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Mailbox Monday #575

April 20, 2020 by

Mailbox Monday has become a tradition in the blogging world, and many of us thank Marcia of The Printed Page for creating it.

It now has it’s own blog where book bloggers can link up their own mailbox posts and share which books they bought or which they received for review from publishers, authors, and more.

Leslie, Martha, and I also will share our picks from everyone’s links in the new feature Books that Caught Our Eye. We hope you’ll join us.

Here’s what we received:

Becoming Mr. Bingley by Samantha Whitman, a Kindle freebie.

Letting the man of her dreams go would have been much harder had he been a real person. Living happily ever after with her soul mate would be much easier if reality was as uncomplicated as her dreams. And for Elizabeth Baker, the future would be much clearer if the lines between dreams and reality were not blurring yet again.

 

Letters from the Heart: A Pride and Prejudice Novella Variation (Jane Austen Re-imaginings Book 1) by Rose Fairbanks, a Kindle freebie.

The line between love and hate has never been closer.

Memories of Elizabeth Bennet torture Fitzwilliam Darcy during a winter in London. Resenting his love for her, he writes a cathartic letter intended to release his repressed feelings. When it is mistakenly mailed, there is only one thing he can do.
In Hertfordshire, Elizabeth’s mind returns again and again to the exasperating enigma of Mr. Darcy. Distraught and confused, she journals her hatred for the man but soon misplaces the letter never meant to be read.
When others presume an engagement, their paths seem sealed. However, rather than bringing about a marriage, their words of regret and anger threaten to separate them forever.

What did you receive?

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Poem Generator Fun: Haiku

April 18, 2020 by

Haiku is one of those poetic forms that many teachers use to teach kids about rhythm and cadence. The form requires a first line of five syllables, a second line of seven syllables, and a third line of five syllables in its simplest form. There are other aspects of the haiku that bring the short poem a certain level of unexpected nuance, like its juxtaposition between two images — one appearing at the start of the poem and one at the end.

I want to share one of my haiku that was published in LYNX:

white skin, concrete head
red nose chilled with wind
stubborn, glued to you.

Let’s create some haiku! Share what poem you created in the comments.

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Poem: Hope is the thing with feathers (254) by Emily Dickinson

April 17, 2020 by

I wanted to share a poem about hope today, and I’ve reached back to one of my favorite classic poems.

Hope is the thing with feathers (254)
By: Emily Dickinson

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.

What brings you hope?

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Visual Poetry

April 16, 2020 by

Visual poems are more than just concrete poems that take shapes of animals, etc. Check out the video for inspiration, a little bit of history, and take a moment to create your own visual poem.

You could take it a step further and incorporate some collage or photography or even some painting/drawing art with your poem.

Feel free to share them on Twitter or Facebook at tag me. I’d love to see them.

Happy National Poetry Month!

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The Floating Door by M. E. Silverman

April 15, 2020 by

Source: the poet
Paperback, 92 pgs.
I am an Amazon Affiliate

The Floating Door by M.E. Silverman is a collection of poems that explores several schoolyard rhymes — “Step on a Crack” — and the experience of growing up in America, alongside the feeling of being an outsider in “The Last Jew” in Afghanistan. Silverman’s poems are a spiritual journey that is at times disconcerting, but also comforting. His poems look at American consumerism in a way that causes the reader to look at the life they imagine — the clean lines and everything in its place — and the life they lead, full of chaos and love.

One of the best looks at this is “Sitting in a Simulated Space at the Atlantic Station IKEA in Atlanta, Georgia,” in which the speaker is comfortably sitting in one of those staged rooms that the store is famous for, takes a book of poems from the shelf and begins to read. In this moment the speaker becomes part of the simulated room. But the illusion is broken when he decides to save the pages and rips them from the book and is caught by the eyes of a child in the store with her family. Silverman’s poems have children or child-like reactions in them to call attention to how discerning kids are to social cues and the visual moments around them, even if they don’t necessarily understand the words. In “‘I Don’t Believe,’ She Said, ‘In You.'” the narrator says, “He listened the way a/child presses an ear to a keyhole,” and readers can see the intensity of that moment — a spying on an adult conversation when one adult is exasperated with the other. The whole of the poem calls attention to a lack of attention we all have in arguments and moments of frustration — when we take less care in choosing our words and how those words can be interpreted by the listener a different way than what they were intended.

