Splashing with words

 “Lizards dancing with birds? No problem,” writes Newbery Honor Award poet Joyce Sidman in The Poetry Friday Anthology, edited by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell. “The world is full of wonders … and your only job is to be able to see those wonders, to feel them, and to try to communicate them.”

Indeed, it’s the aim of this new collection of poems to help children--potential poets, perhaps--see and feel the wonders of the world through the magic of poetry, as well as inspire them to splash and play with words, communicating something of their own wonder of the world through poems.

Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong, who have collaborated previously on three innovative poetry e-books (PoetryTagTime, P* Tag, and GiftTag), have brought together more than seventy poets and assembled over 200 poems in their newest anthology which was inspired by the weekly poetry postings that readers can find online every Friday (thanks to the efforts of Poetry Friday’s founder, Kelly Herold, who introduced the idea to the “kidlotosphere” in 2006). 

The Poetry Friday Anthology is an unusual collection in that, while it contains poems for children, it’s designed as a teaching tool to help teachers gain comfort and familiarity with poetry and to encourage them to share the poems in their classrooms. So, in addition to poems, readers will find helpful tips (Take5!) that accompany each poem and offer five different ways for readers to gain deeper insights into the poems.

Here’s an example of a poem included in the Poems for Kindergarten section: 

Petting Zoo

By Laura Purdie Salas

Bossy goats,
Floppy dogs,
Silky bunnies,
Bristly hogs.

Milk a cow,
Find a nest.
I like cuddling
Kittens best. 

And here are the tips that are offered to help teachers bring the poem to life in the imaginations of their students: 

Take 5! 

1. Before reading the poem, ask students to name animals they might encounter at a petting zoo. Share the poem emphasizing each animal name.

2. Read the poem aloud again and invite students to make the corresponding animals noises.

3. For discussion: What is your favorite animal from this poem? What kind of animals might be found in a nest?

4. Poets love to play with words. Sometimes they’ll use a word just because they like the sound of it (or the way a word makes a picture in your mind). Do the words bossy, floppy, silky, and bristly make a picture in your mind? Talk about those pictures together.

5. Share another poem about kittens with All Worn Out by Kristy Dempsey (2^nd Grade, Week 5). 

You’ll find some of your favorite poets in this collection, as well as some poets who you may never have met before—from Joy Acey, Arnold and Jamie Adoff, and Kathi Appelt to Allan Wolf, Janet Wong, and Jane Yolen, with Cynthia Cotten, Nikki Grimes, David L. Harrison, Juanita Havill, Esther Hershenhorn, J. Patrick Lewis, Linda Sue Park, Greg Pincus, Michael J. Rosen, Eileen Spinelli, Carole Boston Weatherford, and many more.

Here are a few more poems, just to give you a sense of the range and breadth that you’ll find here.

From the First Grade section: 

Kerchoo!

By Cynthia Cotten

Mary Kate began to sneeze.
She held her breath to make it stop.
The sneezes all piled up inside,
Until at last her head went “pop!” 

From the Fourth Grade section: 

Archeology of a Book

By Betsy Franco

Remove
my words.
Remove
my art.
My story
unravels
back
to the start.
Remove
my pages,
spine,
design.
What’s left?
An idea
in the author’s
mind. 

From the Fifth Grade section: 

When The Future Arrives

By Bobbi Katz

When the future arrives,
   breathless,
           immense,
it completely
takes over
the present tense. 

With poems like these and hundreds more, it’s easy to see how teachers might eagerly use this book to incorporate poetry into their lessons on a daily or weekly basis.

And it’s easy to see, too, why poets, both young and old, will delight in the collection’s playfulness and humor, as well as in the craftsmanship of the poems that can be found in this volume.

