The ideal circumstances in which you can create include ample free time, an absence of worries, and at least one enthusiastic supporter cheering you on. You might experience that lucky combination—or even two of the three components—once in a very long while.
In your actual life, things break, neighbors need help, and work-as-obligation fills up the hours and then the calendar. The concept of “balance” becomes a glittery myth.
You do what you can. You attend to the broken things. You take care of your neighbors (and we are all neighbors). Joyfully (or sometimes begrudgingly), you pay your dues. You wedge your creative spurts into the cracks, and you relish each happy slice.
You learn to recognize those glorious moments when everything falls into place in spite of the circumstances, and then you get busy. You make hay—or poems or paintings or pots—while the sun shines.
You do your best. And you know what, kiddo?
That’s enough.
The quarry road tumbles toward me
out of the early morning darkness,
lustrous with frost, an unrolled bolt
of softly glowing fabric, interwoven
with tiny glass beads on silver thread,
the cloth spilled out and then lovingly
smoothed by my father’s hand
as he stands behind his wooden counter
(dark as these fields) at Tilden’s Store
so many years ago. “Here,” he says smiling,
“you can make something special with this.”
Ted Kooser, Winter Morning Walks: One Hundred Postcards to Jim Harrison
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Goldie Takes a Stand!
JoAnn Early Macken
and, always, there, I find what I didn't know I was searching for.
In the dark hours of this cloudy day, just ahead of the morning I will spend with the seventh graders of Project Flow at Philadelphia's Water Works, I turned to Kate Northrop, Stanley Kunitz, Seamus Heaney, Mary Oliver, Ted Kooser, and Greg Djanikian and found:
* a title that leads me toward a game
* a scene that leads me toward a prompt
* a pair of divine metaphors
* a myth that will inspire myths
Whomever thinks poetry is superfluous has not spent a morning with children.
By Ted Kooser
Illustrated by Jon Klassen
$16.99, ages 4-10, 32 pages
When a little house is boarded up and forgotten, trees sprout up around it and lift it into the sky, in this stirring picture book about the power of nature to lift us up.
As he did in his moving debut Bag in the Wind, author Ted Kooser addresses a conflict between man and nature, but in such a gentle way that it never feels as if any judgment is being made.
In Bag in the Wind, he follows the journey of a discarded bag that's gotten loose in the wind, while here, he observes a man determined to keep trees from sprouting in his lot so that he can have a perfect lawn.
Kooser, in an author's note, explains that the man is struggling against time; as he fights to keep nature from taking over his yard, what he's really fighting is change. His children are growing up and moving away, and there's nothing he can do to stop it.
But like paintings, books can be interpreted in many ways, and to me, House Held Up By Trees is also a triumphant story of nature reclaiming what was taken from it, then of nature forgiving those who've trespassed on it.
Atmospheric paintings give the story a tender, dreamy feel, while showcasing the wild beauty of nature. Illustrator Jon Klassen (
This is Not My Hat) depicts woods as graceful, serene places of streaming light and shadows that beckon readers in.
The effect of all of this, the gentle, poetic words and sepia-like pictures, is almost meditative. Readers feel for the man's struggle and see the disconnect between order and chaos play out, then work through the conflicts in their own minds.
What a lovely book to inspire discussions about accepting what cannot be controlled, like the passage of time, and recognizing what can, such as the way humans exist with nature.
When the story opens, all that readers see is the house sitting on a bare square of earth and blurry white paint strokes at the horizon line, where woo
Link for the book @ Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/Bag-Wind-Ted-Kooser/dp/0763630012/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1290182379&sr=8-1
Hardcover $13.49
Link for the book @ publisher:
http://www.candlewick.com/cat.asp?browse=Title&mode=book&isbn=0763630012&pix=n
Hardcover $17.99
This book was borrowed from the library for reading/reviewing.
Published by
Candlewick Press February 23, 2010/48 pages/For ages 4-8
The author Ted Kooser is a previous U.S. Poet Laureate 2004-2006, Pulitzer Prize winner of 2 poems he wrote--Delights and Shadows. Bag in the Wind is the first children's book he has written.
Illustrations are by Barry Root, watercolor and
gouache, he has illustrated 2 other children's books.
