NPM19 - #30 - Wending My Way To May

   My kind of goodbye. . .

Tabatha Yeatts has created a link to poems teachers and librarians can print for poetry month, titled "Poetry in The Halls". I'm grateful to be one of the poets!

Jama Rattigan has a post HERE with many poets' goals for April.

The Progressive Poem schedule can be found on the right. And you must check out the final post HERE by Donna Smith. She has created out of the words already written and she has set the poem to song, singing along with her ukelele! It's wonderful!

       

 

Wending My Way To May

After 29 days,

I think I’ve digested

a wordy routine.

I crunched granola before sun up,

walked through my tree-strewn streets

at sunrise,

nature’s wake-up writing call,

tweeting with the birds,

and entered that dusky dawn.

Time for coffee;

time to open the laptop.

Who had already posted?

Is mine ready?

Do a final check - enough, 

it has to be enough.

Yes! I wrote another day,

now time to read THE line from

Irene’s Progressive Poem,

THE next act of Amy’s story,

Ruth’s tabs, Cheriee’s stories,

Irene’s and Diane’s ekphrastic responses:

two for breakfast, the rest mid-morning,

others throughout the day,
(Margaret, Carol, Mary Lee, and on).

The week whips by - 

readers on Monday, Jama on Tuesday,

Alyson on Wednesday,

Poetry Friday!

Life’s blurry between words.

Grand-girls two days, bookstore two days,

settle into other chores:

dust, vacuum, read (review), 

phone calls? neighbor visits?

Scraps saved for the compost pile,

porch swept, groceries. . .

No time to be down in the dumps.

I was a teacher once, I know the drill.

 I taught poetry, too. I’m grateful my advice

to students helped me every day. 

Pencil

to paper, 

write.

Linda Baie ©

Monday Reading - Sharing Great Books

Visit Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts to see what they've been reading, along with everyone else who post their favorites. 

       If you are interested, I'm writing a poem a day for poetry month, posting a second post on the days that I share reviews. It's nearly the end!

              


               Thanks to Candlewick Press for the following three wonderful books!

            In addition to Paul B. Janeczko's love of poetry and teaching poetry, he also was highly interested in the secrets of World War II. Earlier, he published 'Top Secret' about codes and ciphers and more recently, 'Double Cross', deception techniques in war. This time, the focus lies on the Twenty-Third Special Troops whose complex and challenging goal was to create camouflage in various areas, sound and sight. Sadly, Janeczko passed away earlier this year, and I am grateful for everything he has written for his readers. Thanks to Candlewick Press for this Advanced Copy, full of details and a celebration of the innovative work done by these smart soldiers. They were sworn to secrecy for fifty years and only recently has the story become de-classified and able to be told. Extensive source notes are given at the back. This will be a terrific book for those interested in the details of this secret war against the Nazis. 

       A boy from New York and a girl from Mexico City are sad as they tell of the things they will miss when they move to the new city their parents have told them about. The girl to New York City, the boy to Mexico City - trading places! In the same brief text (it will be a surprise when reading aloud) the special things and places emerge. One example is: "But what if there is nowhere for me to play in my new city?" shows the boy ice-skating at Central Park and the girl riding her bicycle at Bosque de Chapultepec (Chapultepec Forest). Watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil set the stage for more, and begin to show the similarities of the new homes for each. There is also a page for noisy traffic and one for homelessness. 

        The backmatter gives information on both the landmarks the children visit—such as Lincoln Center, Palacio de Bellas Artes, and the Museo Nacional de Antropología—and the cultures and issues that surround them. It would be fun also to see a more contemporary book similar to this between city and rural living.

         When it's a wordless picture book, it's time to choose just how much to tell and how much to keep secret. I was fooled by this deception more than once as to my imagined "inside" and/or "outside". The illustrations dare the reader to do just that: What is inside? What is outside? Anne-Margot Ramstein and Mattias Aregui have created an amazing book!

NPM19 - Day 29 - My Broom

   I've strayed from the book sometimes but enjoyed parts that did inspire me to write in new ways. 

Tabatha Yeatts has created a link to poems teachers and librarians can print for poetry month, titled "Poetry in The Halls". I'm grateful to be one of the poets!

Jama Rattigan has a post HERE with many poets' goals for April.

