Look Ma, "Hands" on Poetry


Book Description

The workshops in Look Ma,"Hands" on Poetry are designed to help teachers and poets familiarize elementary through high school students with a variety of creative and fun ways to engage their imaginations and write poetry They do so by encouraging teachers and students to explore, together, the art of poetry; i.e., the art of employing the five senses to capture experience in language. The workshops also introduce young writers to a wide range of poets and the poetic techniques and styles that they have incorporated in their writing. As a result when students complete a series of workshops from this book, they will know how to write a poem They may enjoy reading more poetry, too, because they will have a solid understanding of how poetry works. Finally, there are exciting ideas in Look Ma, "Hands," on Poetry for ways in which young writers can exhibit and perform their poetry. The workshops in this book run from 45-60 minutes with the time divided into three segments. In the first, the teacher reads and discusses poems that are examples of the types of poetry students will be writing. In the second, the teacher introduces the writing assignment and has students begin writing. Finally, students who finish poems are invited to share them in the remaining class time. Because poetry is the art of capturing experience in language, the workshops are structured around sight, smell, taste, touch, and sound. Each of the workshops in the first five chapters is geared toward exploring one of these senses, and the two later chapters contain workshops that require students to use all five to write their poems. As a result, workshops from each chapter may be used individually or in sequence to create one or twoweek poetry units that teachers and students can enjoy. Workshops in the book include the Sleight-of-Hand and Animal Mask Workshops wherein students use metaphor, simile, and personification to create imagery in poems. They use music and musical instruments to help them create sound and rhythm in the Native American, Chant, and Rap Workshops, and then they literally play with words to write Bingo and Multiple Voice Poems. Young people have opportunities to express their feelings through poetry in the Blues, Love Potion, and Ode Workshops; and finally, they use their five senses simultaneously when writing Bubble and Rainbow Poems and when they interpret paintings, sculpture, and music in Echphrastic Poems. The book's final section presents creative ideas for poetry readings, books, and displays. Suggestions for readings include the Poetry Cafe, which can incorporate any of the Coffee House, Tea Room, 1950's Diner, and/or Greco-Roman Garden venues discussed in this section. Student poetry books and chapbooks complete with student art and photos are described here, too, along with plans for poetry rainbows, sidewalks, mobiles, and poetry word collections.




With My Hands


Book Description

“From birdhouses to shadow puppets, the variety of projects included are delightful . . . An effective medley of concept, poetry, and artwork.”—School Library Journal For young makers and artists, brief, lively poems illustrated by a New York Times bestselling duo celebrate the pleasures of working with your hands. Building, baking, folding, drawing, shaping . . . making something with your own hands is a special, personal experience. Taking an idea from your imagination and turning it into something real is satisfying and makes the maker proud. With My Hands is an inspiring invitation to tap into creativity and enjoy the hands-on energy that comes from making things. “Poetry sparks an irresistible, primal urge to twist, cut, paint, draw, glue, carve, whittle, daub, tie, hammer, to simply make.”—Kirkus Reviews “A cheery reminder of the pride of creating something and the many forms art can take.”—Publishers Weekly “Whether invoking cooking, sewing, tying knots, or other undertakings, this provides an enjoyable springboard for aspiring makers.”—Booklist




When You Thought I Wasn't Looking


Book Description

Mary Rita Schilke Korzan wrote a poem to her mother 24 years ago, thanking her for all she had done as a mother, friend, and role model. She gave the poem to her mother and, a few months later, offered it as a tribute when Mary and her husband were married. So many wedding guests asked for a copy that Mary included one in her thank-you notes.Then began the strange and heartwarming journey of Mary's poem to her mom. Friends passed it on to those they knew. A minister in her hometown couldn't recall who gave it to him, but he included the by-then "anonymously written" poem in his book about loving others. Another author picked it up from there for her compilation of heartfelt works, and Mary finally noticed her poem, now listed as "Author Unknown," in A Fourth Course of Chicken Soup for the Soul, which her husband and children gave her as a Mother's Day gift.With this new book, readers have the chance to experience When You Thought I Wasn't Looking in its entirety and from its creator. This is the special kind of book that reminds us that sometimes the little things we do "just because" mean more to someone than we can ever know. Those little things teach love, compassion, and understanding. In other words, they're priceless. This sweet gift book brings that lesson home to the heart.




Can I Touch Your Hair?


Book Description

Audisee® eBooks with Audio combine professional narration and text highlighting for an engaging read aloud experience! Two poets, one white and one black, explore race and childhood in this must-have collection tailored to provoke thought and conversation. How can Irene and Charles work together on their fifth grade poetry project? They don't know each other . . . and they're not sure they want to. Irene Latham, who is white, and Charles Waters, who is Black, use this fictional setup to delve into different experiences of race in a relatable way, exploring such topics as hair, hobbies, and family dinners. Accompanied by artwork from acclaimed illustrators Sean Qualls and Selina Alko (of The Case for Loving: The Fight for Interracial Marriage), this remarkable collaboration invites readers of all ages to join the dialogue by putting their own words to their experiences.