A woman driving a bulldozer pushing garbage in a landfill sees an empty plastic yellow bag. The bag is a nameless, voiceless adventurer in this book on recycling. The wind blows the bag, it travels across the landscape, visits people along the way, and teaches the reader the importance of re-using/recycling/thinking before throwing away an object that can be re-used.
The book has wonderful illustrations of a rural area in the autumn/winter. There is great detail in the watercolor pictures of the land, trees, streams, snow, birds. People are less significant in the larger picture of recycling, our recycling affects our world at large--we are the tool used in order to recycle, but it affects in a positive way the world we live in.
The story is probably too much for a 4 or 5 year old, in my opinion more understandable to a 6-8 year old. It is not that recycling cannot be taught to a 4 or 5 year old, it is because of the lengthiness of the story that a 4 or 5 year old would not sit still and their minds and bodies would wander.
Blissful Reading!
Annette
Happy Saturday everyone! I know I'm glad it's the weekend and I'm sure you all are too. Four fun selections for you this week...well...three fun and one kind of serious, but still worth your time. Enjoy!
Mathilda and the Orange Balloon by Randall de Seve and illustrator Jen Corace
Mathilda is a sheep, surrounded by other sheep. Boring, gray, and dull. Until she spots an orange balloon flying by and she decides that SHE is an orange balloon. Of course, the other sheep just laugh at her, but Mathilda realizes that she can be absolutely anything she wants to be, as long as she can imagine it.
Oh, Mathilda, you're so inspiring! This cute read aloud is definitely a unique spin on the classic "you can do it all" theme. It will be funny for your kids to imagine this small, gray sheep as a big, orange balloon, but then the message kicks in, opening up a nice discussion for your family. Kids can be anything they want to be!
Ooh and Jen Corace, the illustrator, also illustrated all of Amy Krause Rosenthal's "Little" books. How fun is that?!
Overall rating: 4 out of 5
Mathilda and the Orange Balloon
Randall de Seve
32 pages
Picture Book
Balzer + Bray
9780061726859
February 2010
Review copy received from publisher
Captain Small Pig by Martin Waddell and illustrator Susan Varley
The simple yet sweet story of a pig that just wants an adventure. And an adventure he gets when he convinces Turkey and Goat to go out for a row in a boat. That is, until Pig falls asleep. Uh-oh...
A charming little story that is a nice choice for bedtime. The illustrators are adorable and the insistence of this cute little pig is completely inspiring. I really enjoyed this one! Great for a family read aloud before bed.
Overall rating: 4 out of 5
Captain Small Pig
Martin Waddell
32 pages
Picture book
Peachtree Publishers
9781561455195
March 2010
Review copy received from publisher
Cupcake by Charise Mericle Harper
This was my laugh-out-loud pick of the week. And in a time where cupcakes seem to be
By: Gina MarySol Ruiz,
on 4/6/2007
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Samurai: Heaven and Earth, Volume 2 # 1
Writer: Ron Marz
Penciller: Luke Ross
Colorist: Rob Schwager
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
In a prior post, I raved about Samurai: Heaven and Earth and this next comic in the series is no disappointment.
The samurai Shiro is back and still hunting for his lost love Yoshiko. He’s arrives in France after a dangerous ocean crossing only to be reunited for the briefest of seconds in the Hall of Mirrors before being wrenched apart by an evil Spaniard who is determined to have Yoshiko for himself. He takes Yoshiko prisoner and they sail away on a ship.
Shiro is sworn to avenge himself on the Spaniard and get Yoshiko back. He forcibly enlists the aid of the Arab slave trader who sold Yoshiko in the first place to help him find the Spaniard. They travel from Spain to Egypt and encounter many adventures including pirates on the high seas. Talk about your swashbuckling tales!
The artwork is astounding and I can’t say enough about it. The story has you on the edge of your seat and rooting for Shiro while the artwork has you right in the midst of bloody battles, on the ship, swimming for your life and walking across the desert sand. Stunning, stunning, stunning!
Samurai: Heaven and Earth is simply magnificent
Today’s Poetry Friday Roundup is at The Poem Farm. Enjoy!
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