3 Books for Poetry Month

As a follow-up to my co-blogger April Halprin Wayland's post about 3 Discoveries for Poetry Month, today I'll share three books to help celebrate poetry this month. And at the end of this post, you'll find a link to this week's Poetry Friday round-up, too. 

The first book I'd like to share is a 2024 title I learned about on Jama Rattigan's blog. After reading Jama's post about Grant Snider's Poetry Comics (Chronicle Books), I couldn't wait to get my hands on a copy. 

The book lives up to all Jama's praise and more. To be honest, I generally don't enjoy reading graphic novels, but Snider melds the form with poetry in wonderful and often unexpected ways, making his book a pleasure to read. The poems are clever, touching, and even instructional, as is the case with the four poems about writing poetry. I encourage you to check out Jama's detailed post filled with wonderful images and poems from the book, and then go out and read a copy for yourself.

And while you're on Jama's website, I encourage you to check out her National Poetry Month Kidlitosphere Events Roundup for all sorts of ways to celebrate poetry this month. The page includes information about the Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem--our own April Halprin Wayland will be one of the contributors!

I'm currently reading (and savoring) the second book I'd like to share today: If I Could Choose a Best Day: Poems of Possibility (Candlewick), an anthology selected by Irene Latham and Charles Waters and illustrated by Olivia Sua. The publisher describes the book, which was released just last month, as follows: "An ode to imagination and the power of  'if,' this exhilarating poetry collection features the voices of thirty-one diverse poets." The book's poems, which all begin with the word "if," are divided into four categories: Everyday Magic, The Power of You, Kinfolk and Companions, and Anything is Possible. 

While most of the poems are new, there are several classics, including this one from Emily Dickinson, which is in the Power of You section: 

      If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking

      If I can stop one Heart from breaking
      I shall not live in vain
      If I can ease one Life the Aching
      Or cool one pain

      Or help one fainting Robin
      Unto his Nest again,
      I shall not live in Vain.

 Original © by Emily Dickinson, now in public domain 

I've enjoyed all the poems in the collection that I've read so far, especially Georgia Heard's "What Kind of Word is If?"

Finally, I'm thrilled to announce that the third book I'm recommending for Poetry Month is written by my friend and critique group partner, Eileen Rajala Meyer. Eileen's new picture book, Build a Sandcastle, releases April 24 from Reycraft Books. It's a wonderful rhyming story about sharing a fun day at the beach with a friend and it's marvelously illustrated with mixed media art by Manica Musil.   The book also includes text sidebars featuring a clever starfish who offers
"5-star" STEM tips about building sandcastles that will surely inspire young creators. 

Unfortunately, the cute and clever starfish doesn't appear on the book's cover. So I encourage you to check out Eileen's latest post on the Rhyme Doctor's House Calls blog to see a sample page and check out some of her poetic text. I hope you'll also purchase a copy of the book for your favorite child and/or ask your local library to order one. (Check out the Acknowledgements on the copyright page to see a familiar name. 😊 )

And don't forget to visit this week's Poetry Friday roundup hosted by Jone Rush MacCulloch for more Poetry Month fun.

Happy Poetry Month and happy writing!

Carmela

Something in a Summer's Day

A something in a summer’s Day
As slow her flambeaux burn away
Which solemnizes me.

A something in a summer’s noon—
A depth—an Azure—a perfume—
Transcending ecstasy.

(Excerpt from Emily Dickinson, A Something in a Summer’s Day)

What are you doing these summer’s days? I find it's the perfect time to catch up on my reading. With this in mind, I recently read our own Carmela A. Martino’s Playing By Heart.

I love historical fiction, especially those stories that focus on the feminine experience. We are all familiar with Laurel Ulrich’s statement, well-behaved women seldom make history. The sentiment underscored the invisibility of women in history. Not long ago, Jo Eberhardt wrote  about her surprising discovery when, after counting the books in her personal library, she found that only a mere 27 per cent of her books had female protagonists, despite “her conscious intention for a 50/50 split.” Further researching female protagonists in other media, she found that over 70 percent of lead characters in popular movies were male. And even in those movies that feature female protagonists (Divergent, Hunger Games, Twilight), male characters speak more than female protagonists, and thus still dominate the story. 

