"Show me your garden and I shall tell you what you are." – Alfred Austin
The soil has been fertile for planting poetry this month. At the beginning of March, Nikki Grimes challenged us to write golden shovel poems inspired by striking lines from "Black Box" from BRONX MASQUERADE, "blurred lines" by Lil Fijjii, and "Truth" from BETWEEN THE LINES.
Many gardeners' hands and hearts have made for a glorious and thought-provoking array of poems—some introspective, others proactive, but each one transplanting a line of poetry and sprouting new life.
THANK YOU to everyone who wrote golden shovel poems for our community garden, and most especially to Nikki Grimes for the seeds of inspiration that led to such fruitful results.
Scroll through the poems below or, for best viewing, CLICK HERE.
Inspired to write your own?
If you would like to add your golden shovel to the collection, post it on our March 2018 padlet by March 31st and I will add it to the wrap-up presentation.
Participants in this month's challenge will automatically be entered to win a copy of BETWEEN THE LINES by Nikki Grimes, courtesy of Penguin Young Readers. (One entry per participant, not per poem. US addresses only.)
Alternatively, you may enter the giveaway by commenting below. Comments must be received by Tuesday, April 3, 2018. If you contribute a poem and comment below you will receive two entries in total.
The winner will be determined by Random.org and announced next Friday when we reveal next month's interview and ditty challenge. Good luck!
Due to the popularity of my March 8th "Teacher Tips" post, I've created a downloadable and printable document for convenient use during National Poetry Month. Download or print your copy HERE.
Heidi Mordhorst is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup at my juicy little universe. Find out more about Irene Latham's annual Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem (making the rounds beginning on Sunday, April 1st) and check out the many links to this week's other poetry offerings.
Click HERE
to read this month's interview with Nikki Grimes. She has challenged us
to write a golden shovel poem using a line from one of the poems in the
post.
Leave your golden shovel on our March 2018 padlet. All contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration TOMORROW, Friday,
March 30th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of her new
companion novel to Bronx Masquerade:
Click HERE
to read this month's interview with Nikki Grimes. She has challenged us
to write a golden shovel poem using a line from one of the poems in the
post.
Leave your golden shovel on our March 2018 padlet. All contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration this Friday,
March 30th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of her new
companion novel to Bronx Masquerade:
Click HERE
to read this month's interview with Nikki Grimes. She has challenged us
to write a golden shovel poem using a line from one of the poems in the
post.
Leave your golden shovel on our March 2018 padlet. All contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration this Friday,
March 30th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of her new
companion novel to Bronx Masquerade:
PASSIONS ~with a line from "Truth, by Tyrone Bittings"
Put your passions to good use Ponder them and pursue them to fulfillment. Don’t cry tears of regret. Work! Find a way to bloom! Then pump fists and shout!
Click HERE
to read this month's interview with Nikki Grimes. She has challenged us
to write a golden shovel poem using a line from one of the poems in the
post.
Leave your golden shovel on our March 2018 padlet. All contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration this Friday,
March 30th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of her new
companion novel to Bronx Masquerade:
FORGETFULLY YOURS ~with a line from "blurred lines" by Lil Fijjii
There are only so many ways I can say I'm sorry. I know that you're tired. I am too. Weary of searching for words—names, places, and all the everyday things I once took for granted. If only you could read my mind! Say what you will, I probably won't believe it. Because unless you can dip a net into my fishbowl world, you can't imagine how slippery it is. Let them take my memories, my dignity, my hope. None of it matters as long as you come back.
Click HERE
to read this month's interview with Nikki Grimes. She's challenged us
to write a golden shovel poem using a line from one of the poems in that
post. Other poems featured this week included work by Ann Magee, Jone Rush MacCulloch, Maria Marshall, and Sydney O'Neill. Margaret Simon's students wrote golden shovel poems (also inspired by "blurred lines") which she shares today at Reflections on the Teche, and Rebecca Herzog shares her golden shovel at sloth reads.
