or whatever students we are discussing, it all seems to beg the questions:  What is the story being told?  How can we discover it?  What best supports this story? And finally, in reading, the questions fly:  What is the main story?  Who has the best story?  Why is the author telling the story this way?  And, What does this story say to me?
And so, Holbrook’s line from Beach GlassIt takes slow-walking patience to fill a pocket full of untold stories. 

I hope you’ll be able to obtain the entire book, so filled with stories to add to your lives, as poems tend to do!

12 comments:

  1. What a perfect line to ruminate over every time you open your writer's notebook - which is what I have now done. I also need to download this ebook, it sounds so promising. Thanks for sharing this, Linda!

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  2. I love that line too and wish everyone a pocket full of untold stories. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. Thanks for sharing, Linda! P*Tag is a terrific collection. I like how you focused today on just one wonderful line. It made me think of the last few lines of the poem I featured today by Naomi Shihab Nye ("The Words Under the Words"):
    "Answer, if you hear the words under the words—
    otherwise it is just a world with a lot of rough edges,
    difficult to get through, and our pockets full of stones."

    Perhaps we must remove some stones to make room for the stories?

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  4. Thanks for sharing that line (and this book) with us - a reminder that rushing through life, and speed-reading, and scanning blogs, and tab, tab, tabbing will only find the most-obvious stories instead of the best stories.

    As a teen, I collected beach glass which hardly appears any more. Ah, those rare blue or lavender bits, gleaming up through the sand...

    Happy New Year! I found you through MotherReader & LeeWind's comment challenge and look forward to hearing what you muse on next.

    **Katy Manck
    Recommending YA books beyond the bestsellers at http://BooksYALove.blogspot.com
    Follow me on Twitter @BooksYALove

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  5. What a beautiful line! Thank you so much for sharing it!

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  6. I bought this too and love it.

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  7. Linda, I'm a member of the blogger's campaign and thought I'd check out your blog. Enjoyed your post a great deal. Poetry speaks to the soul. I love how you took just one line and used it in your day. Thanks for the book suggestion.

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  8. That line makes me think of walking along a beach picking up pebbles and wondering about the journey each has taken to find itself on that beach.

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  9. I'm working on a piece for Choice Literacy about STORY and my ideas really started bouncing when I read this! But the one line from Holbrook actually made me think more about my photography -- and the pocket is my monthly mosaic! Some months, I don't think I'll have enough, but with slow-walking patience, I always do! One day at a time, right?

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  10. I've never been much of a poetry reader, but I did really like that line.

    I will need to stop by here more often and start reading the Friday Poetry post and see if ya'll can talk me into being a poetry fan. =)

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  11. I have not wandered into the realm of e poetry (maybe because I am afraid that it would be just one more way for me to spend time not doing other stuff, like housework and laundry!) but your post definitely makes me want to go there. Thanks for reminding me of this really important poetry resource!

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  12. I've heard so much about P*Tag and I meant (i truly do mean to) purchase it in my iPad - but I still have some issues about using iPads and ereaders (hehe) - the line that you shared also caught my eye: pocket full of untold stories - how beautiful! i wonder if the pocket is filled with patches and tiny little holes here and there - imagine the stories that fall through the wayside, left abandoned in the gutter. :) beautiful!

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