Book titles have always fascinated me. Some are silly, some are mysterious, and some make you think. Recently, I stumbled across a different form of poetry that is written from book titles.
Here’s another poem I wrote, but instead of using book titles, I used movie titles. You simply stack different movies together and read the title names from the spine. Rearrange the movies in the stack until a simple poem is formed.
Here’s the last poem I wrote for this series. This one is also created from movie titles. Like I said before, you simply stack different movies together and read the title names from the spine.
As a lover of children's books (and especially poetry for children), I was wondering who was selected as Children's Laureate here in the U.S. and also the U.K.
The current Children's Laureate in the U.K. is Julia Donaldson. She was born in 1948, grew up in London, and attended Bristol University, where she studied Drama and French. In addition to writing, she spent time working in publishing, as a teacher, and performing songs and street theatre with her husband. A few of her most popular books are:
The other day, my nephew bet me that I couldn’t write a poem about Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic. I love my nephew, and I love a poetic challenge as much as the next person. In addition, Prague has always been a place I’d love to visit. So before he went home that evening, I scribbled down the following verse:
THE FROG
Once in Prague there lived a frog And I’m not kidding you one speck That frog would never croak or ribbet That fine amphibian spoke Czech
This is the first line in a poem that I recite every year at this time as the days become shorter. I never can remember the whole poem, so I get on one of MCPL's Research Databases called Columbia Granger's World of Poetry. If you're looking for a poem, this database lets you search for a poem by author, title, first line, last line, subject, or keyword. Some poem listings contain the full text of the poem, a biography of the poet, and poem commentary discussing the poem's meaning.
Do you write poetry? Would you like to meet with others who share your passion? Want to hear the poetry of established poets, and read some of your own works?
Give voice to your musings. Maya Angelou once said that, "Words mean more than what is set down on paper...it takes the human voice to infuse them with shades of deeper meaning." We can make sense of ourselves and our world when we share our experiences through poetry.
Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry that contains only 17 syllables in three lines. Haiku often captures a feeling or thought and is often about nature. For National Haiku Day in late December, we set up a Haiku station at the Dearborn Branch and invited people to come and leave their haikus on the table:
Spinning with the wind, Crystal flakes descend to Earth – Painting our world white. -Amaranth Ebony, Novelist/Otaku
When I was a girl growing up, my dad would read to my brother and me from a book of poetry by James Whitcomb Riley. I can still hear his voice and the expression he used reading The Raggedy Man. I really knew very little about this author, so I found a biography of his life.
It’s April, probably one of my favorite months along with January, February, March, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, and December. Okay. I like all times of the year. The season changes are always pretty, especially as we’re getting into the warmer months—though it’s been a little warm this past March. We didn’t really get a winter, did we? That’s all right, last year's winter counted for two. But back on topic. It’s April.
And do you know what April means? (Drum roll please) It’s National Poetry Month!