There's only one week left to leave your golden shovel on our March 2018 padlet. All contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration next Friday,
March 30th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of Nikki Grimes's new
companion novel to Bronx Masquerade:
The winner of last week's giveaway for a personalized copy of Hidden City: Poems of Urban Wildlife by Sarah Grace Tuttle, illustrated by Amy Schimler-Safford is . . .
MARY LEE HAHN
Congratulations, Mary Lee!
Laura Purdie Salas is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Writing the World for Kids. While you're there, check out her latest poem in the March Madness competition and find out more about her newly released rhyming picture book, Meet My Family: Animal Babies and Their Families (Millbrook Press, 2018). (It was also previewed here at Today's Little Ditty last November.)
LEAVE A MESSED-UP MIND CLEAR ~with a line from "Truth, by Tyrone Bittings"
Poetry can hang around, or leave and then again drop in, easy like a friend who understands the messed-up hour, day, year of muddled mind and helps to find a thought that’s clear.
Click HERE
to read this month's interview with Nikki Grimes. She has challenged us
to write a golden shovel poem using a line from one of the poems in the
post.
Leave your golden shovel on our March 2018 padlet.
While some contributions will be featured as daily ditties this month,
all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday,
March 30th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of her new
companion novel to Bronx Masquerade:
Click HERE
to read this month's interview with Nikki Grimes. She has challenged us
to write a golden shovel poem using a line from one of the poems in the
post.
Leave your golden shovel on our March 2018 padlet.
While some contributions will be featured as daily ditties this month,
all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday,
March 30th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of her new
companion novel to Bronx Masquerade:
STRIP AWAY ~with a line from "Truth, by Tyrone Bittings"
In the inky darkness of a room, the lines of a poem hang in the shadows. Can the newborn worm moon strip the harshness of winter away refusing to walk in fear?
Click HERE
to read this month's interview with Nikki Grimes. She has challenged us
to write a golden shovel poem using a line from one of the poems in the
post.
Leave your golden shovel on our March 2018 padlet.
While some contributions will be featured as daily ditties this month,
all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday,
March 30th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of her new
companion novel to Bronx Masquerade:
ADVICE TO MY COLLEGE-BOUND DAUGHTER ~with a line from "Truth, by Tyrone Bittings"
Remember, take one day at a time. Don’t underestimate what a poem is capable of, what it can do, how it can turn rain clouds to blue sky the minute it matters most. Don’t listen to the clock tick-tick-ticking. Look up. Walk forward. My hand is always at your back.
Click HERE
to read this month's interview with Nikki Grimes. She has challenged us
to write a golden shovel poem using a line from one of the poems in the
post.
Leave your golden shovel on our March 2018 padlet.
While some contributions will be featured as daily ditties this month,
all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday,
March 30th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of her new
companion novel to Bronx Masquerade:
Click HERE
to read this month's interview with Nikki Grimes. She has challenged us
to write a golden shovel poem using a line from one of the poems in the
post.
Leave your golden shovel on our March 2018 padlet.
While some contributions will be featured as daily ditties this month,
all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday,
March 30th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of her new
companion novel to Bronx Masquerade:
IMMIGRANTS ~with a line from "Truth, by Tyrone Bittings"
Ride the waves, rough and high— filled with fear of crime, tales of loss, and far from their homeland, full of insecurity, captives they are, because of the sacrifices made in order to be “part of” yet worth the risk at the end of the day.
Click HERE
to read this month's interview with Nikki Grimes. She has challenged us
to write a golden shovel poem using a line from one of the poems in the
post.
Leave your golden shovel on our March 2018 padlet.
While some contributions will be featured as daily ditties this month,
all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday,
March 30th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of her new
companion novel to Bronx Masquerade:
BEATING HEART ~with a line from "Truth, by Tyrone Bittings"
Oh, for a good story! A poem with a beating heart that can make me sob like a lonely cat, or turn me, for a moment, into the ancient snail, slower than the small hand of a clock, escaping dark forces with my house on my back.