Necessary Losses


Book Description

From grief and mourning to aging and relationships, poet and Redbook contributor Judith Viorst presents a thoughtful and researched study in this examination of love, loss, and letting go. Drawing on psychoanalysis, literature, and personal experience, Necessary Losses is a philosophy for understanding and accepting life’s inevitabilities. In Necessary Losses, Judith Viorst turns her considerable talents to a serious and far-reaching subject: how we grow and change through the losses that are a certain and necessary part of life. She argues persuasively that through the loss of our mothers’ protection, the loss of the impossible expectations we bring to relationships, the loss of our younger selves, and the loss of our loved ones through separation and death, we gain deeper perspective, true maturity, and fuller wisdom about life. She has written a book that is both life affirming and life changing.




I Wouldn't Thank You for a Valentine


Book Description

Alice Walker and Maya Angelou are just two of the 80 women poets in this collection of feminist poetry for young readers.




Freshwater Pearls


Book Description

Freshwater Pearls is the first full book of poems written by Adele Steiner. Subtly crafted in a lyric voice and comprised of one part reflection and one part imagination, the poems in this collection are detailed explorations of life that are magically transformed through sensuous renderings of the human experience. Adele Steiner is a poet, writer, and teacher. She received her B.A. and M.F.A. in English Literature and Creative Writing at the University of Maryland. She is currently a poet-in-the-schools with the Maryland State Arts Council, an instructor for The Writer's Center in Bethesda, MD, and a 10-year veteran artist-in-residence at Georgetown University Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children in Washington, DC. She is currently the host of the Cafe Muse Poetry Reading Series, and she has participated in numerous poetry readings and panel discussions in the Washington, DC area. Her poetry has won awards from The Maryland Poetry Review and Promise Magazine. She has been published in G argoyle, So To Speak, Wordwrights, Smartish Pace, Innisfree, The Black Buzzard Review, Scribble, The Lucid Stone, an Anthology from Wising Up Press, a chapbook, Refracted Love, a full-length book of poetry, The Moon Lighting, and a collection of poetry writing workshops for young people, Look Ma, "Hands" on Poetry.




Look Mom I'm a Poet (and So Is My Cat)


Book Description

For fans of SNL’S DEEP THOUGHTS BY JACK HANDEY and BILLY COLLINS, a new book of humor from New York Times bestseller Andrew Shaffer. In his first full-length poetry collection featuring over five dozen new and selected poems, humorist Andrew Shaffer explores our modern world from Fortnite (“I don’t care”) to pretentious Instagram poets (“Lord Byron would have drunk wine from your hipster skull”). Look Mom I’m a Poet (and So Is My Cat) is playful, hilarious, and accessible to readers who don’t know poetry from a hole in the ground.* *Holes in the ground are filled with snakes. As any verse jockey worth their meter will tell you, there are no snakes in poems.




Midnight Strike


Book Description

Lang's latest collection of poetry is a cri de coeur on the injustices of contemporary life. Lang's bold, erudite language will empower and uplift readers: "Until all women are safe from violence, so that a woman can exist in any space without fear, we march!" Such pieces leap off the page and demand to be read aloud to release their crackling energy. Skeptics who deem protest-oriented verse to be ineffective or outmoded will struggle with most of Lang's writing, but for others, it will be a persuasive call to action. A forthright, energizing collection. --Kirkus Reviews Midnight Strike D.L. Lang’s 12th book of poetry. D.L. Lang served as Vallejo’s poet laureate from September 2017 to September 2019. This book contains 70 new poems primarily written between September 2018 and July 2019, and includes topical poetry, some Jewish poems, and poetry written for events in and around Vallejo, California.




The Golden Shovel Anthology


Book Description

“The cross-section of poets with varying poetics and styles gathered here is only one of the many admirable achievements of this volume.” —Claudia Rankine in the New York Times The Golden Shovel Anthology celebrates the life and work of poet and civil rights icon Gwendolyn Brooks through a dynamic new poetic form, the Golden Shovel, created by National Book Award–winner Terrance Hayes. An array of writers—including winners of the Pulitzer Prize, the T. S. Eliot Prize, and the National Book Award, as well as a couple of National Poets Laureate—have written poems for this exciting new anthology: Rita Dove, Billy Collins, Danez Smith, Nikki Giovanni, Sharon Olds, Tracy K. Smith, Mark Doty, Sharon Draper, Richard Powers, and Julia Glass are just a few of the contributing poets. This second edition includes Golden Shovel poems by two winners and six runners-up from an international student poetry competition judged by Nora Brooks Blakely, Gwendolyn Brooks’s daughter. The poems by these eight talented high school students add to Ms. Brooks’s legacy and contribute to the depth and breadth of this anthology.