It was a privilege to hear Mary Oliver read her poetry last night at Cape Cod Community College. Mary lives on the Cape, and she said with a smile, “It’s not often I read in my home country.”

My friend Pam Ross (writerross)asked me to detail the poems that Mary Oliver read, and I will do so, along with some quotes and impressions…

What an elegant yet unassuming presence Mary has! She was dressed simply in a dark turtleneck and slacks… her white-silver hair glowed in the spotlight, and she wore large glasses to read. Her presence is quiet, yet commanding.

Her first poem was “Why I Wake Early,” and then, “5 a.m. in the Pine Woods.” It was breathtaking to hear her read beautifully-crafted phrases like “damp tassels of weeds,” punctuating her poems with reverent pauses.

Mary added wonderful touches of wry humor to her comments. Before she read “Wild Geese,” she said, “I might as well get it over with and read ‘Wild Geese.’ Those poor geese have been flying for years.”

“I have a little dog that I aim to make famous,” Mary said, and she spoke about her dog Percy before reading “Percy One.”

She then read “Mindful,” and it was so moving to hear her speak such lovely words aloud…. “the untrimmable light of the world.”

Mary read “The Truro Bear,” and “Messenger.”

“Mornings at Blackwater,” so lovely, was next. Mary spoke about her walks in the woods of Provincetown… “I named all the ponds,” she said with a smile.

I had a lump in my throat as Mary spoke about her long-time partner, Molly Malone Cook, who died in 2005. She spoke about Molly, and read passages from Our World, her book about their life together. “It was a 40 year conversation,” she said of their relationship.

Mary then read another Percy poem, followed by a luminous reading of “Mysteries, Yes.” How delightful to hear her read, “Let me keep my distance, always, from those who think they have all the answers.”

She then read “The Swan,” (“an armful of white blossoms”) “Red” and “The Summer Day.” A lovely murmur swept through the packed auditorium as she spoke the words “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?”

“Almost a Conversation” and “Violets” came next.

Mary then read “Mockingbirds” and “Whelks,” followed by “Coyote in the Dark” and “The Trees.”

“You may notice I’m not big on titles,” she said to laughter.

Mary read “White Hen Rises Over Blackwater.” She then said, “Of course, I’m going to close with Percy.” She read the delightful “Little Dog’s Rhapsody in the Night.” It ended the reading with laughter and cheers. Mary received a standing ovation; she smiled broadly and bowed her head to the audience in return.

What a poised, luminous presence she is—elegant and tough at the same time. I feel quite lucky to have heard Mary Oliver’s words, in her voice, on such a lovely Cape Cod evening.

Well over a year ago, poet and anthologist Lee Bennett Hopkins accepted one of my poems for an upcoming anthology, AMAZING FACES (Lee and Low, Spring 2010).


Here I am meeting Lee in 2007.

Just yesterday, I received a wonderful surprise in my e-mail—some of the art samples for the book, done by wonderful illustrator Chris Soentpiet.

Seeing my poem, “Firefighter Face,” brought to life by Chris’s illustration was a big thrill! I’m very excited to be part of this collection, which now seems much more real.

Wow.

I’m thinking a lot about pretend play lately… it’s something I value very much in the lives of young children, and it is so crucial to their social, emotional, physical and cognitive development. So I’ve been reading a number of picture books to see how pretend play is depicted in them. Is it labeled as “pretend,” with a nod to the young child’s still-developing distinction between fantasy and reality? Or is the “veil” between fantasy and reality more hazy?

Some books announce that they are entering into the pretend realm,

as in Mini Grey's TRACTION MAN IS HERE!

Others slip into the fantasy quite seamlessly.



I also love looking at how, even in a pretend sequence, an author or illustrator can still give the child connections to the real...


like the chains of a swing in Leslie Patricelli's HIGHER! HIGHER!



I’m writing a paper about this as part of my MFA studies this semester, and I’m having fun using both sides of my professional self… the writing, and the early childhood education.

