Slice of Life Always With Me

       I'm slicing with the Two Writing Teachers community today. It's always a pleasure to read what everyone writes about their lives.

Happy Election Day!

         Yes, I'm happy. It's been a long and rocky road to this day, and I will be celebrating when it's over. I want to move on to help our country do better!

        

          First, best wishes to Betsy Hubbard and her family for every part of your recovery from the fire to go smoothly with the best possible outcome. 

         This is a little bit of a sad post, too, because often for reasons small and big, I miss my husband, Arvie. And much of what I miss is sharing words. The fall that he passed, three years ago this past September, I wrote a poem that expresses these thoughts. You can read it here, and I imagine some of you remember it. It begins "And I would show you. . ."

        Lately, there is much I want to share, like about my visit to see Nathan, Barb and Carter, and how proud he would be to see the wonderful young man Carter has become.  And I know that he would love spending time with Sarah and Dave and seeing these growing up little girls that are the sweetest granddaughters. 

Monday Reading

          Visit Jen at Teach MentorTexts and Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders to see what they've been reading, along with everyone else who link up. I'm still in the midst of reading for the Cybils poetry, round one. I reviewed a few this week, and some picture books. My favorite PBs are below.

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          Young Noah and his grandpa have lovely times together. Grandpa asks "What's on the docket?" every day, and Noah has plenty of things to answer. But then Grandpa stops asking, and Noah wonders about that but tries hard to do things anyway. The story deepens as we see Grandpa fading away, sadly even in the illustrations which are masterfully done by Katie Kath. As Grandpa's memory fades, so does his illustration. One day, Noah wakes him from a nap and he doesn't recognize Noah. Alzheimer's is a tricky disease and no one can show exactly what happens, but in this story, there is some happiness because Noah discovers that Grandpa remembers some of their songs. Some happy times remain, and Grandma helps out too, by asking "What's on the docket?" For those who need to talk about this heart-breaking topic with family or other young children, this story will help. It's beautifully done.

           This book was published last year in Australia. I imagine a broad range of people finding something good to carry with them from it. The metaphor lies with a young boy who must leave home, carrying only a teacup of earth from that home with him. He's floating out to sea, and it's both calm and raging as he travels. Magical good things begin to happen as his story unfolds, especially sustenance held by an apple tree growing in the boat gave him shelter and a coziness "just perfect for daydreaming". When one faces hard times, daydreams might be the only path to overcoming challenges. The illustrations fill the story with varied emotions in lovely double-page spreads. I loved the idea of the story that's filled with hope.

Celebrations Every Week

  Celebrating with Ruth Ayres at Discover Play Build.  and linking with others who share their celebrations, too. I am grateful to Ruth for helping us celebrate together!  

     I am looking forward to Tuesday, our election day. We are fortunate to have our democracy and the chance to give our opinion, yes, even in this craziest of elections. Here's a quote that may inspire: "If you think you're too small to make a difference, you haven't been in bed with a mosquito." Anita Roddick   Your vote counts!

     Halloween made a fun start for the week, although I do realize that a Monday for that day is NOT a great thing for teachers. It is a fun day, but makes a 'grin and bear it' rest of the week in school. It was a nice week, time with the grand-girls, at the bookstore, and writing feels comfortable although I feel like I have too many projects I want to work on at once! Choosing what to work on is not an easy choice at times. I did write a series of haiku about the moon, my favorite topic!

     However, today I'm celebrating a prose poem of mine published yesterday at the Silver Birch Press site. The theme called for was "my prized possession",  and the post is here. 

     And, a favorite picture from this week's visit to the Denver Nature and Science Museum with Imogene. It lies between Imi's school and my house, so it's an easy thing to stop in for an hour or so. This particular place was found as we walked from one exhibit to another, a huge empty space with this gorgeous view. We looked out for a long time, and we looked up!

Poetry Friday - Evening

        Poetry Friday can be found with Laura Purdie Salas' on her blog, Writing The World for Kids! Today she shares a poem of hope with her Poetry Sisters this week. Much needed in these final days before the election. However, the Cubs did it, showed us how to keep hope going no matter what. Thanks for hosting, Laura!

          Being outside is a cure for all worries, and I am trying to be out for long morning and evening walks. This picture is from Tuesday night.

           Added note! My prose poem is up on Silver Birch Press today. There are many good poems being shared there with the theme of "My Prized Possession". Come visit!

         Three Haiku, Three Points of View: the moon, the tree, and me

late autumn

moon catnaps on a branch—

circles on

lonely tree

moon snuggles in—

welcomed

  

the moon returns

fingernail in the tree—

evening light again

Linda Baie ©All Rights Reserved

Non-Fiction Poetry and Music, too!

              Thanks to Alyson Beecher's Non-Fiction Picture Book Challenge at Kidlit Frenzy, those who link up share fabulous non-fiction picture books. I am grateful for all that I've learned through reading non-fiction picture books. 

I am reading a lot of other poetry for the Cybils awards, round one. I won't review them all, but want to tell you that there are so many wonderful poetry books that have come out since October of 2015. This task of choosing finalists is going to be tough! You can see ALL the nominated books here! Nominations are now closed, but each category is there. You may want especially to check the non-fiction category! This book I'm reviewing today is one of the poetry nominees.

        I'm saying that this book is a verse novel, at least it’s a verse short-story, filled with a marvelous jazzy set of poems that tell the story of one special day. On August 12^th, 1958, Art Kane had a big idea to gather all the jazz musicians possible to meet in front of a special brownstone in Harlem to take a special photograph. He pitched the idea to an editor at Esquire, who gave the go-ahead.

        The poems are mostly free-form except for one pantoum which has some specific rules, but Roxane Orgill has managed to capture a beat to music in all the poems, perhaps to the beat of her own jazz drum? They are easily read aloud, just as nice as listening to a jazz piece, telling this story of this famous photograph from beginning to end. The treat at the end is that the book has a pullout page that shows the photo. Dialogue sometimes moves the poems’ rhythm: “”Hi ya, Monk!”/”Fump, my man!”