Megan Leigh suggests that  among many stories claiming to have strong female characters, one overriding issue seems to be distinguishing between strong and weak, and passive and active characters. A female who is caring, vulnerable, even emotional tends to be considered a weak character. Yet, a strong female who is aggressive, abrasive, even with difficulty connecting emotionally, is considered negative. Both types are flat, negating their own flawed, complex humanity. In contrast, male characters are often allowed to play the full emotive spectrum. Says Leigh, in too many stories, the strong female protagonist is considered “special,” the exception or chosen one. If only one woman is ever shown to be capable and complex, and is presented as the exception, the “very framing of the narrative in a way that has men writing off most females as incapable, is an issue unto itself.” 

What about our favorite TV shows that feature strong female protagonists that dare to tackle male-dominated jobs? These include super smart spies, corporate lawyers, political leaders, even homicide detectives. And don't forget about the growing trend in super heroes and wonder women.  Despite the implied power positions, these jobs are often in the background. Their story-lines are often dominated by the unhappy state of their private life. Despite being labeled as capable, they are often rescued by their male counterparts. While their male counterparts are dressed in practical clothing that allows them to run, jump, and maneuver themselves effectively, the female protagonist tends to wear form-fitting clothes, with shirts buttoned down suggestively, and high-fashioned heels. Even their boots have heels. Meanwhile, those who weld their power are considered manipulative, shrill, even overly cold and emotionally disconnected, and usually it is because they are unhappy without a man in their life. I could go on, but you get my point. 

It would seem, according to Tasha Robinson, that “strong female characters – someone with her own identity, agenda and story purpose – has become more of a marketing term than a meaningful goal.” 

Sometimes it is not always about the outrageous or the rebellious. Sometimes it’s about doing the unexpected. While the feminine hero may follow a similar path as her male counterpart, the language, the ordeals and even the symbols are uniquely her own. They neither seek domination over another or ascendance into elitist power. 

Choices are made when life no longer fits into her definition. 

This is why I love Carmela's new book.

“The day I decided to take my fate into my own hands began like any other.” So states Emilia Salvani, who is destined by birth order as second born to become a nun. Gifted with musical genius, she struggles to find a way to earn the respect of the maestro, and find a way to avoid a life in the convent.

Set during 18th century Milan, Italy, the story follows two sisters who navigate a strict Catholic social construct. Her older sister, Maria, is a gifted linguist. While her father hopes to secure a noble marriage, Maria longs to join the convent and help the poor. 

Carmela’s attention to detail in her luscious imagery as she builds this eighteenth century city is captivating. Her characters are fully-realized, complex beings, making choices and facing consequences as they strive to make a life of their own. Carmela includes an author’s note, detailing the lives of the two sisters who inspired this story. 

This is a thoroughly engrossing, lyrical novel. It's perfect reading for a summer day in the garden.

Happy summer reading!

Bobbi Miller

That Thing with Feathers

Carmela started us off with Two Things My Students Have Taught Me; Esther followed with My Storied Treasures Treasured Stories! April discussed 2 Poems, 2 Lessons Learned from Teaching .

What we know is that writing is hard, messy work. The business of writing is even harder, and messier.



We have heard all the clichés: Inspiration comes through perspiration. Quality comes through quantity.

“Authors pretend their stories were always shiny and perfect and just waiting to be written. The truth is, writing is this: hard and boring and occasionally great but usually not. Even I have lied about writing. I have told people that writing this book has been like brushing dirt away from a fossil. What a load of shit. It has been like hacking away at a freezer with a screwdriver.” – Amy Poehler

Rejection is the very nature of the business. Lord of the Flies by William Golding was rejected 20 times. Carrie by Stephen King was rejected 30 times. A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L’Engle was rejected 26 times. Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone by JK Rowling was rejected 12 times.

Gertrude Stein submitted poems for 22 years before finally having one published.

And despite all the advice not to take rejection personal, it is personal. According to Rowling, one editor told her to keep her day job. Alice Vincent reports (here) that one of the 15 publishers who didn't think The Diary of Anne Frank was worth reading, offered his wisdom: "The girl doesn't, it seems to me, have a special perception or feeling which would lift that book above the 'curiosity' level."

Herman Melville's novel about the white whale was rejected by editor Peter J Bentley, stating "First, we must ask, does it have to be a whale? ...While this is a rather delightful, if somewhat esoteric, plot device, we recommend an antagonist with a more popular visage among the younger readers. For instance, could not the Captain be struggling with a depravity towards young, perhaps voluptuous, maidens?" 

