Happy National Photo Month!

Happy National Photo Month to everyone! I'm honored to be included in this excellent collection of poetry, highlighting celebrations: The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations. The contributors and compilers have created a treasure to inspire appreciation for poetry and days of joy.



Here is my poem to enjoy as you click those selfies this month!



You can visit Poetry Celebrations to see 12 more things to party about in May. Shout out to Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell for editing, supporting, and impacting the world through poetry!

The Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations
Teacher/Librarian Edition
Children's Edition
edited by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell
Pomelo Books, 2015

Poetry Friday Anthology!

I'm so happy to be in this collection of poems!

The Poetry Friday Anthology: Poems for the School Year with Connections to the Common Core
compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong
Pomelo Books, 2012 -- official release date September 1

Here are 218 unpublished poems by 75 poets. There are 36 poems for each grade level, K-5 -- one for each week of the school year. 5 tips are included for every poem as a theme each week links all the grade levels together.

Teachers, poets, readers of poetry, check this work out! e-versions will be up in September. Sweet!

Poetry Friday: Christmas Troll, Gift Tag

Did you see the holiday e-poetry collection, Gift Tag? It was compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. I'm so happy to be in this work with other poets who write for children. Each entry was motivated by an image. You might click and purchase the book for yourself and gift it to others for just $2.99. It's spot on for little ones and older readers. Gift Tag is full of holiday memories, thoughts, and wishes you'll want to read again and again. You will love it! As a teaser, here's my entry. Happy Poetry Friday!

Tucked Between Branches

A green puff swirls

Like angel hair

Golden eyes wink

Beside warm white lights

A round belly bulges

Like a plump ornament

My Christmas tree troll

Curls a smile

And reaches out to me

Lorie Ann Grover, 2011

Gift Tag
compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong
poetrytagtime.com

Poetry Friday: p*tag

Love, love, love this poetic post by Janet and Sylvia that Cynthia Leitich Smith was kind enough to post. Here it is again from her site. Happy Poetry Friday, everyone!

By Sylvia Vardell and Janet S. Wong
Photos by Sylvia Vardell

Who did we make P*TAG for?

P*TAG is for a girl who, like Marilyn Singer, sees a pier and hears "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay";

Or for a boy like Betsy Franco’s Ovid, who might drive on the beach some night thinking about a girl with piercings;

for Allan Wolf, who burps up kittens;

for Naomi Shihab Nye, who says:

            What if, instead of war,

            we shared our buckets

            of wind and worry?

P*TAG is for you if you are tired of aunts and uncles forever asking what you want to be when you grow up (David L. Harrison);

and for you if you can look at a crowd and see “spirits...being extracted from their bodies” (Lorie Ann Grover).

What are your wishes? Heidi Mordhorst asks: “What if there were a Come-True Tree somewhere?”

Do you have secrets?

           

            Random Buddhist manifestos.

            Tattoo designs.

            Erotic poetry.

                        (Tracie Vaughn Zimmer has mystery in her blood.)

P*TAG wants you to fall in love with a guitar player. (Kathi Appelt)

And:

           

            If some night you walk down a street

            so deep inside a chorus of sad voices

            that you cannot--simply can’t--look up,

            and it all seems impossible,

            . . .

            Take another step,

                 a slow step, another,

                        another,

                                    and another.

                                           (Helen Frost)

Play along with p*tag:

http://teenpoetrytagtime.blogspot.com

Read more about it:

www.PoetryTagTime.com

Buy it here:

Nook version: http://bit.ly/ncGiqo

Kindle version:http://amzn.to/nNsWPs

(also in the iTunes store)

Poetry Friday: A Celebration of Lee Bennett Hopkins

Lee Bennett Hopkins was the recipient of the 2009 NCTE Award for Excellence in Poetry for Children. Several lovely poets organized a celebration for Lee and created a book of poetry in his honor, with the help of NCTE. Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong graciously invited me to include an entry.



The beautiful cover was created by Stephen Alcorn.

My entry was based on the Lee's book Been to Yesterdays that really prompted me to find my voice and form.



Been to Yesterdays

You stretched out your hand
and gave me
Been to Yesterdays.

“Stowed in cardboard
corners
memories rest
quietly
in paper chests”
like my own
waiting to be dusted, lifted, and remembered.

Your mother,
grandmother,
and middle grade voice facing divorce
found my mother,
grandmother,
and me facing the divorce in my childhood.

Been to Yesterdays
took me to my own.
Thank you for
holding out your hand
so that I might grasp it.

Lorie Ann Grover, 2009

Thank you to all the poets who worked so hard to honor Lee! Well done!

Poetry Friday: My Old Friend, Janet Wong

Ten years ago, Janet Wong taught a poetry class in Laura Kvasnosky's basement. It was a magical time where I discovered that I was a verse novelist. I owe much to both ladies for my publishing career.

This poem was inspired this week by Janet Wong's poem "Old Friend" from Night Garden. It was first posted at Marilyn Carpenter's awesome blog, Creating Connections.

My Old Friend, Janet Wong

In my mind,
a glimpse
of the black clad
poet
whose words lilt and rise
as echoes in my soul’s ear.
Rhythms of poetry
and power,
loud laughter,
bold introductions,
an arm flung over the shoulder
of my memories.

Lorie Ann Grover, 2008

On the Verse Novel

I just answered an email about verse novels and thought to share my musings here with you all. If you write verse this might get your mind moving.

First off, definitely read everything written in verse. There are so many YA verse novels available now. We have carved out our own genre! Woohoo!

As you read, do you see a difference, say between, True Believer and What My Mother Doesn't Know and Your Own, Sylvia?

There's a wide range of how poetic verse novels feel. I think I've mentioned the three in order of poetic overtones. Virginia Euwer Wolff refuses to call her work poetry. Whereas, I'm sure it's high in the thoughts of Sonya Sones and Stephanie Hemphill. I guess I'm saying there's a bar that slides between narrative and poem. My work is closer to Virginia's, narrative.

If your work is more narrative, I suggest reading straight poetry that you enjoy. I love Janet Wong's work, Langston Hughes, and Walt Whitman.



You'll find poetic elements dropping into your writing. Your ear will pick them up and place them into your work.

If your novel is closer to poetry, definitely study books on how to write poetry. Know those structures, play with them, read other poets, rewrite your poems in various forms.

I tend to return to Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge's work Poemcrazy: Freeing Your Life with Words. I just ordered her Foolsgold as well.



Just a few thoughts on verse. That form that holds intense emotion with the barest language. I love it!

~Lorie Ann Grover, rgz diva/author