Click HERE
to read this month's interview with Nikki Grimes. She has challenged us
to write a golden shovel poem using a line from one of the poems in the
post.
Leave your golden shovel on our March 2018 padlet.
While some contributions will be featured as daily ditties this month,
all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday,
March 30th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of her new
companion novel to Bronx Masquerade:
TO THE FACEBOOK ADS THAT DOG MY DAYS ~with a line from "Black Box, by Devon Hope"
Don’t show me belly fat, underwire bras or tell me what I’m to think. Or want. Shut down. Back off. I’m allergic to your diet pill ads, your voyeuristic snidery, asking me to feel incomplete. For money. My dreams aren’t found in your boxes.
Click HERE
to read this month's interview with Nikki Grimes. She has challenged us
to write a golden shovel poem using a line from one of the poems in the
post.
Leave your golden shovel on our March 2018 padlet.
While some contributions will be featured as daily ditties this month,
all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday,
March 30th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of her new
companion novel to Bronx Masquerade:
LIFE LIKE STORY ~with a line from "blurred lines" by Lil Fijjii
I’m asking you to listen, No derision, as I try to Be true, peel off my Life like story. And if I drift away from you, So blue, you can't Judge or rant, just Sit in my dust, must listen Until my mission becomes clear to You, no fear of you, and why my Life time has always been in rhymes.
Click HERE
to read this month's interview with Nikki Grimes. She has challenged us
to write a golden shovel poem using a line from one of the poems in the
post.
Leave your golden shovel on our March 2018 padlet.
While some contributions will be featured as daily ditties this month,
all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday,
March 30th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of her new
companion novel to Bronx Masquerade:
Click HERE
to read this month's interview with Nikki Grimes. She has challenged us
to write a golden shovel poem using a line from one of the poems in the
post.
Leave your golden shovel on our March 2018 padlet.
While some contributions will be featured as daily ditties this month,
all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday,
March 30th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of her new
companion novel to Bronx Masquerade:
Click HERE to read this month's interview with Nikki Grimes. She has challenged us to write a golden shovel poem using a line from one of the poems in the post.
Leave your golden shovel on our March 2018 padlet. While some contributions will be featured as daily ditties this month, all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration on Friday, March 30th, and one lucky participant will win a copy of her new companion novel to Bronx Masquerade:
Earlier this week, for Two Line Tuesday, I published the first part of a quote by George Bernard Shaw:
I'm not a teacher:
only a fellow traveler of whom you asked the way.
The quote continues:
I pointed ahead—ahead of myself as well as you.
I think it's fair to say that most teachers pride themselves on also being lifelong learners. Same goes for poets, actually. So that's why I'm delighted to introduce another new series on Today's Little Ditty called "Classroom Connections." It provides me with the opportunity to share some of my own experiences with poetry in the classroom, as well as learn from "fellow travelers" who are also poetry ambassadors.
Last fall, I had the privilege of working with students from Sequel Residential—a juvenile residential facility for boys, 11-19 years old, who have been committed to the Florida Department of Juvenile Justice as first-time offenders.
I was invited by Gabrielle Byam of We The People Theater Arts Initiative to conduct a series of three poetry workshops on the theme of identity. Specifically, she asked me to help the students explore identity from the viewpoint of "man vs. man"—how our sense of identity is impacted by the way others see us. In future workshops, the students explored identity through self-portraits ("man vs. self") and monologues ("man vs. society").
This video describes the program I was a part of and highlights some of the results.
For our first session, I shared two mentor poems from the Coretta Scott King Award-winning Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes. I chose two poems that I thought might speak directly to these boys' experience—"Self-Portrait: a Poem for My Father" and this one:
Black Box BY DEVON HOPE
In case I forgot to tell you, I'm allergic to boxes: Black boxes, shoe boxes New boxes, You boxes— Even cereal boxes Boasting champions. (It's all a lie. I've peeked inside And what I found Were flakes.) Make no mistake, I make no exceptions For Cracker Jack or Christmas glitter. Haven't you noticed? I'm made of skeleton, Muscle and skin. My body is the only box I belong in. But you like your boxes So keep them. Mark them geek, wimp, bully. Mark them china doll, brainiac, Or plain dumb jock. Choose whatever Box you like, Mike. Just don't put me In one, son. Believe me, I won't fit.
