DMC: "Ice Cream in Summer" by Miranda Barnes

Ice Cream in Summer

I lick, lick, lick my ice cream cone
But somehow one
Drop still
Slips
Past my sticky
Finger-
Tips.
On my shorts it
Drip, drip
Drips.

© 2014 Miranda Barnes (7th grade), all rights reserved.


J. Patrick Lewis has challenged us to write a zeno this month. What's a zeno, you ask? Click HERE for details.

To join in the fun, send yours to TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com, or use the contact form in the sidebar to the right. All zenos will be included in the wrap-up celebration on October 31st, and one lucky participant will win a copy of Pat's gorgeous, new, "best of" collection:

DMC: "The Hailstone Sequence" by Matt Forrest Esenwine

The Hailstone Sequence

Mathematicians’ mystery,
numbers rise, fall
(hence, the
name) –
any way it
starts, they
claim,
surely always
ends the
same.

© 2014 Matt Forrest Esenwine.  All rights reserved.


J. Patrick Lewis has challenged us to write a zeno this month. What's a zeno, you ask? Click HERE for details.

To join in the fun, send yours to TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com, or use the contact form in the sidebar to the right. All zenos will be included in the wrap-up celebration on October 31st, and one lucky participant will win a copy of Pat's gorgeous, new, "best of" collection:

Spotlight on J. Patrick Lewis + DMC Challenge

J. PATRICK LEWIS

Who is the man behind the chocolate mustachio?

After a wild and rugged youth as a bronco rider, lobster fisherman, opera singer, extreme skateboarder, and spy (I have been to Russia thirteen times—shhh!), I now live undercover in XXXXX, Ohio with my wife Sue and our two K-9 guard Chihuahuas. Please do not ask about my secret tattoos.

Really? 
(One must be circumspect in dealing with those sporting chocolate facial hair.)

Pat, with a convenient chin rest.

Let's try this again:

An Indiana Hoosier by birth, I discovered poetry late in life, but have been running fast to catch up. I have published 90 children’s picture/poetry books to date with Creative Editions, National Geographic, Knopf, Atheneum, Chronicle Books, Candlewick, Schwartz & Wade, Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press, Dial, Sleeping Bear Press, Holiday House, and others. I was recently given the 2010-2011 NCTE Excellence in Children’s Poetry Award, and I was the Poetry Foundation’s third U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate (2011-2013).

Oh, yes... that J. Patrick Lewis.  

The one beloved by readers worldwide.  How lucky am I to have Pat hanging out at Today's Little Ditty this month?!  (Heck, I don't think he even knows about my secret tattoos– shhh!)

As for that chocolate mustache? Neither a digital recorder, nor a hidden camera, it was simply a tasty way to promote Pat's 2012 poetry collection If You Were a Chocolate Mustache (Wordsong).  Today, my mission is to introduce you to one of J. Patrick Lewis' more recent collections:  EVERYTHING IS A POEM (Creative Editions, 2014). 

EVERYTHING IS A POEM
Creative Editions, August 2014
ISBN: 978-1568462400
Find at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble,
or at your local independent bookstore.

Delicious in its own right, this collection spans nearly 30 years (1982-2010) of Pat's soul-satisfying poetry, beginning with a two-page foreward that gives readers a taste of what drives this man to do what he does so well.

The 59 poems included are divided into eight categories – animals, people, reading, sports, riddles and epitaphs, mother nature, places, and a mix.  A testament to Pat's versatility, the poems are savory and sweet, as unique in their forms as they are in their content, yet they all simmer in the imagination. 

For poetry fans, this is a must-have collection. Complemented by Italian artist Maria Cristine Pritelli's exquisite acrylic and airbrushed illustrations, Pat's poetry is as comforting as an old friend, and as stimulating as a new acquaintance. In our house, we enjoy reading this book aloud after family dinners– a dessert we share together.

So what do you say we find out more about J. Patrick Lewis, starting with some favorites?

      Favorite food: 
Anything my mother used to make, but especially her gnocchi, apple dumplings, date bars, and coffee cake.

      Favorite country you’d like to visit: 
It must be Russia since I have been there so often.

      Favorite subject in school:  
English (girls were a close second).

      Favorite childhood memory: 
Sitting with my brothers in my mother’s or father’s lap and being read to from The Childcraft Series.