The Progressive Poem schedule can be found on the right.

First, I want to thank Irene Latham and Jone MacCullough for my wonderful postcards. It is a pleasure to receive "real" mail and when it's a poem, even better. (Click to enlarge.)

 















        I have told some people and written at other times about my penchant for sweeping with a broom. When sad, when frustrated, when overwhelmed, I usually find a porch or patio to sweep clean. In my old home, if cold, I swept the garage. Now without a garage, I brave even bad weather, bundling up, and sweep away (when needed). Thus, my poem.

Lament

My broom is dead,

here lies its head.

It swept away

my dust-fraught days.

Frustration pushed

out with a whoosh.

The broom and me,

my therapy!

Another broom

will take up room,

but I’ll recall

this one did all.

Linda Baie ©

NPM19 - # 28 - Junk Mail

   Mail of a different sort!

Tabatha Yeatts has created a link to poems teachers and librarians can print for poetry month, titled "Poetry in The Halls". I'm grateful to be one of the poets!

Jama Rattigan has a post HERE with many poets' goals for April.

The Progressive Poem schedule can be found on the right.

 

          On Poetry Friday, Elaine Magliaro shared a few of her rhyming acrostics. They are so clever and you can see that post here. And not long after I read it, I walked to get the mail and wrote about my view in the evenings when I go. (My mailbox is in a bank of boxes about a short block away with a sunset view.) 
          Yesterday, I also walked for my mail and the best thing about it was the brief exercise, second best was that I found a poem in it, too! I received so much junk mail that I thought I'd use Elaine's poems as inspiration. I didn't rhyme, but know you'll get the point.

Boxed In

J ust one

U nderlying message,

N ot to be missed!

K indly reply.

M ake our day.

A fter signing up, after purchase,

I t will change your 

L ife

Linda Baie ©

NPM19 - #27 - Life Reversed!

   Back to the book and time. 

Tabatha Yeatts has created a link to poems teachers and librarians can print for poetry month, titled "Poetry in The Halls". I'm grateful to be one of the poets!

Jama Rattigan has a post HERE with many poets' goals for April.

The Progressive Poem schedule can be found on the right.

 

Life Reversed!

My days could not possibly be everything I want

And I try not to believe that

All I wish is some time for myself and those I love

It may be surprising to others that

Problems today are challenging  

I won’t accept that

we can do everything for our people

Though I tell others that

It is worth the time

Some believe

Hard work pays dividends  

I see things differently because

We will benefit from summer weeks of rest and recuperation, yet

Renewal for humans stems only in part from sleeping in and eating well

We do not always need to play and (sad to say)

It is a false belief that

We will have the happiest of summers because

All of this will stay a reality unless we choose to reverse it

Linda Baie ©

NPM19 - #26 - Making Connections

     The final Poetry Friday of April is hosted by Carol Varsalona at her blog, Beyond Literacy Link. She has the utmost pleasure of living near the ocean, and shares a marvelous poem, with pictures and a video, about the fog encountered there recently, her "Sweatshirt-Gray Day". Thanks, Carol, for hosting and for the ocean visit!

   Back to the book and Making Connections

Tabatha Yeatts has created a link to poems teachers and librarians can print for poetry month, titled "Poetry in The Halls". I'm grateful to be one of the poets!

Jama Rattigan has a post HERE with many poets' goals for April.

The Progressive Poem schedule can be found on the right.

          I visited our Museum of Nature and Science with Imogene on Wednesday. We wanted to see the newest exhibit about the five senses. You may have seen the pictures on social media. 
            Since then, I have thought more about Imi's and my conversation about the lines, how what we saw made changes in the way we felt in some of the rooms, the way our "seeing" changed perception. I connected to our current political climate, the talk of the Deep Web, the difficulty of seeing something that may be manipulated as truth, but is not true, and how we cannot tell the difference. Imi decided she might be dizzy if she looked long enough. Isn't that the same thing?
        Wolfram MathWorld defines a line here as "A line is a straight one-dimensional figure having no thickness and extending infinitely in both directions. A line is sometimes called a straight line or, more archaically, a right line (Casey 1893), to emphasize that it has no "wiggles" anywhere along its length. While lines are intrinsically one-dimensional objects, they may be embedded in higher dimensional spaces. 
         On a different note, as I scroll up & down, the small lines in the background of the picture on the left are flashing, something that is new I think because we can "move" that mural. Wow!