What about you? Do you have a favorite book about pretend?

"Picturebooks are aesthetic wholes, so carefully designed that everything in the book is the result of someone's choice." (Lawrence R. Sipe, Caroline E. McGuire)

One of the delights of my MFA program at Vermont College is in pushing myself in new directions. As a wordsmith, I've never been especially attuned to visual literacy, and that's something I'm trying to address. I've been reading and thinking about endpapers, and the wonderful role that they play in the marvelous package of a picture book.

Of course, there are endpapers that are unillustrated, and are the identical (both front and back are the same). Often, the color of the endpapers may have some significance related to the story. Then there are the endpapers that are solid colored, yet dissimilar. A good example is the subdued gray front endpaper in THE NAPPING HOUSE by Don and Audrey Wood. The gray contrasts with the bright blue of the back endpaper, symbolizing the passage of time and the action of the story.



Even more fun to examine are illustrated endpapers, especially those that differ from front to back. Some examples that some to mind are the endpapers in Linda Urban's MOUSE WAS MAD, Heather Henson's GRUMPY GRANDPA, and WAVE by Suzy Lee.



As you can imagine, I am looking at picture books in a whole new way, with even greater appreciation than before.

Do you have any favorite examples of picture book endpapers of interest?

I'm now starting my second semester of the MFA program at Vermont College of Fine Arts. After the ten-day residency, I returned home tired, inspired, and all fired up!



I had a chance to discuss the progress I made in my first semester, with my first advisor, poet Julie Larios.


This semester I will be focusing solely on picture books, thanks to the Picture Book Intensive. This means that five students will work with advisor Kathi Appelt, immersing ourselves in the art and the craft of picture books.




I sat down with Kathi to put together a study plan for Semester 2.

Kathi had just returned from the ALA gathering in Chicago, where she accepted the Newbery Honor for her novel THE UNDERNEATH. The whole VCFA community was excited about that!


I soaked in lectures, slept well, enjoyed the beautiful campus, and felt grateful to be part of VCFA. It's a very special place!

I am getting ready to head off for 10 days of work, play, deep thought, and study… my second residency at Vermont College of Fine Arts! Some of the highlights will be:

**Being part of the Picture Book Intensive, a semester-long study of the picture book. This includes many days of workshop at the residency led by faculty members Kathi Appelt and Uma Krishnaswami. After I head home, I will be working on the craft of writing picture books, posting my work on line for my fellow students to critique, critiquing the works of others in the workshop, and sending monthly packets of creative work, critical writing and more to my advisor Kathi Appelt. Whew! They weren’t kidding when they called it an “intensive!”

**We will also have a weekend-long symposium on the theme of Good and Evil. In preparation, we have read three books: Nancy Werlin’s IMPOSSIBLE, Margo Lanagan’s TENDER MORSELS, and Deborah Noyes’ RED BUTTERFLY. Nancy Werlin and Deborah Noyes will be at the symposium—can’t wait!


Vermont College of Fine Arts

There are more things in store for the residency, but I’ll stop there. I leave on Saturday, and I will come limping home with a smile on my face ten days later. I’ll post more when I get back.

Wishing you summer pleasures and playfulness!

Being an MFA student these past six months has been an amazing experience. I love the Vermont College program, and I am thrilled to be learning so much. Some highlights of my semester:

**Working closely with my advisor, poet Julie Larios
**Learning how to successfully write critical essays examining various aspects of children’s literature
**Writing and revising several picture books and two poetry collections
**Meeting many wonderful people among the faculty, staff, and students

That said, there have been a few casualties. I’ve neglected my Livejournal blog, which I’m trying to revive today! There are phone calls to return, letters to write, and gifts to acknowledge, like this one:



I recently won a contest on author Jama Kim Rattigan’s LJ blog(jamarattigan), and the prize was her lovely picture book THE WOMAN IN THE MOON. It is a lyrical, ancient tale from Hawai’i , accompanied by lush illustrations done by artist Carla Golembe. I’ve seen Carla’s work in the Cove Gallery here on Cape Cod, and her use of color is amazing. Thank you, Jama, for this beautifully written book, graced with signatures from author and illustrator! I will treasure it.

