30 Habits of Highly Effective Poets #14: Kay Ryan on Reading

Every Saturday, during National Poetry Month, I'll be looking at the writing habit of a "famous" poet. (I put famous in quotes because fame is relative. Naomi Shihab Nye has a great poem on the subject.)

Last weekend, we visited with William Wordsworth and his dog of discerning poetic tastes. Today, let's discuss former U.S. Poet Laureate Kay Ryan.

kidsbritannica.com

I have posted about Ryan once before. I was lucky enough to hear her read at the 2010 Dodge Poetry Festival. Ryan had a straightforward, person-to-person way of presenting her work that the audience loved. Despite all of her accolades, there is nothing grandiose in Ryan's style.

So I was not surprised, when I was reading up on Ryan's poetic habits, that she extols the virtues of  1) setting aside regular time for writing and 2) reading. Not just the classics, but anything. Everything. As in Ripley's Believe It or Not. (That reminds me, I need to break out my copy of Weird Maryland. There must be some poems waiting to be found in its pages.)

Here is a portion of an article, "Poet Laureate Chats with Community College Students":

"The second habit is to read a lot, according to Ryan. 'Read anything, read the entire spectrum,' she said.

"Ryan is a big fan of 'Ripley’s Believe It or Not.' She likes to read graphic novels. She even likes to read the labels on shampoo bottles and other products. She also finds it useful to read things that are 'irritating.' 'It’s important to read outside your taste. I like to read things that are foreign to my life, when people are in terrible straits or lost at sea,' she said.

“'I like to think of my brain as a fish tank and the fish are ideas,' Ryan explained. 'In order for the fish to be well, the water has to be aerated. Reading plunges oxygenated language to the tank in my brain, receiving new patterns, new thoughts, refreshing my mind in general.'”

The full article on Ryan's writing habits is at the Library of Congress website.

Here is an animation of Ryan's poem "Shark's Teeth."

Today is Baltimore's CityLit Festival at the Enoch Pratt Free Library. I will be there ALL day. Stop by the Little Patuxent Review table to say hello, if you're in Charm City. The festival is free. Featured readers are poets Edward Hirsch and Thomas Lux, among others. Wow!

Also today, my writer's notebook is visiting Amy at The Poem Farm. Watch one of my poems evolve from scrawled note to published piece.

Tomorrow, Leslie Resnick speaks to us from the voice of the poem.

It's Almost April -- Get Thee to Some Poetry

Busier than the December holidays, and just as much fun, National Poetry Month begins on Sunday, April 1.

There is so much going on this month. For me, April truly is a frenzy of writing, teaching and parenting. Here is my top ten list of literary activities:

10) Passover and Easter
Our family will be celebrating both, and both religious celebrations have a literary element. Every year my husband, his parents, and the children attend their church's Passion Play. I make a small Seder for the family, where we read and revisit the story of the Jews flight from slavery Egypt. (And I make Miss Jennie's ah-mazing Matzo Candy. The Matzo is just there to hold the chocolate toffee.)


9) On the parenting front...
My son and I will spend National Poetry Month training. We are competing in a Warrior Dash in May. This means that after a long (10 year) break, I am back to running. How is this literary? We get free Viking hats to wear at the run. I will be singing from Wagner's Ring Cycle as I hurdle over the fire pits. Singing is one of my favorite ways to embarrass the children.


8) An Die Musik Reading, Baltimore
April 28, 8 PM.

Michael Salcman, LPR's Art Editor and one of my poetry mentors, is performing his poems set to music. I am really looking forward to "Songs of Salcman."

Michael Salcman

7) Blackbird Poetry Festival, Howard Community College, Columbia, MD
Thursday, April 26, 10 AM - 9:30 PM
Keep a poem in your pocket or the Poetry Police will ticket you. Really. This festival includes free afternoon events. There's also an evening reading with Kim Addonizio -- tickets are required.

6) Conversations and Connections Writers Conference, Washington, DC
Saturday, April 21
I've never been to this annual conference before, but it's supposed to be great for networking. I'm signed up to do "Speed Dating with the Editors." Also look for me on a poetry panel, "Tell It Like It Is: Narrative Poetry in Today's Market" with Holly Bass of Busboys & Poets, Melanie Henderson of Tidal Basin Review, Shakeema Smalls of the student-run Amistad journal and Kim Roberts of Beltway Poetry Quarterly.