      Favorite children’s book: 
Kenneth Grahame’s The Wind in the Willows.

      Favorite children’s poet: 
Did you mean “children’s poets”? I can’t name just one. Edward Lear, Lewis Carroll . . . . Okay, that’s two, and that’s quite enough.


It's surprising that you were a college professor of economics for 30 years prior to pursuing creative writing full-time.  What was it that eventually lured you into the world of poetry? 

At the risk of providing more information than your readers want or need: I was dating an English professor at the time who introduced me to poetry. We read poems to each other—not mine, not hers, but the classics. It didn’t take long before the hook bit, and I was a goner.

For someone who first discovered their passion for poetry at nearly 40 years old, thousands of hours of what Jane Yolen calls "butt in chair" time has resulted in an astounding number of books for children. Do you think there is an advantage to coming to poetry later in life?    

No, it’s a disadvantage arriving at poetry so late because you can’t get away from the fact that you lived for over three decades without poetry.

What is one of the most surprising things you've learned over your extensive publishing career?

What I have learned is that writing poetry is damnably difficult, but then it should be. Why choose something to do with your life that is easy? Where’s the challenge? Where is the fun in that?

Pat, at a typical school visit, one of 530 or so
he’s done around the world.

In a 2012 interview with Renée LaTulippe on No Water River, you assert that the poem is more important than the poet:  

"If the poem is any good, you should be able to erase the poet's name.  Poets biodegrade.  Poems, if they have any chance of living on, might well do so without the poet." 

What do you feel are some of the qualities of a timeless children's poem?

Timeless qualities: a theme that resonates with children (animals, nature, nonsense, the universe); words that motorboat on metaphor; and a rhythm that refuses to vacate the mind.

When I asked Pat if there was a particular poem he'd like to share from EVERYTHING IS A POEM, he suggested perhaps the title poem, or "A Tomcat Is" ...or maybe I'd like to choose one myself?  Since I can send you over to Renée LaTulippe's beautiful write up, where she features both of those poems, as well as another favorite of mine, "Mosquito," I decided to go ahead and choose something else.  It was not easy, let me tell you.  There were several I would have loved to share with you, but I ended up with "Fireflies," because I felt it so aptly fits Pat's definition of timeless children's poetry: 

EVERYTHING IS A POEM, J. Patrick Lewis, illus. Maria Cristina Pritelli

                     FIREFLIES

                     An August night–
                         The wind not quite
                     A wind, the sky
                         Not just a sky–
                     And everywhere
                         The speckled air
                     Of summer stars
                         Alive in jars.

                            © 1986 J. Patrick Lewis. All rights reserved.


You've said that you strive to write "in a hundred voices"– across the curriculum and for all ages. From such a broad spectrum, how did you go about choosing which of your poems would appear in Everything is a Poem?

I sent Creative Editions c. 160 poems, and they chose about 60 to include in the book. I was delighted with their choices, but I would have been just as pleased if they had selected from the other 100 poems.

A compilation like this one is quite an accomplishment. Yet as a poet, you are continually stretching and transforming yourself– both in the wide variety of subjects that you write about and the assortment of poetic forms that you use.  Describe for us what you see when you look in the mirror?

I make it a habit not to look in a mirror. A mirror has a way of looking back at me and shouting intimations of my mortality. But to your point: I do aim to write about every subject under the sun and in every verse form. I’ve got a long way to go, but I’ve made a respectable start, I think.

Can you give us a hint about what’s coming up next for you?

Here’s a list of my new and forthcoming books:

My 2015 Books:

• The Wren and the Sparrow, Kar-Ben Publishing, (Yevgenia Nayberg, ill.), March 2015 
• Just Joking: Animal Riddles, National Geographic, March 2015 
• Bigfoot Is Missing: Poems from the Cryptozoo (w/Kenn Nesbitt), Chronicle, Spring 2015 
• M is for Monster: A Fantastic Creatures Alphabet, Sleeping Bear Press, Gerald Kelley (ill.), March 1, 2015 
• Book of Nature Poetry, National Geographic (photos), Fall 2015 
• Make the Earth Your Companion, Creative Editions, Fall 2015

          2014 Books:

• Poemobiles: Crazy Car Poems, (with Douglas Florian). Schwartz & Wade/Random House, Jeremy Holmes (ill.) 
• Everything Is a Poem: The Best of J. Patrick Lewis. Creative Editions, Maria Cristina Pritelli (ill.) August 2014 
• Harlem Hellfighters, Creative Editions, Gary Kelley (ill.), Fall 2014 
• Freedom Like Sunlight: Praisesongs for Black Americans. Creative Editions, John Thompson (ill.)—reissued. Fall 2014 
• Voices from the March on Washington, 1963 (with George Ella Lyon), Wordsong/BMP, Fall 2014

For a complete list of my books to date, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Patrick_Lewis.