I'm teaching round two of my college course for early childhood teachers tomorrow-- it's called "Poetry in the Early Childhood Classroom."

We'll be meeting in a beautiful public library, perusing resources, and making large charts of poems that the teachers will bring back to their classrooms.



On our first night of class last week, I asked participants to write a passage about what they wanted to gain from the course. A few wrote that they would like to know which poets to follow or collect... poets for the very young (3 to 5 year olds).

I have some ideas to share with them. But what would you say??

I recently happened upon an interview with poet Robert Frost in a Paris Review collection. This quote by Frost really stuck out for me; it poses a challenge to me in terms of writing poetry—something to aim for:

“This thing of performance and prowess and feats of association—that’s where it all lies. One of my ways of looking at a poem right away… is to see if it’s rhymed. Then I know just when to look at it. The rhymes come in pairs, don’t they? And nine times out of ten with an ordinary writer, one of two of the terms is better than the other. One makeshift will do, and then they get another that’s good, and then another makeshift, and then another one that’s good. That is in the realm of performance, that’s the deadly test with me. I want to be unable to tell which of those he thought of first. If there’s any trick about it, putting the better one first so as to deceive me, I can tell pretty soon. That’s all in the performance realm.”



That’s a good standard to aspire to, I think—that my reader will not be able to tell if there is a “favored” and second-best rhyme in my poems. It raises the bar pretty high--- “the deadly test,” indeed!

I have been enjoying all of the wonderful treasures in the blogosphere during Poetry Month, haven’t you?

The interview with Helen Frost at The Miss Rumphius Effect made my day! I am a big fan of Helen’s work, and it was illuminating to read more about Helen and her thoughts about poetry. I’m right in the middle of examining DIAMOND WILLOW for a critical essay I am writing for my MFA program, so I was delighted to see this.

Greg at GottaBook has been doing an amazing job spotlighting poets and their poems this month. I was tickled to see Julie Larios featured the other day—she is my current advisor in the Vermont College MFA program!

Finally, I visited a café full of poetic mojo the other day… Busboys and Poets in Washington, D.C. The café’s name is a nod to Langston Hughes, and I found it to be a bustling, vibrant place full of interesting people. They're even hosting Nikki Giovanni this week.


Happy Poetry Month to all!

I'm looking for book suggestions, and I thought my LJ friends would have some good ones!

I'm looking for books that have a blend of poetry and prose. Some examples that I have are DIAMOND WILLOW by Helen Frost,



GOOD MASTERS! SWEET LADIES! BY Laura Amy Schlitz,



and BRONX MASQUERADE by Nikki Grimes.


Any other suggestions?



Thank you, friends!

I confess that my studies, writing and research for my MFA program have kept me away from Live Journal. This month, one of the projects I’m working on is a close examination of Bob Graham’s picture book HOW TO HEAL A BROKEN WING. I just love this book for its message of compassion and empathy. I found myself examining the illustrations closely, noticing the TV and newspaper images of war sprinkled throughout the story. It’s a powerful reminder that our children are growing up in a world where war is an everyday reality, just part of the wallpaper of media reports, politics, and conversation. Yet a story like HOW TO HEAL A BROKEN WING reminds us that we, as teachers, parents, and authors, can encourage and shine a light on moments of simple kindness.

As Vivian Gussin Paley writes in THE KINDNESS OF CHILDREN,
“They will, of course, realize they have their own… stories, those unheralded moments in time when we are witnesses to an act of kindness. The unkind voices that surround us are loud and shrill, demanding our thoughtful and truthful attention. All the more reason to listen for the soft breath of friendship and carry our reassuring stories above the din.”

Oh, the gray days of March!! Right now it's raining, with a little bit of sleet and snow mixed in for good measure.