5) Poetry Residencies
Maryland State Arts Council's Artist-in-Education Program
I have been teaching for MSAC for ten years! This month, I start two poetry residencies. The first is at Swansfield Elementary in Columbia. The students and I will be doing workshops on portrait poems, song parodies (great for teaching rhythm and rhyme), and we should be receiving some poetry postcards from Jone McCullough's classes in Washington state. By the end of the month, I'll be doubling up. Swansfield ES in the morning, heading to Northfield ES and the third grade in the afternoons.

4) CityLit Festival, Baltimore
Saturday, April 14, Enoch Pratt Free Library -- Doors open 10 AM
The journal I edit, Little Patuxent Review, will have a table at this great annual festival. II am so excited about this year. Thomas Lux! Edward Hirsch! LPR has a reading at 11:30, featuring some of our contributors to the recent Social Justice issue AND the winner of Pratt's poetry contest -- a partnership with LPR -- will have his poem unveiled in the huge front windows of the library. Big congrats to Joe Ross.

Joe's poem will be displayed in Pratt's enormous front windows.

3) Yoga Workshop for Writers
Saturday, April 28, 12 PM
I am joining novelist and certified yoga instructor Danuta Hinc in leading this workshop, specifically designed for writers and other artists. We'll be doing yoga, guided meditation, and writing or sketching. The key is using yoga as a basis for opening ourselves to the creative source. You can sign up in advance through Coreworks, Columbia.

2) Poetic Formal, Village Learning Place, Baltimore
Thursday, April 26, 6:30-9 PM FREE
Some time ago, I got a crazy idea that we should do a Poetic Formal. You know, read form poetry while dressed in formal attire. And by formal attire, I mean Beastly Bridesmaid gowns and Bad Blue Tuxedos. Poets Shirley Brewer, Clarinda Harriss, Bruce Sager and I are "chaperoning" the formal, which includes prizes for your ensemble and an open mic. Thrift store couture is encouraged but not required. How cool is it that our event is listed at www.Poets.org?

And my number one literary activity...

1) Folger Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC

My 12-year-old Bard Buff is on spring break next week. I have never been to the Folger Shakespeare Library and NPM is the perfect time for a literary girls' day out. (We're also hoping to go see Into the Woods at Baltimore's Center Stage.) Maybe this summer, when we visit the U.K., we'll check out a play at the new Globe theater.

All this month, Author Amok will host poets writing in about their favorite, tried and true, or strangest writing habits. I'll post the full schedule tomorrow. Happy April!

National Poetry Month Issue 16

It happens to me all the time.

I'm in the shower, thinking about how I'm almost out of shampoo, when the poem I've been thinking about will wander into my brain. The hot water must do something to my synapses -- before I can wash the suds out of my hair, I've got lines and ideas and I must go write.

Yes, I have horrified my children by dashing for the laptop sporting nothing more than a towel and an insane look in my eye.

Today's Maryland poet is Bryce Ellicott.  The hot water does something to Bryce's synapses, too. (I'm guessing this poet is a fellow Pisces.)

Shower Sprite
by Bryce Ellicott


Why is it
I must find you
my muse, so often
in the shower?

I step in and
the water fills
my brain with words,
the calling of the thrumming
thermal rush, my hair
absorbing sentences from the flood.
I race through cleaning motions,
dash to my desk
and stand dripping, pen in hand
water running on
the page to find the
words evaporated
from my
drying
skin.


Posted with permission of the author.

High School Writing Prompt:
Write a poem addressing your Muse. Go ahead and ask her about the strange places where she turns up.

Since Bryce brought up the Muses -- three of the nine classical Muses are devoted to poetry: Calliope (epic poetry), Erato (love poetry), and Euterpe (lyric poetry).

I'll be finding inspiration today at Baltimore's CityLit Festival.

The Poe Room -- watched over by a remarkable portrait of Edgar Allan himself -- is where to go for poetry. There are readings and poetry panels throughout the day. I'll be on with a group at 10:45 AM. Hope to see you there!

