April - Poetry - Other Words Too

design by Leigh Anne Eck

        There is a group of us who plan to write and support each other for poetry month with the hashtag #DigiPoetry (created by Margaret Simon at Reflections On The Teche. If you want to join in, link your post on twitter with this hashtag, and we'll come looking. 

        As I discover them, I'll share challenges or blogs that are sharing something poetically special during April. Right now, I am planning to write something every day in the practice of haiku or other related forms like the senryū, tanka or lune. I know that I don't know a lot, but will read and learn, and write, perhaps improve a little too.

        On Wednesdays I also link up with Alyson Beecher of Kidlit Frenzy to share non-fiction picture books. Sometimes there will be poetry, but today, I hope to share an original Senryū that responds to a non-fiction book.

          none but Grandpa knew
  that paint could change the world
       till drug dealers disappeared
             Linda Baie (c) All Rights Reserved

      

   

         The book: Magic Trash: A Story of Tyree Guyton and His Art - written by J.H. Shapiro and illustrated by Vanessa Brantley-Newton.

            Tyree grew up in a poor Detroit neighborhood, messing around with trash, creating his own toys and fun. His Grandpa Sam, a house painter, taught him to use paint for fun, and Tyree didn't stop even when he grew up. When he returned from the service, he found the neighborhood even more rundown, so began what is called the Heidelberg Project, cleaning up and using trash to make things beautiful again. He is known, has spoken throughout the world about the project, even when the city tried to bulldoze some of the "treasures" down, like abandoned, "polka-dot" houses. When those houses, previously used by drug dealers, were painted, the dealers hid in the shadows, and then disappeared. Tyree was "painting the world" just as his Grandpa told him to.

challenges to check out:  
                                Jama Rattigan of Jama's Alphabet Soup has much more rounded up than I do.
                                Tricia Stohr - Hunt at Miss Rumphius - sharing poetry forms every day
                                Laura Shovan - of Author Amok - read what she says about clothing
                                Mary Lee Hahn - A Year of Reading - poetry emoticons-each day is different