NPM 2015: What Are You Wearing, Robyn Hood Black?

We've been having a National Poetry Month costume party here at Author Amok. 

Find the official NPM 2015 poster
at the Academy of American Poets

Throughout April, guest bloggers are putting on their costumes and best outfits as we feature poetry about clothes. Why clothes? Read this post.

In addition to the guest bloggers, every Friday in April I'll post a round-up of original clothing poems. (Send those via email to laurashovan at gmail dot com or leave them in the comments). You'll find this week's writing prompt at the bottom of this post.

Meet today's guest blogger, poet and artist Robyn Hood Black. 

Robyn and poet Alice Schertle
are sporting matching denim looks.

Happy Poetry Month, Laura!

What am I wearing? Confession: sometimes I blog in my PJs. And usually with an old cat on my lap. That may or may not be the case as I type this.

Margaret’s amazing post on Monday highlighted high heels, and the potent memories made over clothing between mother and daughter. My daughter Morgan was here on break this past weekend and we might have gone shopping for her at Talbot’s. (She’s a new teacher. I’m a writer/artist. As I posted on Facebook once while packing for a trip, she has classic fashion tastes – think Kate Middleton or Michelle Obama – while I am more like Stevie Nicks at a flea market.) 

Morgan and I also might have driven 30 minutes to see the new Disney Cinderella movie on Saturday afternoon. Her third-graders had said it has more of a “girl-power” message than the traditional prince-saves-girl theme, and it stars one of our favorite Downton Abbey actors, Lily James (the irrepressible “Lady Rose”). We thoroughly enjoyed it. 

It did remind me, though, of a childhood memory – a local department store had held an event in which hopeful girls could try on a glass slipper to win – I don’t remember what, but it must have been something enticing. I do remember NOT being the special magical princess.

But really now, can you imagine wearing – much less dancing the night away in – actual glass high-heeled shoes?! 

[Confession from AuthorAmok: Laura can, indeed, imagine this. She has a nice-sized collection of glass shoes.]

AuthorAmok is admiring blogger and
novelist Annette Benton's
collection of Fenton glass slippers.

On the opposite end of the comfort scale would be a soft, well-worn sweatshirt. One with some miles and stories in the threads. That’s the subject of the poem I’d like to share today.

Hand-me-down Sweatshirt

by Alice Schertle

I’m a hand-me-down sweatshirt

with zipper and hood.

I’m everyone’s favorite

and still looking good.

I’ve been lost and recovered,

been torn and been sewn,

been dribbled on, tumbled in,

rained on and blown.

I started out Wendell’s,

was passed down to May,

she passed me to Karly,

I’m Andrew’s today.

So zip up my zipper

and pull up my hood.

I’m a friend of the family

and still looking good.

©Alice Schertle.  All rights reserved. Posted with permission from the author.

This poem is from Button Up!  Wrinkled Rhymes by award-winning poet Alice Schertle, with illustrations by Petra Mathers (Harcourt Children’s Books/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009).  

Find it on Oprah's Book Club!

I got my own personalized hot-off-the-press copy when I met Alice at a Highlights Founders workshop in poetry in Honesdale, led by Rebecca Kai Dotlich along with Susan Pearson and Alice. (And, yes – those few days were special AND magical!!)

If you know Alice’s work, well – I’ve read the word “genius” describing her more than once. She’s an absolute master of meter and her curiosity and imagination know no bounds. You might be familiar with her Little Blue Truck series among many other beloved titles.

When Button Up was released, Elaine Magliaro at Wild Rose Reader posted a wonderful review here. The book includes 15 persona, or “mask,” poems. These require a poet’s taking on a character and writing in first person.  A fun form to try with students, for sure!  Some of the gems in this collection include “Bertie’s Shoelaces,” “Joshua’s Jammies,” and “The Song of Harvey’s Golashes” (“…O there’s mud up to our tops,/we hope Harvey never stops/making deep, wet footprints in the lawn,/in the lawn.”)

Personally, I hope Alice Schertle never stops making poetry!

Many thanks for having me today, Laura.

###

Robyn, Alice's poem reminds me of a story. My friend, who has three children, bought a new sweatshirt -- NOT a hand-me-down, for once! -- for her youngest. This young daughter was so enthralled by how soft and wonderful the brand-new fleece of the sweatshirt felt. She'd never had a new sweatshirt before and it was a delight to her senses.

On the other hand, my daughter's current favorite "jacket" is actually a sweatshirt she swiped from her older brother. Thanks so much for visiting and for reminding us that comfortable clothes are among the most treasured items in our closets.

ICYMI: In this series...

Introductory Post

Jane Elkin looks in her childhood closet. Poems by Mark Irwin and Ron Koertge.

Tabatha Yeatts shares an ensemble of clothing poems by Greg Pincus.

Margaret Gibson Simon tries on orange high heels. Poem by Ellen Bass.

*Your suggested clothing poem prompt for Friday, April 10: Shoes.