Lines

If you twist a line -

that straight one.

If you twist a line

of words, you might

find you’re bending,

bending truth.

If you bend truth,

you may find you’re

falling, falling off a cliff,

the cliff that ends with clarity
or not, perhaps only

falling into uncharted lands.

It may be a challenge

to keep from veering,

veering off the mark.

But inside your heart,

you’ll know the path

fixed by a ruler

makes a true mark.

Linda Baie ©

Last, remember that Saturday is Independent Bookstore Day. We are celebrating at the used bookstore where I work, and others in Denver will be, too. Wishing you a grand visit to your favorite store!

NPM19 - #25 - Trees

     Back to the book, writing about nature, specifically last evening.          

Tabatha Yeatts has created a link to poems teachers and librarians can print for poetry month, titled "Poetry in The Halls". I'm grateful to be one of the poets!

Jama Rattigan has a post HERE with many poets' goals for April.

The Progressive Poem schedule can be found on the right.

Evening Mail

Down the street,

around the curve

sits the bank of mailboxes.

Each time I walk for the mail,

I see these trees, 

stalwart sentinels in winter 

and now, this early spring.

they offer a green promise,
still lean lines to love,

crooked, crossed, craning upward

like skinniest of arms

praising the sky,

welcoming birds flying in

for the night.

Linda Baie ©

NF Picture Books - Those Who Fought the Norms

Visit Alyson Beecher on Wednesdays for Non-Fiction Picture Books at Kidlit Frenzy.  Thanks to her hosting and sharing and those who add their posts, you can discover and celebrate terrific nonfiction picture books!  I always learn from these books, am happy that they are more and more available today for children, for everyone!

       Since I live and taught in the Rockies, I've read and had students read her book A Lady's Life In The Rocky Mountains, highlighting her climb up Long's Peak, today still a favorite and challenging climb and today, with real paths, not close to the harrowing experience Isabella had. She was born with an illness noone could fix, but taking to the air on horseback with her father helped. That's when Isabella began to learn of the wider world, the adventures that awaited her. Back and forth she went during this Victorian age, feeling society's pressure to stay home to learn ladies' arts, stay home to take care of family. But each time she did relent and become a "lady", her illness and pains returned. At last, in her late thirties, she took charge of her life and began the travels that made her whole. Lori Mortensen has included so many, many of Isabella's adventures, the physical challenges that made her stronger, even the scary ones when she was attacked as a "foreign devil" or falling off a cliff, thank goodness into a snow bank! Illustrations by Kristy Caldwell reflect the ups and downs of Isabella's life, showing darkened hues when Isabella was home, reclining, taking up womanly expectations, and brighter tones as Isabella traveled, dining with a friend's two pet apes, riding "spider-legged horses", muddy mules, and belligerent camels. She wrote nine books, did good works and established several orphanages and missionary hospitals, learned photography as it became available and then carried that heavy equipment with her. What an amazing woman!

              There is an author's note with further information, a timeline, source notes of quotes used, and a bibliography.

             A biography of Tantoh Nforba, a man who has improved many lives in Cameroon by helping communities access clean water starts with his fascination as a young boy in growing things. He takes a few onions from his grandmother, cannot understand why they won't grow, but shrivel and die. Taken as his first lesson in gardening, this very young boy has grown up to follow his passion, meandering through some education, then more, then a long bout with typhoid fever, then to the U.S. where the learning about catchment areas to store clean water is another piece of the puzzle he needs.   He was pressured to get better grades early in order to obtain a better-paying job, NOT farming. Yet, Nforba, The Farmer, stayed with his passion, has made a huge difference in the lives of the people in his country. Zunon's colorful pages manage to show both the drought that happens in this land, but the lush countryside when water is available. 

             There is an author's note, a glossary, a map, photos of Tantoh Nforba, and several proverbs that are also sprinkled throughout the text. One is "When you don't have what you want, use what you have." The text follows with "While he doesn't have much, he does have people." Much was accomplished when they all worked together! It's an inspiring story.

NPM19 - #24 - Spring Plea

        Back to the book, writing more about nature.