Silverman’s imagination is on full display in his descriptions, like this from “Response to: I Can’t Get Off the Couch”: “Look, the couch/would love nothing more than to waste the day caped with a shawl, laying/ burdened on someone’s back like Atlas, but honestly the couch is waiting for/the right cover to turn it almost youthful & beautiful, waiting for the vibrating/wonder of the vacuum so it can come clean, eyeing the shapely Victorian/curves of the love-seat, waiting & waiting for it to make the first move.” Oh, this unrequited love, the longing from across the room. Just beautiful.

Many of these poems offer surprise reactions in them: sensuality, families that have grown distant except for the love of a child that appears constant, and mirror images of suffering and displacement. There is a disconnect that is explored between being American and the Jewish religion, but within that feeling of disconnect, the narrator of the poems takes a journey to reconnect. The Floating Door by M.E. Silverman is a collection that moves the reader in and out of detachment in an effort to demonstrate that the feeling is fleeting and there is more to connect us with others than first appears to the eye.

RATING: Quatrain

About the Poet:

M. E. Silverman is the author of The Floating Door (Glass Lyre Press, 2018), The Breath Before Birds Fly (ELJ Press, 2013). The Bloomsbury Anthology of Contemporary American Jewish Poetry (2013), which he co-edited with Deborah Ager, The Plume Anthology of Long-ish Poems (Madhat Press, 2018), which he co-edited with Andrew McFayden-Ketchum, and a forthcoming Holocaust anthology co-edited with Howard Debs. His work has appeared in over 90 journals including: Crab Orchard Review, Blood Orange Review, December, Town Creek Poetry, Chicago Quarterly Review, North Chicago Review, Battersea Review, The Naugatuck River Review, Many Mountains Moving, Hawai’i Pacific Review, The Southern Poetry Anthology, The Los Angeles Review, Pacific Review, StorySouth, I-70 Review, UCity Review, Tupelo Quarterly Review. You can also check out his journal, Blue Lyra Review, and his press, Blue Lyra Press.

Filed Under: challenges, Events, national poetry month, poetry, Poetry Reading Challenge, Read in 2020, review copy, reviews Tagged With: , , ,

Poem Activity: Cento Poem

April 14, 2020 by

Hello again. We’re all staying home and safe these days, grateful for essential workers, and looking to make it through financially, mentally, and physically now.

For today’s activity, which won’t take much brain power, we’re going to make a cento poem. Cento poems are patchworks created from various lines taken from different poems.

There’s a really interesting spin on this in which a poem is constructed from emails, check that out here.

I’ll begin today’s patchwork poem with this Emily Dickinson line from poem 561 (I measure every Grief I meet):

I wonder if it hurts to live –

Please add your poetic line and let me know which poem and poet it is from in the comments.

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Mailbox Monday #574

April 13, 2020 by

Mailbox Monday has become a tradition in the blogging world, and many of us thank Marcia of The Printed Page for creating it.

It now has it’s own blog where book bloggers can link up their own mailbox posts and share which books they bought or which they received for review from publishers, authors, and more.

Leslie, Martha, and I also will share our picks from everyone’s links in the new feature Books that Caught Our Eye. We hope you’ll join us.

Here’s what we received:

The Haunted Library: The Ghost Backstage by Dori Hillestad Butler, illustrated by Aurore Damant, which I purchased.

Kaz and Claire’s new detective agency is a success! Their latest case, though, is proving to be the hardest yet. When Claire’s classmate says he saw a ghost backstage while rehearsing the school play, Kaz goes to school with Claire to investigate. From the description the boy gave, Kaz is sure it’s his mom—but where has she gone? Kaz and Claire search everywhere and find no trace of her, but the mysterious ghostly activities are still happening.

The Haunted Library: The Five O’Clock Ghost by Dori Hillestad Butler, illustrated by Aurore Damant, which I purchased.

Kaz and Claire are called in for another ghostly mystery, and this ghost is always right on time. When Claire’s friend tells the young detectives about his five o’clock ghost, Kaz wonders if it could be his own missing brother, Little John. Kaz and Claire search the house up and down, but they can’t find any trace of Little John–or any other ghost. Yet when five o’clock comes along, the strange occurrences come back again.

Spectrum: Math Workbook for 3rd Grade, which I purchased.