The mentor poems did have an impact... a profound one. What I found most remarkable was the lack of inhibition from these teen writers—just fast and furious scribbling onto the page.
Here is one of the poems that resulted from these workshops. This student (who goes by the pen name Lil Fijjii) was one of several who chose to write about his relationship with his father.
blurred lines by Lil Fijjii if you dis me best believe that there’s no coming back if I'm lying then you’re a slave because your skin’s black they call me kodak young santana even call me black i'm tired of names once you say it you can’t take it back i been through storms rains hell and back you say you love me i'm sorry i can't believe that you dissing blood over water i can’t believe that but i sent you letters and pictures—did you receive that? see 8 years i was strong but i lost strength and now you home and you never even knew my friends. it's like ‘boom’ everybody looking so surprised i was raised wrong sorry if you think i'm telling lies. wise man full of knowledge that's a huge mind i know you know you love me i can feel it from shoes to spine if I could guess it’s a world full of blurred lines listen to my story. if you can't, just listen to my rhymes.
I often tell middle and high school students who claim they "don't like" or "don't get" poetry that it probably just means they haven't been exposed to the right poems yet. Poetry is like music. Some might identify with hip hop or rap, while others, classical, jazz, rock, or Broadway show tunes. Most students have only seen the tiniest fraction of what's out there waiting for them in the wide world of poetry. I also let them in on the secret that poets don't like their work force-fed, analyzed, and regurgitated. Poets like when a poem is experienced—when the reader is allowed to make their own connections and draw their own conclusions. And that's when I introduce them to poets like Nikki Grimes who knock their socks off.
Imagine my surprise and delight when I discovered that a companion book to Bronx Masquerade was coming out in 2018.
Between the Lines hit the shelves last month. It boasts a repeat performance of the highly successful format that's helped to make Bronx Masquerade beloved to teachers and students for 16 years and counting. A young adult novel in prose and poetry, the story focuses on a diverse cast of true-to-life students who participate in "Open Mike Fridays" in Mr. Ward's English class. Together they not only discover a newfound love for poetry, but also the benefits of self-awareness, empathy, and community. Read the Shelf Awareness starred review HERE.
Tyrone Bittings, one of the central characters from Bronx Masquerade, makes an appearance in Between the Lines to get the open mike sessions rolling.
The poem also does a great job describing my experience working with the students from Sequel Residential—
split skin...
blood on the page...
cracking the code...
fearless...
revealing heart, truth... and, I might add, hope.
I was honored to bear witness. (Read my own poem about the experience HERE.)
After my third and final workshop, one of the
boys was visibly upset. He told me that following our previous session, he returned to his room and wrote three or four more poems. It was his
"poetry therapy," as he called it. Unfortunately he couldn't find them to share with me. Nearly broke my heart.
Truth be told, all of the boys were appreciative of the time we spent together, though I'm not sure if it was the poetry
lessons they were drawn to or simply the gift of unconditional attention and encouragement. Frankly, I'm satisfied either way. It wasn't important for me to know their histories or the events that landed them at Sequel. All that mattered was that we
shared an experience that was eye-opening, cleansing, uplifting, and
transformative... for them and for me.
If you're a teacher of middle or high school, I hope you'll bring Bronx Masquerade and Between the Lines into your classroom. It's not difficult to do with this combined discussion and activity guide offered by Penguin Young Readers School and Library Marketing Team. You'll find other useful educator guides and resources available at Nikki Grimes' website.
Since she was last here, Nikki has added to her numerous accolades. In 2017, she was presented with the Laura Ingalls Wilder Award for a substantial and lasting contribution to children's literature. Is it any wonder I can't get enough of that Grimes magic?