I'm resisting the pall of the gloomy weather... I call this "kicking off the blankets." To fight off the seasonal doldrums, I've been playing with poetry.


I wrote a hopeful peace poem for Judy Lucas's peace poetry project,


and I wrote some haiku, including one about my friend the cardinal.



Come, spring, come!

I was captivated by this Bill Moyers video on the Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival.

It's about 12 minutes long, and it casts a spell. It provides a wonderful opportunity to savor the performances of many wonderful poets.





I've never been to this festival, but it looks absolutely heavenly. Enjoy!!

**Thanks to Jan (PoetMom at Blogspot) for the link!

I am deep into reading poet Mary Oliver’s book about poetry, RULES FOR THE DANCE. It is a delightful, slim volume, packed with solid information about the metrics and forms of poetry, poetic devices, and more. I am brushing up on my anapests, trochees, iambs, etc. I am pondering Oliver’s chapter on line length (“Line length is an active, never a neutral, part of the process of writing.”). Oliver writes beautifully about the sounds letters make, classifying them as mutes, liquids, aspirates, and more.
It is a satisfying read, both for my imagination and my intellect!



“True ease in writing comes from art, not chance
As those move easiest who have learned to dance.”

Alexander Pope, as quoted by Mary Oliver.







Next up: THE ODE LESS TRAVELLED, by Stephen Fry.

My recent trip to New York City was food for the soul. As a reader and writer, I had many moments that fed my imagination and warmed my heart...

A visit to the United Nations was inspiring and fascinating...



like this incredible stained glass wall by Marc Chagall.


I retraced the footsteps of my grandparents and great-grandparents at Ellis Island....



Ellis Island, the Great Hall

After a bit of searching, we found the site of the infamous Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire, now a building owned by NYU in Greenwich Village...




And if you love history and a good story, you must visit the Lower East Side Tenement Museum. We toured a tiny, cramped apartment, furnished to 1916 perfection, as a historical "interpreter" playing immigrant Victoria Confino spoke to us about her life in New York and answered questions. It was informative and emotional. Photography is not permitted inside the museum, but I encourage you to check out the website!


Finally, signs and symbols of the New York Fire Department were everywhere....



and that made me happy!

Now I am happily back at home, with lots of grist for the creative mill.

Thanks to Sylvia Vardell for the tip-off...

DIAMOND WILLOW, by Helen Frost, is the 2009 winner of the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award!



I really love this story, its unique structure, and the wonderful poetry form that Frost employed throughout this book.

I wrote in more detail about DIAMOND WILLOW back in the fall, and I'm just tickled to see it recognized.

Congratulations, Helen!!



And Happy Valentine's Day to all!

I am polishing a few critical essays and some creative work, to send to my Vermont College advisor as part of my first "packet" of the semester. One of the assignments given to me was to write a brief essay about who my "ideal reader" is. It was a fun and interesting exercise, to think about who I am writing for, and to.

I wrote about a quiet child, one with a flamboyant imagination, a big heart, and a "buttoned up" demeanor. She or he finds affirmation and emotional release in reading stories and poems.

This communication between writer and reader, which we all know well, is summed up beautifully by Mary Oliver in her book A POETRY HANDBOOK:



"...poems are not words, after all, but fires for the cold, ropes let down to the lost, something as necessary as bread in the pockets of the hungry.”



Have you imagined your ideal reader?

...then you might like this quote as much as I do.



It's from ARE YOU SOMEBODY?





...a memoir written by Irish journalist and author Nuala O'Faolain.


"Being born was something done to me, but my own life began-- I began for myself--
when I first made out the meaning of a sentence."

I'm passing along something fun today....





related to Obama



and Ireland




and poetry.



Here's a radio clip of Irish author Joseph O'Connor,
riffing on Obama and poetry.



My sister sent this to me from Ireland, along with a few tidbits.

Joseph's book, Star of the Sea, is supposed to be just wonderful.

And his sister is kind of famous, too.




Enjoy!!