FOCUSED PRACTICE: The Spectrum Math Workbook for Third Grade provides focused practice in math mastery for children ages 8 and 9. This 160-page, ten-chapter workbook keeps kids at the top of their math game using progressive practice, math in everyday settings, and tests to monitor progress.
CORRELATED TO CURRENT STATE STANDARDS: This engaging workbook covers fact families, adding and subtracting 4-digit numbers, multiplying and dividing, fractions, perimeter and area, graphs and line plots, and presenting data.
WHAT’S INSIDE: Includes lessons and exercises that help students to understand difficult subject matter, along with pretests, post-tests, mid-tests, and final tests. An answer key is provided to measure the student’s success.
WORKING TOGETHER: A teacher and parent-loved series, Spectrum Math Workbooks help children stay ahead in math by supplying systematic and thought-provoking practice designed to increase in complexity.

Spectrum: Critical Thinking Math for Grade 3, which I purchased.

The Spectrum® Critical Thinking for Math Workbook for third grade features 128 pages of grade-specific activities to help students think critically while building and applying math skills both in and out of the classroom.

Aligned with current state standards, this workbook helps extend learning to real-world scenarios and reinforces concepts such as adding and subtracting through four-digit numbers, multiplying and dividing, perimeter and area, fractions, working with graphs, and more. Testing sections throughout help students review and retain knowledge, while an answer key provides insight into different problem-solving methods and strategies.

Spectrum: Vocabulary for Grade 3, which I purchased.

Spectrum Vocabulary Book for grade 3 reinforces student’s language skills with the progressive lessons and practices through strategies related to word classification, context clues, root and base words and prefixes, suffixes and imported words. It includes test-taking practice sections and an answer key that helps your child systematically build and strengthen vocabulary and comprehension skills. It provides quality educational materials that support your students learning achievement with success and is a child’s path to a strong and expanding vocabulary.

What did you receive?

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Poem Generator Fun: Love Poems

April 11, 2020 by

Love poems could provide a balm in these times of lockdown, especially as couples are spending even more time together in the same household for extended periods of time. The stress of educating kids at home, working at home and from home, and those who have lost their jobs are facing extreme stress.

Take a moment and write a love poem for your spouse or even your kids or even your other family members.

This Love Poem Generator can help.

Here’s my love poem to my family:

A Love Poem

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
Assistance is supportive,
And so are you.

Orchids are white,
Ghost ones are rare,
Your cloth is silken,
And so is your hair.

Magnolia grows,
With buds like eggs,
The position is strong,
And so are your legs.

Sunflowers reach,
Up to the skies,
The sigh is deep,
And so are your eyes.

Foxgloves in hedges,
Surround the farms,
Weather is warm,
And so are your arms.

Daisies are pretty,
Daffies have style,
Colors are bright,
And so is your smile.

A sunset is beautiful,
Just like you.

What poem did you generate?

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Poem: Words for Departure by Louise Bogan

April 10, 2020 by

Another poem to read and listen to today!

From Louise Bogan in 1923, Words for Departure. You can also listen to the audio reading of the poem.

Louise Bogan was born in Livermore Falls, Maine, in 1897. She is the author of several books of prose and poetry, and was the first woman to hold the position of Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress. The recipient of a 1968 fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts, Bogan died in 1970. The majority of her poetry was written in the earlier half of her life when she published Body of This Death (McBride & Company, 1923), Dark Summer (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1929), and The Sleeping Fury (Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1937). She subsequently published volumes of her collected verse, and The Blue Estuaries: Poems 1923-1968 (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1968)

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Drift by Alan King (audio)

April 9, 2020 by

Source: Purchased
Audiobook, 1+ hrs.
I am an Amazon Affiliate

Drift by Alan King, from Audible and narrated by the poet, is a new experience in poetry, providing listeners with their own personal poetry reading. With jazzy music, sound effects, and the lyrical sounds of his poems, King transports listeners into an urban landscape where comic book heroes don’t live, but young boys still wish they would and that they could be them to battle the ugliness.

There is beauty in this collection, and it is a creative use of music, sound effects, and poetry. Tired of podcasts, depressing news, and television, enter the poetic world of Alan King and have your own personal poetry reading.

For more about the individual poems, my review is here.

Filed Under: audiobooks, challenges, Events, national poetry month, poetry, Poetry Reading Challenge, purchased, Read in 2020, reviews Tagged With: , , ,