For today's post, I asked if she would answer a couple questions related to poetry in the classroom and provide this month's DMC challenge. Her 2015 challenge (to write a free verse poem using wordplay) was wildly popular both in classrooms and within the TLD community, so I can't wait to find out what she has in store for us this time!
Thanks so much for being with us today, Nikki.
Why is bringing poetry into middle and high school classrooms important and how should it be done?
Poetry should be introduced long before middle and high school, but poetry is particularly pertinent then, as young people are beginning to explore their own identities, and looking for ways to express themselves. Many are already drawn to poetry through the lyrics of the music they listen to, while others are secretly jotting down poems their own, and hiding them away in their dresser drawers. They are both mentally and emotionally ready to dig deep, and poetry can help them do that.
As for the "how to" of your question, today's marketplace is rich in poetry, both in collections, and novels-in-verse. There's lots to choose from. Young readers are particularly captured by novels-in-verse because the genre is less intimidating then the traditional prose novel. Something about all that white space. I suggest a combination of reading to, having students read on their own, and incorporating open mic or slam poetry sessions to give students an opportunity to share their work aloud, with their peers.
Can you recount a specific instance of when your poetry impacted a student or group of students in a personal way?
I get many letters from students and teachers about my work, none more so than about Bronx Masquerade. One of my favorite communications from a student said that this poetry taught him we are more alike than we are different, and I love that. His thinking about those around him who were "other" was transformed. I can't imagine anything better than that.
What have you chosen as this month's ditty challenge?
Take a line from one of the poems included in this post, and turn that line into a golden shovel poem. That is done by lining up the words of the original line in the right column, one word at a time, and create a new line ending in each word. If the borrowed line, called a striking line, is five words long, you will end up with a five line poem. If it is 7 words long, you would end up with a seven line poem, and so on. Have fun!
Golden shovel poems, it is!
Easier said than done, mind you. They can be tricky! I wrote a golden shovel poem in 2014 (at the end of this post), but have only attempted one or two since then.
Nikki, however, has perfected the art.
If you haven't yet read her book One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance (Bloomsbury, 2017), I encourage you to pick up a copy of this award-winning poetry collection. In it, her original golden shovel poems were inspired by, and are paired with, works by poets of the Harlem Renaissance. Within the past month alone, One Last Word has been honored with the Claudia Lewis Award, the Arnold Adoff Poetry Award for Middle Grade Readers and the Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award!
For even more inspiration for this challenge, poet Irene Latham has rounded up links to golden shovel poems that have appeared on blogs within the Poetry Friday community since One Last Word's release.
So dig deep, my friends. I know you have a golden shovel in you. Thanks to Penguin Young Readers, we will be giving away a copy of BETWEEN THE LINES to one lucky DMC participant at the end of the month. (Winner to be selected randomly, US addresses only.) Finally, won't you please help me thank Nikki Grimes for being with us today? Not to mention all that she is and does as a poet and poetry ambassador!
HOW TO PARTICIPATE:
Post your golden shovel poem on our March 2018 padlet. Stop by any time during the month to add your work or to check out what others are contributing.
By posting on the padlet, you are granting me permission to share your poem on Today's Little Ditty.
Some poems will be featured as daily ditties, though authors may not be
given advanced notice. Subscribe to the blog if you'd like to keep
tabs. You can do that in the sidebar to the right where it says "Follow
TLD by Email." As always, all of the poems will be included in a wrap-up
celebration on the last Friday of the month—March 30th for our
current challenge.
TEACHERS, it's great when students get involved! Ditty of the
Month Club challenges are wonderful opportunities to learn about working
poets and authors while having fun with poetry prompts. Thank you for
spreading the word! For children under 13, please read my COPPA
compliance statement in the sidebar to the right.
FIRST-TIMERS (those who have never contributed to a ditty
challenge before), in addition to posting your work on the padlet,
please send your name and email address to TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail
(dot) com. That way I'll be able to contact you for possible inclusion
in future Best of Today's Little Ditty anthologies.