If you had all the world’s children in one room, what would you tell them?

Only one piece of advice: Never trust anyone who writes more than he or she reads. Samuel Johnson said that a couple of centuries ago. Reading always comes first.

Finally, please tell us what you have chosen as this month’s ditty challenge.

I’d like to challenge your readers to write a “zeno,” which is a new verse form I invented. The zeno was inspired by the “hailstone  sequence” in mathematics. I define a zeno as a 10-line poem with 8,4,2,1,4,2,1,4,2,1 syllables that rhyme abcdefdghd. Here is an example:



         A Third Grader Reflects
         On the Good Old Days

         Why isn’t elementary school
         filled with sizzle,
         fizz and
         buzz?
         I wish I knew
         why be-
         cause
         kindergarten
         always
         was. 
  
and another, from EVERYTHING IS A POEM:

EVERYTHING IS A POEM, J. Patrick Lewis, illus. Maria Cristina Pritelli

         Weather,
         by The Old Masters

         The Michelangelo thunder
         of an April
         cloudburst
         hints
         at what follows
         a great
         rinse:
         spring meadows in
         Monet
         prints.


I don't know about the rest of you, but I can't wait to sink my teeth into this challenge! Throughout the month, send your zenos to TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com or use the contact form in the sidebar to the right. For children under 13 who would like to participate, please read my COPPA compliance statement located below the contact form. 

Thanks, Pat, for the conversation 

and for getting our creative juices flowing!

Hey teachers and parents of creative kids! I would love for more students to get involved. Ditty of the Month Club challenges are wonderful opportunities to interact with some fabulous contemporary children's poets and authors while having fun trying out different poetry forms, like this month's zeno. Please help me spread the word!

Some poems may be published on the blog as daily ditties, but all of them will appear in a Halloween wrap-up post on October 31st. To sweeten the deal (it is Halloween after all), Creative Editions has graciously provided me with a treat– a copy of EVERYTHING IS A POEM which I will send to one lucky participant selected randomly at the beginning of next month!

READY... SET... GO!

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

No, WAIT!  I almost forgot (nah... not really), it's time to announce the winner of last month's ditty challenge, brought to us by Irene Latham.  Thanks again to Irene and to everyone who sent in such terrific poems of address!

Random.org has determined that the winner of DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST, by Irene Latham, illustrated by Anna Wadham, is:

Reading to the Core 

Congratulations, Catherine!

Be sure to get your fill at the Poetry Friday roundup, hosted today by Jama Rattigan at Alphabet Soup. 

September DMC Wrap-Up + Giveaway

At the beginning of this month, Irene Latham challenged us to "go wild" writing a poem of address– animal to animal, animal to some other part of the natural world (moon, tree, lake...), or natural world to animal.

Well, it happened again.  The difficulty of this monthly challenge took me by surprise.

Write a poem of address, how hard can that be?  I talk to animals and inanimate objects all the time! 

Hmm... maybe you didn't need to know that.

Somehow I missed that Irene was not asking me to do the talking at all.  What Irene was challenging us to do was actually a three step process:

      1. Get into the head of an animal or some other part of the natural world.  

What is it like?  What would it say?  How does it think or feel? 

If you wrote a poem at this stage, from the perspective of your chosen subject, it would be a mask poem.  But Irene asked us to go further.

      2. Who does that animal or part of the natural world have a relationship with 
           (ie, another animal or aspect of nature)? 

What is the relationship? How do the two interact? What are the dynamics of the relationship like?

      3. Now you can write a poem where your chosen animal or part of the natural 
           world speaks to the other in the relationship.

