For the Love of Poetry

Earlier this year in January I had an opportunity to attend the American Libraries Association's Midwinter Conference in Atlanta, GA.  There, I sat in on a panel discussion featuring author Kwame Alexander and illustrator Ekua Holmes who I both absolutely respect and admire for the gifts and works that they lend to the children's book world.  The panel focused mostly on discussing an upcoming release by Kwame Alexander and other fellow writers that focuses on celebrating poets and poetry titled "Out of Wonder".  The book is composed of original poems that celebrate poets of many eras.  Classic poets like E.E. Cummings and Emily Dickinson, Langston Hughes from the Harlem Renaissance, contemporary poets like Sandra Cisneros and Nikki Giovanni, and even international poets Basho (Japanese) and Okot p'Bitek (Uganda) are just a few of the fabulously gifted poets celebrated in the upcoming release.  Ekua Holmes ingeniously takes each original poem and crafts an illustration to represent the text.  You may imagine that I was enthralled hearing about the process and what work went into producing this book of poetry.  Yes, I was!

 



Kwame Alexander (author/poet) reading his poem "I Like Your"



Ekua Holmes (illustrator) sharing her creative process

 

Growing up I fell in love with the idea of being a professional poet.  I loved the idea of using words in an unconventional way to create a story, a song, an expression of an idea or thought.  I found myself keeping a journal of poems in high school and college, but somewhere in adulthood I got busy with life and stopped writing.  It seems as if today young people are not being introduced to poetry in the way that I was.  When I had a book talk at my library during the summer last year, the teens looked at me with confusion when I stated we would be focusing on books of poetry.  They couldn't understand why someone would just want to read a book of poems with no typical beginning, middle and end storyline.  After an hour of discussion and digging into books written by contemporary authors the teens walked away excited about the possibility of being poet themselves.  It was a successful moment.  I thought about this while I listened to Alexander and Holmes talk about how they, like me, want to bring back an appreciation for poetry amongst our young people.


I am now on a mission to bring back poetry appreciation to youth one verse at a time.  Come back to my blog later to learn about my poetry adventures this summer with teens at the library where I work in Queens, NY.  I hope that you will return and while you're at it check out some of these recent and upcoming works for middle grades and teen readers that celebrate poetry in both traditional and unconventional ways.

One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance (2017) Grimes, Nikki

Garvey's Choice (2016) Grimes, Nikki

Brown Girl Dreaming (2014) Woodson, Jacqueline

The Crossover (2014) Alexander, Kwame

The Red Pencil (2014) Pinkney, Andrea Davis

Words with Wings (2013) Grimes, Nikki


Coming Soon!

Out of Wonder: Poems Celebrating Poets (3/14/17) Alexander, Kwame; Colderley, Chris; Wentworth, Marjory