BLOGGERS, thank you for publishing your poems on your own blogs– I
love that! Please let me know about it, so I can share your post! Also remember to include your poem (or a direct link
to your post) on the padlet in order to be included in the wrap-up
celebration and end-of-month giveaway.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Last month's challenge to write an epitaph poem was so much fun! (What a great way to start off 2018!) Thanks once again to everyone who contributed poems or cheered us on by leaving comments. We even broke a record for most poems posted on the padlet—60 (!) in total. Considering the short month, that's incredible! I added five or six more since last Friday, so I hope you'll stop by and take another look.
Random.org has determined that the copy of Last Laughs: Prehistoric Epitaphs by J. Patrick Lewis and Jane Yolen, illustrated by Jeffrey Stewart Timmins, will go to . . .
LANA WAYNE KOEHLER
Congratulations, Lana!
Renée LaTulippe is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup at No Water River, and I am thrilled to be joining the poetry video library that's housed there. Talk about a terrific resource for teachers! Thanks so much, Renée, for featuring me and The Best of Today's Little Ditty.
I announced my intentions and defined my plans at the beginning of 2014. My goal: to fly. Revisiting these posts, I respect their honesty and love them for their hopefulness. Fast forward to today, and I'm touching down to reflect on the year's journey.
"Bird landing on balcony, Barbados" by Berit Watkin
As I predicted back in January, it hasn't always been easy. I've had my share of botched take-offs, miscalculations, fatigue... I've even crashed into a few window panes. But with the help of family, friends, and writing partners, I've managed to shake out my wings and keep going.
I've also had my successes. Looking back on the places my "one little word" has taken me, I'm especially proud of the way Today's Little Ditty has soared and inspired. I'm grateful for the insight of my TLD contributors, for my featured guests in the Haiku Garden and Limerick Alley, for the outstanding authors who trust me with their interviews and book reviews for the Ditty of the Month Club, for the lively bunch of DMC participants and commenters, and for my silently supportive followers as well. I'm also thankful for Poetry Friday, the KidLitosphere, and my growing flock of poetry-loving friends – those I've found and those who have found me.
Today's Little Ditty will be taking a brief hiatus for the rest of December, but don't fret, DMC fans! I have more fabulous children's poetry and picture book stars lined up for next year, beginning in January with...
wait for it...
Joyce Sidman!
I'm delighted that Joyce will be joining me next month, and look forward to seeing you all as well, rejuvenated from the holidays and ready to spread ditty joy.
Thanks again to Bob Raczka for being my featured author in November and to everyone who participated in his fun haiku challenge! For those who missed last week's wrap-up, you can find it HERE. Random.org has determined that the winner of SANTA CLAUSES: Short Poems from the North Pole, by Bob Raczka and illustrated by Chuck Groenink is:
CAROL WILCOX – congratulations Carol!
I'd like to leave you today with the Golden Shovel that I wrote in response to Laura Shovan's invitation this past October. The Golden Shovel is a poetic form that takes a line from a favorite poem and uses those words, in order, as the end words of a new poem. I based mine on a line from Adelaide Crapsey's "November Night": "Like steps of passing ghosts." I then superimposed my poem onto a public domain image I found on pixabay.com so that Carol Varsalona could include it in her Finding Fall Gallery. Keep your eyes peeled for Carol's gallery opening in the next week or two.
(click on image to enlarge)
Wishing you the gift of poetry this holiday season, beginning with today's Poetry Friday roundup. Anastasia Suen is our host at Booktalking #kidlit.
Due to the popularity of my March 8th "Teacher Tips" post, I've created a downloadable and printable document for convenient use during National Poetry Month. Download or print your copy HERE.
Heidi Mordhorst is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup at my juicy little universe. Find out more about Irene Latham's annual Kidlitosphere Progressive Poem (making the rounds beginning on Sunday, April 1st) and check out the many links to this week's other poetry offerings.
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