For more information about The Poetry Friday Anthology, visit:

http://poetryfridayanthology.blogspot.com

http://www.amazon.com/Poetry-Friday-Anthology-Common-Core/dp/1937057682

For more about Sylvia Vardell’s and Janet Wong’s poetry e-books, visit:

http://pomelobooks.com/Pomelo_Books/Home.html

http://www.amazon.com/PoetryTagTime-ebook/dp/B004ULVK1I/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1

And take a look at Sylvia’s blog on poetry, too:

http://poetryforchildren.blogspot.com

And check out Janet’s website, as well:

http://www.janetwong.com

Swimming Into The Digital Age

Lately, I’ve been wondering if poetry books–if, indeed, any books– will survive in the digital age.

We’ve come a long way from the time when poets sat inside a cave and recited their poems around a fire to an audience hungry for words and stories. Now we sit in our cozy beds or comfortable sofas with our iPads, Nooks, or Kindle Fires in our laps, the glow of the screen replacing the campfire as the source of light, our appetite still hungering for words.

Yet the moment we click on our e-book readers, we find that the poet’s words are still there, still conveying meaning and warmth and satisfying our hunger just as they conveyed meaning and warmth–and sparked imaginations–centuries ago.

Two people helping expand the boundaries of poetry for children in this new digital age are Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. Vardell, a professor at Texas Woman's University, is the author of Poetry Aloud Here, Poetry People, and Children's Literature in Action. Wong, a highly acclaimed poet and storyteller, has received numerous awards and honors for her books, including the International Reading Association's "Celebrate Literacy Award" and the prestigious Stone Center Recognition of Merit, given by the Claremont Graduate School.

These two poetry lovers have assembled three e-book collections of poetry over the past few years. Poetry Tag Time (April, 2011) focuses on poetry for children, while p*tag (October, 2011) is geared for teens, and Gift Tag (December, 2011) offers holiday poems for young readers from birth to age eight (and beyond). In designing these books, Vardell and Wong seem to have found a solution to the pesky line-breaks and stylistic issues that have plagued other attempts at translating poetry to e-book form.

If you ever played tag as a child, you'll love making your way through Poetry Tag Time, a collection of thirty poems by thirty poets. It's just like playing tag, except the game involves one poet tagging another poet, while the reader gets the chance to join along simply by "tagging" or tapping his or her e-book reader's screen.

Vardell and Wong asked the poets to follow just four rules: share an unpublished poem (either a new one or one from their files) within a day of being tagged; make the poem accessible to children up to age 8; keep the lines “short” to fit the e-reader (and cell phone) format; and write a piece explaining their poem’s connection to the poem that comes before it in the book.

With these rules as guidelines, poets like Jack Prelutsky, Joyce Sidman, Nikki Grimes, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Douglas Florian, Helen Frost, J. Patrick Lewis, and Jane Yolen are tagged, and in turn tag other poets, and they've come up with gems like the ones below:

Sunquain
by Alice Schertle

August
hammers the sun
into a flat brass coin
I'd gladly spend on one small patch
of shade.

And this:

Approaching storm
by Paul B. Janeczko

Lightening rides
the sea slate sky;
dog follows master
over crests of pasture.
In a window
of the white farmhouse,
a beacon:
a single geranium.

Or this:

After the Storm
by Laura Purdie Salas

Ribbons of color
Arch
In a
Neverending
Backbend
Over the
World

Wong and Vardell expand this game of tag in p*tag, a collection of poems aimed at teens, by using photographs as prompts to start the poets off. This time a tagged poet is asked to choose a photo taken by Vardell, then write a poem inspired by the photo, incorporating three words from the preceding poem, and adding a short explanation of how the poem came to be before tagging another poet.

Wong and Vardell invite poets like Marilyn Singer, Naomi Shihab Nye, Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, Arnold Adoff, Kathi Appelt, JonArno Lawson, Sonya Sones, and Jaime Adoff, and the results are stunning, such as Marilyn Singer’s "Time and Water," written as a reverso, a form that she created which consists of two poems.

“Read the first down and it says one thing," writes Singer. "Read it back up with changes only in punctuation and capitalization, and it says something else.”

Time and Water
by Marilyn Singer

Time
passing
slowly–
water
flowing
under
lazily
trailing
hands.