Ironically, Richard Bentley of the same London publishing house offered him a contract in 1851. Moby Dick was published 18 months later, when Melville arranged at his own expense for the typesetting and plating of his book to speed up the process. Young, voluptuous maidens never made the final edit.

So what do writers who teach writing learn from our students?

Because students have that thing with feathers, eternal hope.

“Hope” is the thing with feathers -

That perches in the soul -

And sings the tune without the words -

And never stops - at all –“ 

-- Emily Dickinson (For the complete poem, see Hope is a thing with feathers)


Students inspire us to keep trying.




Bobbi Miller
P.S. Photo by Pixabay

Dickinson Inspiratons

Emily Dickinson's daguerreotype, circa 1846

Visiting the homes of your favorite authors can be a grand adventure. Such adventures can bring a deeper understanding of your favorite characters, and their creators. You are literally (all puns intended) entering the world where they lived. Emily Dickinson's Museum “sparks the imagination by amplifying Emily Dickinson's revolutionary poetic voice from the place she called home." A tour of the house, and the enchanted gardens, celebrates the poet who has the “exceptional ability to distill “amazing sense” from “ordinary meanings.”

Bee! I’m expecting you!
Was saying Yesterday
To Somebody you know
That you were due—

The Frogs got Home last Week—
Are settled, and at work—
Birds, mostly back—
The Clover warm and thick—

You’ll get my Letter by
The seventeenth; Reply
Or better, be with me—
Yours, Fly.

While the poet composed almost 1800 poems, fewer than a dozen were published in her lifetime.

“We dont have many jokes tho’ now, it is pretty much all sobriety, and we do not have much poetry, father having made up his mind that its pretty much all real life. Fathers real life and mine sometimes come into collision, but as yet, escape unhurt.”
—Emily Dickinson to Austin Dickinson, December 15, 1851

No one knows why Emily didn’t publish more of her poetry. She once said that publication tends to be negative ("Publication is the auction of the mind"). However, she didn’t object when a few of her poems were included in newspapers, although they were published anonymously. As a young girl, Emily, enjoyed school, and had many friends. She even went to many social events. But as she grew older, she became more reclusive. No one knows why but some wonder if there was a medical condition that made her uncomfortable around people.

Emily's writing desk

Emily wrote about those topics (spirituality, nature, art) that interested her contemporaries, and the structure of her poems often imitates common meter used in religious and non-religious music. But her poems are regarded as more concise, less sentimental, and more layered than that of her contemporaries.

'Hope' is the thing with feathers—
That perches in the soul—
And sings the tune without the words—
And never stops—at all—

And sweetest—in the Gale—is heard—
And sore must be the storm—
That could abash the little Bird
That kept so many warm—

I've heard it in the chillest land—
And on the strangest Sea—
Yet, never, in Extremity,
It asked a crumb—of Me.

Created in 2003, the Museum maintains collections of furnishings, decorative arts, paintings and prints, household wares, textiles, and toys. The Museum also has useful research material related to the history of the Homestead, The Evergreens, and the landscape. Although she had none of her own, Emily loved children most of all. MacGregor Jenkins knew Emily when he was a kid, and wrote:

I remember her as slight of stature, quick, graceful and animated in every movement ... [with] a mass of glorious auburn hair and a pair of lustrous [shining] eyes. . . . Her participations in our games, her stout defense of us in times of stress, her defiance of Maggie in raiding the pantry that we should be well-supplied with cookies or doughnuts, all these were the attributes of a very real and a very human friend and comrade . . . . We felt freer with her than with any other of the older generation in either family.

To the delight of MacGregor and his friends, Emily often lowered a basket filled with gingerbread out of her window for them to eat.

The Homestead, 1858 lithograph

Time does go on—
I tell it gay to those who suffer now—
They shall survive—
There is a sun—
They don’t believe it now—

What are your favorite Emily Dickinson poems?

By the way, do stop by JoAnn’s wonderful celebration of poetry and her poetry roundup.

Don’t forget to enter our Book Giveaway. To celebrate the TeachingAuthors’ 8th Blogiversary (hooray!), we’re giving away a copy of Author and Story Coach Lisa Cron’s Story Genius. See Esther’s post for details.

Bobbi Miller