FIREFLY JULY: A YEAR OF VERY SHORT POEMS by Paul B. Janeczko

Janeczko, Paul B. 2014. Firefly July: A Year of Very Short Poems. Illustrated by Melissa Sweet. Somerville: Candlewick Press.  ISBN  9780763648428

Writer, poet, and anthologist extraordinaire, Paul B. Janeczko has put together another winning collection.  Being a kindergarten teacher, I was drawn to this book by its subject matter and bright, playful art work.  I do a unit each year about the seasons, and I believe I can hear my bookshelf whispering

    Buy

Firefly

   July

The table of contents has clear headings of Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter with 8-10 poems for each season to total 36 poems in all.  As the title suggests, each poem is short, as in two to  ten lines, but the poems with ten lines have fewer words than the poem with two lines!

As you would expect from an expert like Janeczko, each word morsel comes fortified with meaning. 

The poems he has selected are from classic poets as well as current ones.  Robert Frost, Emily Dickinson, and Langston Hughes are among the poetic mainstays.  The more well known current poets include Joyce Sidman, J. Patrick Lewis, and Alice Schertle.   Some poets like Robert Frost and Robert Morgan are considered poets for adults, while others like Charlotte Zolotow  and X. J. Kennedy are considered children’s’ poets. 

Some of the selections do not seem to be likely candidates for a particular season, but all make you think, and the accompanying art work helps make it feel seasonal.  The spreads used to distinguish the seasons are very subtle.  I had to go back and search for the hidden seasonal word for summer and fall.  This adds to the charm of the book and gives another excuse to look again.

“Playful” is a descriptor that keeps coming back to me, but there is plenty of richness in the selections that would be too heavy for youngsters but just right for adults.  For example, I don’t know too many children who would appreciate the figurative language in Joyce Sidman’s

A Happy Meeting

Rain meets dust:

soft, cinnamon kisses.

Quick, noisy courtship,

then marriage: mud.

Or this by Charles Reznikoff:

The house-wreckers have left the door and a staircase,

now leading to the empty room of light.

The word imagery in A welcome mat of moonlight/on the floor. Wipe your feet/before getting into bed. is Jim Harrison and Ted Kooser at their best along with What is it the wind has lost/ that she keeps looking for/under each leaf?.  Richard Wright’s haiku is vivid and biting:  A wild winter wind /Is tearing itself to shreds/On barbed wire fences.

Beyond the seasonal nature of this book, there is plenty to enjoy and learn.  Alice Schertle wrote a lovely poem that will introduce my next reading of Kevin Henkes’ Kitten’s First Full Moon.  This is so perfect:

In the alley, a

stray cat drinks the round white moon

from a rain puddle.

I hope you will treat yourself to multiple helpings of this smorgasbord of delectable delicacies.

SALTING THE OCEAN: 100 PEOMS BY YOUNG POETS by Naomi Shihab Nye

Nye, Naomi Shihab, ed. 2000. Salting the Ocean: 100 Poems by Young Poets. Illustrated by Ashley Bryan. New York: Greenwillow Books. ISBN 0688161936.

Salting the Ocean is a collection of poems composed by some of the children Naomi Shihab Nye has known and taught over a span of many years.  Nye inspires young poets around the world, and this collection gleans talents from grades one through twelve.  In this anthology, she includes a note about the poems, a table of contents, an introduction in three parts, an afterward, acknowledgments, suggestions for further reading, an index to the 100 poems, and another index to the 100 poets.  The 100 poems are divided into four sections.  The first thirty-two poems are about ”the self and the inner world,” then twenty poems are about ”where we live.”  The next twenty-three are about “anybody’s family,” and the final twenty-five are about “the wide imagination.”  

Award winning illustrator, Ashley Bryan, completes the volume with his colorful pictures packed with kid appeal.  His cover art shows five children of varying ethnicity in a boat named POETRY.  Three children are reading books and two are holding signs.  The names of the books and the signs have the names of poetic forms:  haiku, sonnet, free verse, and ode.  On the waves in the water, more forms are included:  ballad, quatrain, couplet, elegy, epic, lullaby and limerick.  The picture opposite the introduction shows four children writing.  On the rug and wall in the background, Bryan draws the words Emotion, Time, Love, Play, Nature, Family, Humor, and Ideas, to represent the thoughts going through the children’s minds as they are composing their poems.  These two pictures appropriately encapsulate Ms. Nye’s career mission as a writer-in-the-schools. 

The poems Nye has included in this volume are among the best of her students.  She credits each poem with the poet’s name, but does not include the child’s age or grade level.  I wish she had included that information because I think it would have inspired others of the same age.  

As the poetic forms drawn into the cover picture suggest, various forms are used in the book.  Many poems are created with kid friendly prompts poet novices.  For example, page 4 includes an “I like to:” poem, and page 20 has a poem of 8 lines that all begin with “I”.  On page 53 you will find an acrostic, and several lists poems are included.  Most of the poems are written in free verse, and most of them are short.  Most of the poems show a great deal of emotion and some have very clever imagery.  For example, Joe DeLeon (p. 99) wrote a four line tribute to Michelangelo called 

Ode to Michelangelo’s Bones

 Many years ago

Michelangelo

Released men

From rocks.