I heartily congratulate everyone who found their way through this process and thank you for sharing your creative results! (And thanks again to Irene for such a thought-provoking challenge!)

It's time I let the poems do the talking.

Here are September's poems of address:



 

DOG PARK TREE APOSTROPHE

Hello, Tree.
Thank you for your upright trunk—
it’s fabulous to sniff.

I love that I don’t have to beg,
when I line you up against my leg
…..and lift.

© 2014 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved.


                                        ROBIN AND KAT

                                        Robin, oh robin how sweetly you sing,
                                        A lyric of springtime
                                        Awakens the morn.
                                        Robin, oh robin enticing, your beauty,
                                        Enlighten the Earth
                                        As sunlight is born.
                                        Robin, oh robin you preen and you wallow,
                                        As you bathe in the water
                                        By the wood at the pond.
                                        Robin, oh robin preparing for flight,
                                        Through  meadows and valleys
                                        And pastures beyond.
                                        Robin, oh robin come set in the garden,
                                        And tantalize nature
                                        With plumage so rare.
                                        Robin, oh robin gaze into my eyes,
                                        As we lose our self-conscious
                                        In hypnotic stare.
                                        Robin, oh robin you captivate senses,
                                        With feathers of satin
                                        And breast plump and red.
                                        Robin, oh robin a statue you stand,
                                        As Queen Aphrodite
                                        With muse in your head.

                                                                                    Hmmmm…

                                                                                    GULP

                                                                                    You’re tasty too!

                                        © 2014 Jan Gars. All rights reserved.


OAK FLYER FOUND IN NEARBY WOODS

The summer has flown with your babies.
You’re wondering where you will go.
If you aren’t flying south for the winter,
then visit my open house show.

Come make your home in my branches.
You’ll find splendid places for nests.
I’ve crooks in the limbs for construction.
Please consider moving in as my guests.

I don’t drop my leaves in the autumn;
you’ll keep warm through wintertime chills.
I’m the best boarding house in the forest.
Opening arms to the chirps, cheeps and trills.

© 2014 Linda Baie. All rights reserved.


                                        DR. PLOVER, DDS

                                        Crocodile,
                                        open wide:
                                        it’s check up time!
                                        I’ll come inside
                                        to see if you have
                                        tooth decay—
                                        bits of flesh
                                        I’ll eat away.
                                        It seems you haven’t
                                        flossed of late.
                                        That’s good news—
                                        you’re doing great!
                                        Okay, my friend,
                                        they’re good to crunch.
                                        See you next time—
                                        thanks for lunch!

                                        © 2014 Michelle Heidenrich Barnes. All rights reserved.


                                                                                  BLEEP BEEP, ANDROID DOG

                                                                                  Bleep beep, android dog
                                                                                  can you fetch a bone?
                                                                                  Yes sir, yes sir
                                                                                  before it’s even thrown!
                                                                                  Bleep beep, android dog
                                                                                  will you heel and speak?
                                                                                  Yes sir, yes sir
                                                                                  in Martian, French and Greek
                                                                                  Bleep beep, android dog
                                                                                  will you be my pet?                                                                                    No sir, no sir
                                                                                  I’m not invented yet!

                                                                                  © Carrie L. Clickard. All rights reserved.


PEPPERMINT'S GRATITUDE

My scent is sent
to salute you --

a clear cloud
of praise,

a tribute to you
for my roots,

stem,
and veins.

I push out --

my rough edges
reach for your rays,

striving to be
closer to you

all my days.

© 2014 Tabatha Yeatts. All rights reserved.


                                                             O’ NIGHTINGALE

                                                             O’ nightingale how sweetly doth thee sing
                                                             As weeping fragile limbs submit to old
                                                             Thoust warm my blood as porridge staving cold
                                                             Alas thou shalt depart on winter’s wing
                                                             Left hanging life a puppet on a string
                                                             Another moment not besieged by gold
                                                             Nor flight of fate sails sun to devil’s hold
                                                             As death approaching now to whit I cling
                                                             With springtime folly thence ye shall return
                                                             Thoust melody temps cure on deafened ears
                                                             Refreshing Earth from slumber with thy song
                                                             The pungent sound of harmony I yearn
                                                             Await rebirth enlightened by clouds’ tears
                                                             Withstanding just the icy winter long

                                                             © 2014 Jan Gars. All rights reserved.