On the practical level, they protect our feet from lumps and bumps. But shoes can be engineered for running, biking, or dance. They can be impractical works of art, colorful and sky-high. Our favorite footwear might be a pair of well-worn slippers. What does a pair of shoes say about the wearer?

Send your poems any time. I'll post original work on Friday.

While I Was Away

We just got back from our family trip to the U.K. It was a whirlwind through London, family visits in Nottingham and a very short stop in Edinburgh.

Of course, topping my to-do list was Shakespeare's Globe Theater, where we saw a great performance of Henry V in very soggy weather. (Thank goodness we were nobility for the evening. I don't think my family would have enjoyed the soaking the groundlings got.)

You can see the open-air structure above and the rain-ponchoed "groundlings" to my right.

Two great things happened while we were away.

First, the Maryland State Arts Council posted a free PDF of my new book, Voices Fly, co-edited with Virginia Crawford.

Teachers, homeschoolers, librarians, poets-in-the-schools, please visit the site and download the book. It is filled with favorite poetry workshops (from eight Maryland teaching poets) and examples of student responses.

Then, I found out that Author Amok has been nominated for a Fascination Award. Voting opens tomorrow, 7/23, through Google+ and will run through 7/30.

I believe you will be able to vote by following this link.

I am sending huge thanks to children's author and poet Robyn Hood Black, who was featured in the nominated post, "Robyn Hood Black on Haiku Mind." The post was part of my 2012 National Poetry Month series: Habits of Highly Effective Poets.

My gratitude also to all thirty poets who participated in the series. Taken as a whole, the posts gave wonderful, varied insight into the craft of poetry.

Wish me and Robyn luck and thanks in advance for voting!

30 Habits of Highly Effective Poets #13: Robyn Hood Black on Haiku Mind

Happy Poetry Friday! Before you start getting all woo-woo superstitious about Friday the 13th, it is always a lucky day at our house. My son's birthday is 2/13, which occasionally falls on a Friday. We enjoy laughing at all the self-imposed-black-cloud people out there, and then we eat a cupcake.

Poet, children's author and Poetry Friday blogger Robyn Hood Black of Read, Write, Howl is here today. She calls her writing habit "haiku mind." I love the idea of practicing haiku form as a way to clear out mental cobwebs (and self-imposed black clouds).

Here is Robyn: Thank you for having me, Laura!

Let’s see –  At 4:15 a.m., I check on the organic pecan halves soaking for my green tea…. Not really.

After the house empties of other humans in the morning, I do like to settle down and read with some coffee and my old hound dog before heading into my office to write. 

The best habit I’ve developed over the last couple of years is really a new approach to writing – and daily life – by becoming a student of haiku.  I came in through a side gate as a children’s author, discovering an online magazine Gisele LeBlanc had at the time featuring haiku for kids – and also stumbling into Diane Mayr’s multiple hats as a published haiku/ haiga poet, children’s author, and librarian (does that woman sleep?!). Gisele’s Berry Blue Haiku is now a blog/journal featuring haiku for a general audience,  and I’m delighted to be her assistant editor.

Traditionally, a haiku is a short poem, often three lines in English, capturing a moment – juxtaposing two images in nature and leaving room for the reader to participate.  (Haiku does not lend itself to being precisely defined, so there are exceptions and differences of opinion all around!) I love poring through poems written hundreds of years ago as well as those in current journals.

I’ve always been a fan of small things – recalling the ending of WilliamWordsworth’s “Intimations Ode”:

“To me the meanest flower that blows can give/Thoughts that do often lie too deep for tears.”

If I’m relaxed and in a “haiku mind,” I do notice more – the sound of a bird’s chirp or the shape of its shadow, and then I’ll consider whether that experience connects to some human experience I’m dancing through that day.  Trying to craft a poem from such observation requires an economy of language (and often several revisions) that improves my writing in general.  And probably my thinking. 

Haiku can be profound and yet so deceptively simple – like fine children’s books, which is why I love both.

Two of my favorite books of haiku for children. (LS)

Submitting haiku has been a microcosm of the publishing process, too. After months of reading and writing, I submitted to two top journals, not knowing if my poems were good enough to be published.  They weren’t – I received swift, polite rejections.  Then I spent about a year reading more and more and more, and writing more of course.  When I sent out submissions last fall, I was delighted to receive acceptances. (This year I got into those two journals which I received rejections from before, too.)

Here are a few poems:

same blue

as ten years ago

empty sky

Notes from the Gean, December 2011

cold front –

an urgent wind

at my back

Modern Haiku, Winter/Spring 2012

cicada song

Spanish moss

dipped in sunlight

The Heron’s Nest, March 2012

My haiku was in A Hundred Gourds and will soon appear in Acorn, Chrysanthemum, and Prune Juice.  I’m new on the journey with much to learn, but I appreciate each step.

This week's Poetry Friday host is Anastasia Suen. Thanks for gathering us all together today, Anastasia.

Tomorrow is Saturday -- "famous" poet day. We'll check out Kay Ryan's advice on reading as a habit for writers.