5 May 2002 SEEING THE BLUE BETWEEN: ADVICE AND INSPIRATION FOR YOUNG POETS compiled by Paul B. Janeczko, Candlewick, April 2002

The Blue Between

Everyone watches clouds,

naming creatures they've seen.

I see the sky differently,

I see the blue between--

The blue woman tugging

her stubborn cloud across the sky.

The blue giraffe stretching

to nibble a cloud floating by.

A pod of dancing dolphins,

cloud oceans, cargo ships,

a boy twirling his cloud

around a thin blue fingertip.

In those smooth wide places,

I see a different scene

In those cloudless spaces,

I see the blue between.

--Kristine O'Connell George

SEEING THE BLUE BETWEEN is an exceptional collection, a veritable feast, brought together by Paul Janeczko. It would be well-worth owning a copy simply for the tasty samplings of poetry dished up by nearly three dozen extraordinary poets. But what makes it a must-have resource, for say ten-years and up, are the essays by these same well-known writers, whose combined writing experience is nearly 1,000 years.

Gingerbread Boy

The world is one mouth

So many teeth bite my heels

I run on my toes --Jane Yolen

The essays are about writing poetry, the various poets sharing words of inspiration as well as some get-down-and-dirty tactics for getting it right. The focuses of the essays are as wonderfully diverse as are the styles of the writers:

For instance, Ralph Fletcher talks about "Digging for Mystery":

"...When I use that word--mystery--I mean the truth about the subject that isn't obvious, that's under the surface...Poets find mystery in everyday things and objects: a baby's head, your grandmother's loose-skinned hand, a key chain full of keys sprawled on the counter."

Or, there's Naomi Shihab Nye, who offers young poets a new perspective on the concept of revision:

"...If a teacher told me to revise, I thought that meant my writing was a broken-down car that needed to go to the repair shop. I felt insulted. I didn't realize the teacher was saying, 'Make it shine. It's worth it.'

Now I see revision as a beautiful word of hope. It's a new vision of something. It means you don't have to be perfect the first time. What a relief!..."

Or take Jack Prelutsky (whose "Worm Puree" I sang again just last week during a couple of booktalks). Jack discusses how to write funny poems, specifically, "Exaggeration," "Make the ordinary special," and "Absurd conclusions." He follows up with a poem that I've now shared during a pre-fireworks get-together and a birthday party:

Euphonica Jarre

Euphonica Jarre has a voice that's bizarre

but Euphonica warbles all day,

as windowpanes shatter and chefs spoil the batter

and mannequins moan with dismay.

Mighty ships run aground at her horrible sound,

pretty pictures fall out of their frames,

trees drop off their branches,

rocks start avalanches,

and flower beds burst into flames.

When she opens her mouth, even eagles head south,

little fish truly wish they could drown,

the buzzards all hover, as tigers take cover,

and rats pack their bags and leave town.

Milk turns into butter and butterflies mutter

and bees look for something to sting,

pigs peel off their skins, a tornado begins when Euphonica Jarre starts to sing.

The list goes on and on: Bruchac, Cedering, Dakos, Dugan, Farnsworth, Florian, Ford, Grimes, Heard, Hemp, Herrick, Hoberman, Hopkins, Hudgins, Katz, Kennedy, Kuskin, Lewis, Lyon, Moore, Morrison, Pow, Rosenberg, Singer, Vinz, Wong...

...Oh, and Alice Schertle, who talks about how:

"Whoever you are, wherever you are, there's a poem within arm's reach of you..."

Alice, whose illustrated book, A LUCKY THING, we used this year to initiate the poetry unit with our eighth graders, includes a poem from that collection here, along with another which I suspect was left over from creating that book:

A Frog in a Well Explains the World

The world is round

and deep

and cool.

The bottom of the world's

a pool

with just enough room

for a frog alone.

The walls of the world

are of stone on stone.

At the top of the world,

when I look up high,

I can see a star

in a little round sky.

You can bet that we'll be using SEEING THE BLUE BETWEEN when we get to poetry next year.

Richie Partington

http://richiespicks.com

BudNotBuddy@aol.com