 I noticed that many of the poems are full of negative emotions like sadness, frustration, anger, and depression.   I found Ernest Beache’s poem on page 60 heart-wrenching:

My father

a volcano

ready to explode

My mother

a roaring lion

My sister

King Kong destroying

buildings

A little girl but with a

big fist

And I

an ant stuck in a

coffin

This book inspires other students to write poetry.  Any of the poems would be useful in asking the questions suggested by Amy McClure (1990, p. 49):

What did you think?

What did you like about this poem?

Does this remind you of anything you know about?

What is the poet saying here?

Any comments about that?

Let’s discuss what is going on here.

What is this about?

But before you ask your students the questions, read carefully Nye’s introduction.  It is full of inspiration and celebration of poetry for poetry’s sake.  On page xii she suggests: “Put a poem on the board and don’t even discuss it—let it permeate the atmosphere on its own.”  Wise advise from the voice of experience.

Citation:

McClure, Amy. 1990. Sunrises and Songs: Reading and Writing Poetry in an Elementary  

              Classroom. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann.

WINTER BEES & OTHER POEMS OF THE COLD by Joyce Sidman

Sidman, Joyce. 2014. Winter Bees and Others Poems of the Cold.  Illustrated by Rick Allen.   Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 9780547906508.

I must recommend yet another book from our 2013 NCTE Poetry Award recipient, Joyce Sidman with illustrations by Rick Allen.   Who better to collaborate on a book of winter poems than two residents of Minnesota?  The art work combines old and new mediums to create a stunning look that begins with the last fall leaves and ends with the first bud of spring with beautiful winter celebrated in between.  Sidman combines her exceptional poetry with a bonus sidebar of scientific information for each subject of reflection.  The table of contents reveals twelve titles: Dream of the Tundra Swan, Snake’s Lullaby, Snowflake Wakes, Big Brown Moose, Winter Bees, Under Ice, Brother Raven Sister Wolf, Vole in Winter, What Do the Trees Know, Chickadee’s Song, The Whole World Is Melting, and Triolet for Skunk Cabbage.  The jacket information tells of the extensive research Sidman did in preparation for the book including first-hand treks over icy lakes to observe beaver lodges. Her research not only affords us the spectacular sensory imagery of her poetry, but exceptional facts in her sidebars.  Additionally, a glossary of 22 amazing words such as ectothermic and subnivean (which my spell checker doesn’t even know), rounds out the experience.

Sidman uses a variety of poetic forms as one would expect from this poetic virtuoso:  a pantoum (Under Ice), rhyming couplets (Snake’s Lullaby), and triolet (Triolet for Skunk Cabbage) to name a few.  She is a master of every poetic element:

Rhythm

 Brother, sister, flick you tongue

and taste the flakes of autumn sun

 Figurative Language

Born with eyelash legs

and tinsel wings

Sense Imagery

The snow is slumping and dripping

And staining the bark black!

Sound

You are a Squawker, Croaker,

Alarm–on-the-wind.

Emotional Impact

Deep in the winter hive,

We burn like a golden sun.

This book is exceptionally appealing at first glance because of its beautiful cover art and interesting title (who thinks of bees in the winter?!).  It gets even better the more you read.  Each poem is so intricately crafted that each reading offers something new to notice.  The scientific information included in the sidebars is also very unique and interesting, making it a fun read for both the analytical and intuitive brain.   Because this book has so much to offer in eye appeal, sensory stimulation, and scientific fact, it is a versatile book for all ages for both personal and curricular purposes.

I was glad to use this book with my kindergartners during our unit on winter.  We make a book about chickadees each year, and this year I introduced the activity by reading “Chickadee’s Song.”  It was particularly interesting to read in the sidebar that chickadees “weigh less than a handful of paperclips.”(p. 25) The kids held a handful of paperclips to get an idea of how small and light a real chickadee is.  The cadence of the poem suggests the constant movement that is necessary for the chickadee to hunt for their daily food to sustain the long winter.  In this poem, Sidman includes the sound (fee bee) of the bird in four quatrains of aabb rhyming pattern.  She creates an atmosphere of pre-spring with her lines, The sun wheels high, the cardinal trills./We sip the drips of icicles./The buds are thick, the snow is slack./Spring has broken winter’s back.

Please enjoy this gem.

Chickadee’s Song by Joyce Sidman

From dawn to dusk in darkling air

We glean and gulp and pluck and snare,

then find a roost that’s snug and tight

to brave the long and frozen night.

We fluff and preen each downy feather.

Sing fee-bee—and laugh at the weather!

For if we’re quick and bold and clever,

           winter’s chill won’t last forever.

The sun wheels high, the cardinal trills.

We sip the drips of icicles.

The buds are thick, the snow is slack.

Spring has broken winter’s back.

Quick and bold and brave and clever,

 we preen and fluff each downy feather.

Sing fee-bee—laugh at the weather—

           for winter doesn’t last forever!