Hands
trailing
lazily
under
flowing
water,
slowly
passing
time.

Gift Tag, the third in this collection of e-books, relies again on photos -- an “‘ekphrastic’ approach (poems prompted by images),” Vardell explains -- to inspire poets to share poems about the holidays.

With poets like Allan Wolf, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Julie Larios, Bobbi Katz, Steven Withrow, Margarita Engle, Carole Boston Weatherford, Sara Holbrook, April Halprin Wayland, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Pat Mora and others, you can’t help but be thankful for the results–

Thanks Giving
by Jane Yolen

We groan after eating,
that old story.
Swear never to eat again,
that old lie.
Remind ourselves
to give thanks
that are never given,
that old prayer.
Just happy to be together,
that old tale.

These poems are innovative in themselves, and these e-books offer a new, innovative way of reading them. Now, instead of turning pages, you merely touch a screen and watch as words and images flicker and appear like magic before your eyes.

For years I was resistant to e-readers, preferring the intimacy of a book–the feel of the page, the smell of the ink and glue– especially for reading something as intimate as a poem. I worried an e-reader would change my experience of reading, and I feared the words would feel different in my hands if I held them on the screen of an e-reader instead of on the pages of a real book.

But Vardell and Wong have allayed these fears, and they've added another dimension to the process of reading poetry, as well. With the interactivity of touch-screen reading, it’s almost as if a reader can retrace the process of how a poem came to appear in a poet’s mind (and heart)... and feel that spark as it's passed on in a game of tag, not only from poet to poet but from poet to reader.

Each time you touch the screen of your Kindle Fire, Nook, or iPad, you'll become a participant in this game, and you'll be able to feel the sparks of a poet's inspiration ... as long as your e-reader's battery lasts.

For more information about Vardell and Wong’s collections of e-poetry, visit:
http://www.amazon.com/PoetryTagTime-ebook/dp/B004ULVK1I/ref=pd_sim_kstore_2?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2
http://www.amazon.com/P-TAG-PoetryTagTime-ebook/dp/B005OSJ5PO
http://www.amazon.com/Gift-Tag-PoetryTagTime-ebook/dp/B0069RU7CE/ref=pd_sim_kstore_1/184-1057400-9210262?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2

For a further discussion about poetry and e-books, visit:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/07/14/poetry-and-ebooks-will-po_n_645677.html
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/digital/content-and-e-books/article/46615-diverging-digital-roads-poetry-and-e-books.html
http://ageofsand.com/2010/10/can-we-trust-poetry-ebooks-the-case-of-allen-ginsbergs-collected-poems/
http://www.poetryfoundation.org/article/240586

Beach Talk with Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell

Remember playing Tag as a child? Someone would sneak up behind you or catch you without warning and shout, “Tag, you’re it!”

It was a game of narrow escapes, near-misses, breathless dashes and sprints, and a chance to reach out and (sometimes) unfreeze a best friend.

Two ardent lovers of poetry (and best-friends), Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell, have taken the pleasure and delight that each remembers from playing Tag as a child and brought that same excitement and playfulness to PoetryTagTime, a collection of thirty poems from thirty poets who Janet and Sylvia invited to share a poem within a day of being tagged.

The first electronic-only poetry anthology for kids, PoetryTagTime offers young (and not-so-young) readers a poem a day for a month on a vast array of subjects ranging from the moon, toenails, and turtles to smelly hotels, snow, and dogs.

“Our poets have shown us here that poems can take many forms and create many moods," write Janet and Sylvia. "Poems can be short or long, rhymed or not, funny or serious, and about a whole wide world of subjects (including World Wide Wagging)."

Poets were asked to follow only four rules: share an unpublished poem (either a new one or a gem from their files) within a day of being tagged; make the poem accessible to children eight years old and under; keep the lines “short” to make it easier for some readers to read the poems on their e-books or cell phones; and explain their poem’s connection to the poem that comes before it in the anthology.