Tabatha Yeatts has created a link to poems teachers and librarians can print for poetry month, titled "Poetry in The Halls". I'm grateful to be one of the poets!

Jama Rattigan has a post HERE with many poets' goals for April.

The Progressive Poem schedule can be found on the right.

Spring Plea

Their seeds settled in last October,

‘till spring warmth asked for cheerful displays.

Time for bright tender suns tucked into

lackluster rock borders of grey.

I love April’s grass that seems greenest,

the bud-sprouting soft haze of trees,

but first celebrate dandelion

polka-dotting our green fields with ease.

Bees welcome this food for an entree,

come buzzing along for the taste.

Let the in-ground lights stay glowing;

do not remove them in haste.

Linda Baie ©

Taraxacum officinale - Dandelion

Non-native species. A common weed, its solitary flower head, each with numerous yellow ray flowers, tops a hollow, leafless stalk that rises from the center of a rosette of toothed leaves. Stem juice is milky.

The popular name comes from dent de lion, French for lion's tooth, referring to the teeth on the leaves. The young leaves may be used in salads and soups; wine is made from the heads. Several species, some native to high mountain meadows, are similar to the Common Dandelion but may have reddish-brown fruits and outer bracts that do not curl.

NPM19 - # 23 - Earth Day - Rara Avis

 This time, still thinking about Earth Day

Tabatha Yeatts has created a link to poems teachers and librarians can print for poetry month, titled "Poetry in The Halls". I'm grateful to be one of the poets!

Jama Rattigan has a post HERE with many poets' goals for April.

The Progressive Poem schedule can be found on the right.

        I was caught up reading various pieces connected to Earth Day yesterday - concerns, wishes and more predictions! And I read this quote from a poet friend taken from a book on my list, wishing I had time to read the whole book now! "I suspect we would pay more attention to trees if we could establish beyond a doubt just how similar they are in many ways to animals.” – Peter Wohlleben, The Hidden Life of Trees HERE is one amazing article about Wohlleben and trees from The Smithsonian. Thus, without proof, I imagined things a bit further as you will see from my poem.

Rara Avis

Poetry mystifies,

especially in spring.

Poet’s words share secrets 

of a small white bulb,

beginnings of violets.

It comforts us to read 

that it will never 

ever

become a rose.

And confronts us to ask

if it comforts the violet?

Linda Baie ©

photo credit: S. Rae Viola sp via photopin (license)

It's Monday - Lovable books

            Visit Kellee and Ricki at UnleashingReaders and Jen at Teach Mentor Texts to see what they've been reading, along with everyone else who post their favorites. 

        The winner of the giveaway of Superlative Birds by Leslie Bulion is Vicki Wilke!

       If you are interested, I'm writing a poem a day for poetry month, posting a second post on the days that I share reviews.

for Poetry Month - a new book by Laura Purdie Salas

        I've followed Laura's blog for a long time and have enjoyed her books and ideas for teaching poetry, too. Back in 2014, she wrote a poem a day for Poetry Month, I followed along and made a file of each, what she called, 'riddle-ku'. And I used them with students who loved writing their own. Now Laura has created a book of the seasons, just perfect for NOW because it starts with spring. Six riddles are included in each of the four seasons, beautifully clever new ways to see each part of our year and to crack the riddle. You'll need to get the book to discover the "wind bird", what has a "wicked whine", "a crispy crowd of loud crunch" and "knitted twins". Mercè López illustrates with subtle hints in vivid color, manages to show each riddle with beauty, including that gorgeous title riddle, "lion of the sky". I love the varied things that Laura shows in the seasons, not simply in nature, but activities found in them, too. Laura explains Riddle-Ku in an afterword and a list for further reading is also added.

        Except for the book above, Thanks to Candlewick Press for the following books. It's time for babies!

         The origin of Mercy Watson is "extraordinary", and now we have the pleasure of learning it, and how those closest handled it. Mrs. Watson had just expressed concern to Mr. Watson about their ordinary life when Mercy appears. I won't tell the story because you have to read it and delight all over again at the Watson's immediate love for a baby pig, for Eugenia Lincoln's grumpy, no surprise, response, and for Baby Lincoln's good neighbor actions. Hearing the back story of Mercy and those in her life is a wonderful thing to read.