Learning
about poetry informs all of my writing. I’ve asked poet David L. Harrison to
answer three questions for writers entering the world of poetry for children. Thank
you for the thoughtful answers and resources, David.
What
are a few of the key elements that mark the good poetry being written for
children today?
What
a puzzle that is! Two poems side by side could conceivably have the same number
of words, equal lengths of line, identical rhyme schemes and metric patterns.
They might have the same number of stanzas, be on the same subject, even be
written by the same poet. Yet one poem turns out brilliantly and the other
fails. Jean Karl, a highly respected children’s editor, used to say that
picture books were like soap bubbles. They either floated or they didn’t. You
couldn’t fix one; you simply went on to another. I think the same can be said
of a poem. No matter how hard you try to perfect them, some pop with
disappointment while others seem to float on their own with little conscious
effort by the poet.
Nevertheless,
the poet remains aware of the basic elements of poetry. What is the point of
what’s being said? It isn’t enough to begin laying out rhymes or painting
imagery willy-nilly. If meter is to be used, it must be applied evenly and
consistently throughout the established pattern. The techniques are there and
the poet learns how to use them. But they are tools in a tool box. The vision,
the plan, the architect’s sketches, come from the poet and cannot be found
among the tools.
What
guides your choices when writing lyrical lines?
Lyrics
sing. Or they aren’t lyrics. Lyrical lines hum in my head as I write. I smile,
sometimes, at how good they sound. I frown, often, at a rough edge that stops
me in mid-hum to wonder what I could possibly have been thinking when I wrote
the line that way. When I walk down the hall from my office to the kitchen for
a cup of coffee, I nearly always whistle. It’s an old habit that probably
irritates others, but I can’t seem to stop. I almost never whistle the same
tune. Some are old chestnuts from high school days; some are from musicals;
some move as quickly as the cadence of my steps on productive mornings; some
drag like funeral dirges on slow beginnings.
In
other words, lyrical lines fit the mood, the time, the place, the tone of the
poem. If my writing is excited by a child running through it, my lines will be
peppy and short. If I’m inspired by the doves in our maple tree, my lyrical
lines will coo gently and take their time revealing their meaning. My sense of
purpose guides my selection of words and how they form the lines of my message.
Which
children’s literature poets do you read today for inspiration?
First,
a reader prospecting for good poetry should know that poetry is hard to sell in
large printings and most publishers won’t deal with it. The amount of space
allocated to poetry in a typical store is minimal and often represents
collections by the best known names in our business. There’s certainly nothing
wrong with reading the works of the most recognized writers of children’s
poetry except that the menu, when limited only to the works of a dozen people
or so, is limited to a small ensemble of voices out of the full choir out there
singing their hearts out.
Anthologies
give us an excellent opportunity to read samples of poems by poets whose names
might be less widely known. The internet is providing wonderful opportunities
to meet many poets simply by looking at their blogs and websites.
Renee
La Tulippe is building a fine online collection of poems on video.
No Water River
Janet
Wong and Sylvia Vardell are creating a growing number of e-book anthologies.
Poetry Tag Time
Falling Down the Page
and
other good collections of poems have been edited by Georgia Heard.
Falling Down the Page
J.
Patrick Lewis, our current Poet Laureate of Children’s Literature, introduces
200 poems about animals by poets all over the world for National Geographic.
Book of Animal Poetry
Lee
Bennett Hopkins has set a record with 113 anthologies on a wide variety of
subjects that feature numerous poets.
Sara
Holbrook has recorded some of her excellent work.
YouTube
Thank
you very much for inviting me to your blog!
David
Cowboys (Wordsong, 2012) is
David L. Harrison’s latest book. Readers of all ages will find the poems about
cowboys engaging and fun to read aloud. The illustrations by Dan Burr are
filled with the movement of horses, cattle, and personable characters. Connecting the Dots is David’s
blog. And I see that David posted a wonderful poem and comment yesterday at Poetry At
Play.
Connecting the Dots
Poetry At Play