“We wanted to encourage poets to reach out and take inspiration from each other by connecting their poems,” write Janet and Sylvia, who hope readers will be inspired, too, to continue the game of Tag by looking for more poems to connect with those that they find in the book.

Most of all, they hope the tag theme will encourage readers to play with poetry and have fun writing.

Janet’s books have received numerous awards and honors, such as the International Reading Association's "Celebrate Literacy Award" for exemplary service in the promotion of literacy, and the prestigious Stone Center Recognition of Merit, given by the Claremont Graduate School. She has been appointed to two terms on the Commission on Literature of the National Council of Teachers of English.

Sylvia, a professor at Texas Woman's University, is the author of Poetry Aloud Here, Poetry People, and Children’s Literature in Action, and co-editor of Bookbird, the journal of international children's literature, and the annual review guide, Librarian’s Choices.

Recently, Janet and Sylvia joined us on the beach to talk about their newest adventure in poetry together. So, pull up a beach chair or find a shady place under a beach umbrella, and join us for a conversation about how they came up with the idea for their newest book.

Wordswimmer: How did the two of you happen to become friends?

Sylvia: I remember coming up to Janet for an autograph at a conference many years ago. I so admired her work and was thrilled to meet her. I had no idea she would also be such a gregarious dynamo! We have since presented together at conferences, enjoyed dinners together, she has come to my university to speak to my students, and we’ve become good friends.

Janet: I remember being so flattered and grateful to Sylvia when she first invited me to be on a panel with her, Terry Young, and Nancy Hadaway at a convention—either the annual IRA or NCTE convention (I forget which). I think my single piece of advice to new authors would be: go to teacher conventions and you’ll make lasting friends who will understand and appreciate your work.

Wordswimmer: And how did you get the idea of working together on a book?

Sylvia: Janet served on the NCTE Poetry Award Committee (which I had co-chaired just prior to her stint) when Lee Bennett Hopkins was selected. I offered to help the committee with the proposal for the conference session to feature Lee and his work. Then I had the brainstorm to create a simple “festschrift” inviting other poets to write a poem in honor of Lee, thinking we would make a “homemade” anthology to give away at the session. Well, Janet loved the idea and got on board to help me with the project, even approaching NCTE for funding—which we got. It became quite a lovely, bound book with art donated by Stephen Alcorn and original poems by 60+ poets. It also led to an amazing partnership and a discovery that Janet and I were kindred spirits with very similar working styles. We continue to find projects that bring us together, PoetryTagTime being the next big one.

Wordswimmer: What prompted the idea for PoetryTagTime?

Janet: In 2010, Sylvia created a game of “Poetry Tag” at her amazing blog, Poetry for Children, which celebrates poetry not just during National Poetry Month in April, but all year long. We poets loved the way she made a game out of our poems. She invited us to "play" by offering a poem for her readers to enjoy, then "tag" a fellow poet who then shared her/his own poem that was connected to the previous poem in some way-- a theme, word, idea, tone. We offered a sentence or two explaining that connection.

Sylvia: Poets responded enthusiastically and we shared a chain of poems by luminaries such as J. Patrick Lewis, X. J. Kennedy, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Joyce Sidman, Marilyn Singer, Alice Schertle, Pat Mora, Naomi Shihab Nye, Helen Frost, and Nikki Grimes, among others. The success of that first round of Poetry Tag inspired Janet and me to take this idea one step further and envision a book version of Poetry Tag for kids that would be electronic only—completely innovative and ground breaking.

Wordswimmer: How did you decide who to invite as contributors?

Sylvia: That was actually pretty easy. We made a list of poets we knew whom we thought might want to participate and started asking. Nearly everyone said yes right away. We got a few no’s—due to scheduling conflicts and whatnot, but everyone was kind and supportive.

Janet: The hardest part was that we had too many YES responses! There were a number of poets who we would’ve loved to have invited for the first round, but we decided to “save” them for future books where they could show off their special talents; for instance, we reserved many poets for our teen anthology (entitled p*tag, an eBook coming in October--in time for Teen Read Week).

Wordswimmer: Did you or the poets decide on the order of tagging? How did you determine order?

Sylvia: We had a set list of poets who agreed to participate (thirty-- to promote the one-poem-a-day notion of National Poetry Month). Some poets had some scheduling constraints which we tried to accommodate. So, we usually gave a poet a choice of 3-5 names from which to select.

Wordswimmer: Was there much revision or editing as part of the process?

Janet: What little editing took place was mainly copyediting (pointing out typos), but we did have one exciting exchange with David L. Harrison, who had written a clever but sad poem about the sexual single-mindedness of a drone. Since the ideal age range for this book is 8 and under, we asked if he might consider a slight revision. Being ever the gentleman and quite an efficient poet, he quickly and graciously provided a revised poem. I’m hoping that he uses the original poem in one of his books, though, as I liked it very much; besides, the life of a drone is sad!

Wordswimmer: Why did you decide on e-book rather than traditional publishing?

Sylvia: I think that was Janet’s idea. And quite honestly, I was more interested in trying something brand new—like e-publishing.

Janet: I wanted to be able to offer an affordable—actually, a downright cheap—anthology to teachers on a budget, to make poetry an “impulse buy,” and given the costs of printing and warehousing regular books, I knew that an eBook was the only way.

Wordswimmer: Any chance of it becoming a traditional book?

Sylvia: Nope. Although I can see kids and classes printing a copy and making it their own with original art. That would be fun!

Wordswimmer: Do you envision a sequel, possibly a tag series?

Janet: We're working now on a sequel for teens, called p*tag. So far, p*tag is shaping up to be an amazing book: Marilyn Singer starts it off with a reverso, the form she invented for Mirror, Mirror; Betsy Franco follows with a poem filled with piercings; Allan Wolf burps up kittens; and Naomi Shihab Nye muses about buckets of wind and worry. J. Patrick Lewis, Joyce Sidman, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Helen Frost, Margarita Engle, Arnold and Jaime Adoff and twenty others still have poems to come. And I think it will be even more special than PoetryTagTime because Sylvia photo-illustrated it!

Sylvia: Yes, there are two really different things about p*tag, our teen anthology. First, there are photographs (which I took). Each poet chooses a photo and writes his or her prose connection and his/her poem about whatever that photo inspired. The connection between the photo and the poem isn't always obvious; for instance, Allan wrote about a pregnant cat outside a teahouse in Shanghai because the mass of parked bicycles in the photo reminded him of his visit to China. The second difference in this book is that each poet needs to connect to the previous poem by using three words from it; that provides the "tag" aspect.

Wordswimmer: Anything else you'd like to share?

Sylvia: We’ve been so pleased with the response and grateful to our poets and fans for their support. But we do wonder how to break into the wider world of Kindle (and other e-readers). It seems to me that we only found the poetry niche and we were hoping to draw more people into poetry by making it electronic—and cheap. That’s our biggest—and ongoing—challenge!

Janet: I’d love to see kids reading poetry on cell phones while they’re sitting in the back of the car, stuck with their parents in traffic. And reading poetry aloud from an e-reader for the whole family to enjoy. You don’t need a Kindle, Nook, or iPad to read an eBook. You can even download an eBook to a regular computer—and there are tons of free and inexpensive offerings, from classics to quirky indie-published books. Which leads me to this thought: I’d like to see more people doing indie publishing, writing those stories that their grandparents used to tell, filling the many small gaps in literature that exist because of the limitations of traditional publishing. This is an exciting time to be a writer—and a reader!

For more info about PoetryTagTime, visit: http://poetrytagtime.com/Poetry_Tag_Time/Welcome.html
For tips on writing your own poems, visit: http://poetrytagtime.blogspot.com/
For more info about Janet’s work, visit her website: http://www.janetwong.com/
For more about Sylvia’s work, check out her site: http://www.sylviavardell.com/