National Poetry Month Issue 13

One of my favorite model poems is Mary Oliver's "Bats."

Sadly, the poem is not available online. Trust me -- it's worth a visit to the library to read this poem!

The first half "Bats" is sensory, but factual. Oliver describes where and how bats fly, capture food, and bats' social nature.

Then, a surprising turn in the fifth stanza. We know much about the science of bats, and yet, Oliver surprises with this observation: "But in the night still comes the unexplained figure slipping in and out of bedrooms, in and out the soft throats of women."

The loose form that Oliver uses in "Bats" makes a  great writing prompt:

Poetry Writing Prompt:
Take something from nature -- a plant or animal. First, look at it like a naturalist or scientist. What do you know? What are the facts? What do you observe?

Then, shift to what your subject symbolizes. Mary Oliver's poem works because she reminds us about bat facts before introducing the vampire -- showing how the two are intertwined in our  minds, how science can't overcome superstition.


Here is Maryland poet Brian Smith's poem, "Honeysuckle." Notice how, with Brian's intense observation, the honeysuckle plant is an almost vulture-like aggressor. However, by the end of the poem, we've seen two very different sides of the honeysuckle.

Honeysuckle
by Brian Smith


Tangled mounds of beauty reach
forth in creeping conquest,
ensnare derelict prey, abandoned
pickups, fences, and brazen
saplings that dare to rise
above the twisting grasp.
Yet, for what is taken, such a
gift returned. A pinch and pull
nature's finest mead.

Posted with permission of the author.

Thanks for visiting my National Poetry Month project. All month, I am featuring Maryland poets. Most days, you'll find a writing prompt or classroom exercise related to the poem.

Brian Smith with be with me at Baltimore's CityLit Festival this weekend. Stop by the Maryland Writers Association table and say hello!

NPM 50 State Tour -- A Pit Stop

Great road trips aren't just about cool destinations. They're also about unexpected pit stops.

No state poet laureate visits today. I'm pulling into this rest stop to savor the moment -- it's Baltimore's CityLit Festival tomorrow (here's the schedule -- I'm on with Stanley Plumly at 1:30). My new poetry chapbook gets its debut.

Totally jazzed to be reading in legendary Enoch Free Pratt Library's Poe Room, where this portrait hangs. Poe is one of my literary heroes.

I decided to try a voice coach. Thinking I'd show up at the reading sounding like Lauren Bacall. Not so fast, Shovan.

Talk about taking the scenic route. Mary Naden had me lying on the floor, dancing around the room and singing like an opera star. Somewhere along the way, I slowed down, stopped worrying about sounding throaty and alluring, and reconnected with the images in my poems. Wow.

Here is a poem from the chapbook, Mountain, Log, Salt and Stone. It's about unexpected pit stops.

Tomorrow is Going to Be Normal
by Laura Shovan

Walking home from the school bus, my son says,
“Tomorrow is going to be normal.”
He speaks with the confidence of relief.
When every day is the same, he can breathe.

Each morning, I tell myself,
Today, is the day
I wait for the remarkable to land on my shoulder
or call me on the phone.

Sometimes it is a fortune written on the tag of my tea.
Sometimes it is a bird. Other days
I miss the quiet calling to attention.
I go to bed tired.

My son knows there is comfort in monotony.
Do I really want the phone to ring? It could be the lottery
or a hospital calling. He thinks my life is enough:
the mildness of the room when I am the only thing moving in it.

No. I must begin each day
wanting the next few hours to jolt me out of sameness.
He shakes his head. That we could be so different
we both find remarkable.

 Thank you for helping me celebrate one of those remarkable days. Stop by CityLit Festival tomorrow and say "hi!"

Today's Poetry Friday is brought to you by the letter "J"! Remarkable Jules at 7 Impossible Things is hosting the poetry blog roll.

NPM 50 State Tour -- Maryland, My Maryland

Please come in and welcome to my neighborhood, Maryland!

We've lived in the Baltimore 'burbs for ten years and I admit, I still feel land-locked. (New Jerseyans get anxious if we're more than 45 minutes from the ocean). Remind me to tell you that funny story about crossing the Mason-Dixon line some other time.

Maryland welcomed me with open arms. I've been a poet-in-the-schools for the Maryland State Arts Council for eight years. And Baltimore's CityLit Project is publishing my new chapbook for National Poetry Month. More exciting news on that in a second.

Some Maryland facts: 7th state, joined the union 4/28/1788, home of the very awesome Berger Cookie (it's a black and white cookie without the white) and the Baltimore Honfest.

Another reason I've proudly adopted Maryland? Unlike my home state of NJ, *we* have a poet laureate -- Stanley Plumly, a professor at the University of Maryland. Go Terps!

To help you celebrate spring, I'm sharing Plumly's poem, "Wildflower."

Wildflower
by Stanley Plumly
Some--the ones with fish names--grow so north they last a month, six weeks at most. Some others, named for the fields they look like, last longer, smaller. And these, in particular, whether trout or corn lily, onion or bellwort, just cut this morning and standing open in tapwater in the kitchen, will close with the sun. It is June, wildflowers on the table. They are fresh an hour ago, like sliced lemons, with the whole day ahead of them. They could be common mayflower lilies of the valley, day lilies, or the clustering Canada, large, gold, long-stemmed as pasture roses, belled out over the vase-- or maybe Solomon's seal, the petals ranged in small toy pairs or starry, tipped at the head like weeds. They could be anonymous as weeds. They are, in fact, the several names of the same thing, lilies of the field, butter-and-eggs, toadflax almost, the way the whites and yellows juxtapose, and have "the look of flowers that are looked at," rooted as they are in water, glass, and air. I remember the summer I picked everything, flower and wildflower, singled them out in jars with a name attached.

Read the rest of the poem here.

The exciting news? SAVE THE DATE! April 17 is CityLit Festival at the Enoch Free Pratt Library in Baltimore. I'll be reading with Stanley Plumly, 1:30 PM, and signing the new book. Hope you can make it!

Tomorrow morning, we'll continue our National Poetry Month tour of the 50 states. We're leaving bright and early for South Carolina. No Wall of Shame for them.

Poetry Friday: A Chapbook!

Poetry Friday friends, I'm so excited to share my news with you!

My chapbook, Mountain, Log, Salt and Stone, has won the Clarinda Harriss Poetry Prize, sponsored by Baltimore's CityLit Project.

The book comes out for National Poetry Month. Here is the press release, which includes the ISBN.

The final judge was poet, physician and all-around Renaissance man Michael Salcman. After the contest was over, Michael generously helped me to fine tune my manuscript. I feel blessed to call him a mentor. What a gift!

Michael is a master of ekphrastic poetry. Today, I'm sharing one of his "Eight Eakins Portraits" -- "Portrait of Walt Whitman." It appears in Michael's book, The Clock Made of Confetti (which has a lovely series of ekphrastic poems).

PORTRAIT OF WALT WHITMAN (1887-1888)

You see me now as the fierce friend of my final years
saw me; though he painted me resting, I'm  not at rest
my brain whirls with continents. My eyes are open,
thought death is limned in me like sweet drunkenness
and my cheeks remain ruddy. Around my head
and lips the gray hairs billow like wisps of smoke
or a final breath. On my shoulder, a flat collar flares
a white epaulet -- none owned by Falstaff nor painted
by Hals was ever finer though I'm hardly a gay toper
like them. Sorely vexed when first we met, he wrote
"My honors are misunderstanding, persecution and neglect,
enhanced because unsought." I think he caught me dreaming
of his resignation and bitterness; I never liked this likeness
much (not that I told him).

Posted with permission of the poet.

Don't you love how Whitman's "brain whirls with continents"?

If you're in the Baltimore area, mark April 17 on your calendar. It's the CityLit Festival  -- a day long, free event -- at the Enoch Free Pratt Library.

There are readings by poets, novelists, children's author Patrick O'Brien, and spoken word performers. The full line-up is here. In the afternoon, Michael Salcman is hosting a reading with me and Maryland Poet Laureate Stanley Plumly.

I hope you can make it! I'll need a big cheering section to calm my nerves.

Have a wonderful Poetry Friday, everyone. Our host is Becky at Becky's Book Reviews. Enjoy!