THE VANE ROOSTER

A leghorn named Manley
The farmer Brown’s pride,
Looked up at the roof
And a rooster he spied.

Ahoy up there, mate,
Are you new to the farm?
I need a vacation,
Would you be the alarm?

The rooster was silent
But swayed back and forth.
This signal to Manley,
His cue to fly north.

Thank you, my friend
I promise you that
I’ll be back very soon.
And, watch out for the cat!

To New York I’m going
To play in the snow.
Please give farmer Brown
A five o’clock crow.

For three days and nights
Not a sound from his beak.
The farmer lay sleeping
The outlook was bleak.

Then Manley returned
To waken the day.
Why haven’t you crowed?
Have you nothing to say?

The rooster just stared                              
And did not make a sound.
He spun in the wind
Knocking Manley around.

Whether vane or a mute
I don’t understand,
But I must wake the farm.
My job is at hand.

Manley strutted and crowed
To raise them from sleep,
The farmer, the horses,
The cows, and the sheep.

The farmer exclaimed,
“What a rest we have had!
But Manley you’re back
And of this we are glad.”

© 2014 Jan Gars. All rights reserved.

Feeling inspired?  You have until Tuesday, 

September 30th, to write your poem of address.

Send it to TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com 

or use the contact form in the sidebar to the right.

Everyone who participates in this month's challenge will automatically be entered to win a personalized copy of Irene's new picture book, DEAR WANDERING WILDEBEEST And Other Poems from the Water Hole. (One entry per participant, not per poem.)

Alternatively, you may earn an entry into the giveaway by commenting below.  If you contribute a poem and comment below you will earn two entries in total.  Comments must also be received no later than Tuesday, September 30th, 2014.

The winner will be determined by Random.org and announced next Friday, October 3rd, when we feature our new Spotlight ON interview and ditty challenge.

 Good luck!

Laura Purdie Salas is our host at the Poetry Friday water hole today.  Head over to Writing the World for Kids for this week's roundup.

DMC: "Peppermint's Gratitude" by Tabatha Yeatts

Peppermint's Gratitude

My scent is sent
to salute you --

a clear cloud
of praise,

a tribute to you
for my roots,

stem,
and veins.

I push out --

my rough edges
reach for your rays,

striving to be
closer to you

all my days.

© 2014 Tabatha Yeatts. All rights reserved.

Photo: Suzie's Farm

Irene Latham has challenged us to write a poem of address this month (click HERE for details). We'd love for you to join in! Send your poem to TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com or use the contact form in the sidebar to the right.

Submissions will be accepted until September 30th, but stay tuned for the end-of-month wrap-up TOMORROW!  All participants will be entered to win a copy of Irene's beautiful new children's poetry collection:

DMC: "Bleep Beep, Android Dog" by Carrie Clickard

 
Bleep beep, android dog
can you fetch a bone?
Yes sir, yes sir
before it’s even thrown!
Bleep beep, android dog
will you heel and speak?
Yes sir, yes sir
in Martian, French and Greek
Bleep beep, android dog
will you be my pet?
No sir, no sir
I’m not invented yet!

© Carrie L. Clickard. All rights reserved.


Irene Latham has challenged us to write a poem of address this month (click HERE for details). We'd love for you to join in! Send your poem to TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com or use the contact form in the sidebar to the right.

Submissions will be included in an end-of-month wrap-up on September 26th and all participants will be entered to win a copy of Irene's beautiful new children's poetry collection:

DMC: "Dr. Plover, DDS" by M. H. Barnes

Dr. Plover, DDS

Crocodile,

open wide:

it’s check up time!

I’ll come inside

to see if you have

tooth decay—

bits of flesh

I’ll eat away.

It seems you haven’t

flossed of late.

That’s good news—

you’re doing great!

Okay, my friend,

they’re good to crunch.

See you next time—

thanks for lunch!

© 2014 Michelle Heidenrich Barnes. All rights reserved.

Irene Latham has challenged us to write a poem of address this month (click HERE for details). We'd love for you to join in! Send your poem to TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com or use the contact form in the sidebar to the right.

Submissions will be included in an end-of-month wrap-up on September 26th and all participants will be entered to win a copy of Irene's beautiful new children's poetry collection: