Howdy, Campers ~ Happy Poetry Friday AND Last Day of Poetry Month! My poem and the link to today's PF host are below.
In honor of TeachingAuthors' 12th year on earth (is the internet technically earth?), we are each choosing one post from the past 12 years (just one?!?!) to share. Esther shares a poem I wrote (!) and a photo of us surprising Carmela at TeachingAuthors' birthday celebration, Mary Ann shares JoAnn's 2011 inspiring review of Paul Janeczko's Seeing the Blue Between, Advice and Inspiration for Young Poets, and Carmela shares Esther's 2011 post about a specific kind of haiku which Esther called Thankus, while adding her own thanku and a #HaikuFromTwo.
The truth is, I love the writing of every TA, but I knew from the start that I would be rifling through Mary Ann's posts. I love her storytelling, I love her show-us-her-scars honesty. Her authenticity, forces me (maybe inspires me is better) to be more honest, too.
So today, enjoy Mary Ann's 2010 post about Charles Schulz' s PEANUTS gang...aka her muses.
I wrote about my own muse in 2013:
WHEN I
MET MY MUSE
inspired by a poem with the same title by William Stafford
by April Halprin Wayland
I was
lounging against the back of a napping kangaroo
when this
little boy with a large crayon drew near.
Said
his name was Harold.
I sat
up to study the scruffy kid—
a baby,
really, in p.j.s that must have been
as
suffocating as meat in a sausage skin.
His
wide eyes disarmed me,
as if
he were that butterfly in the antidepressant commercial,
flying
around a garden party and leaving everyone feeling better.
Harold
stepped around the kangaroo to draw a big house
with a
wide porch
and
shutters on every window.
There
were a boatload of windows.
He
added two rocking chairs and three hanging baskets of geraniums.
When he
framed the front doorway, we went in.
The
floors were oak; the house felt comfortable, like a favorite old sofa.
He drew
stairs; we walked up to four bedrooms
and a
greenhouse room with walls of glass.
"I'll
be living up here," he said, pulling down steps from the ceiling.
He climbed into the attic and peeked out.
"I'll hand you down stuff I find here," he said.
I
supposed I'd be responsible for feeding him.
I
wondered if he ate real grilled cheese sandwiches
or if I
had to draw them with his crayon.
The
kangaroo
was
still sleeping in the front yard,
which
was probably for the best.
=======================
Before I say g'bye, I have Poetry Month news!
My next 3-hour, one day Writing Poetry for Children class through the UCLA Extension Writers' Program will be on July 17, 2021. Registration is now open, but hurry, enrollment is limited to 25 students.
I'm thrilled that three of my poems are on the Poetry Foundation site.
I'm happy to be among nine poets who are on a fascinating education website in England called TWINKL (no E at the end). The poets are: Jaclyn Desforges, Miriam Sagan, Liz Garton Scanlon, Irina Moga, Lauren Camp, D. S. Martin, Allan Wolf, Charles Ghigna and me.
And I'm honored to have been included in the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators' video of 13 poets, each reading a poem. (Note: the video lasts 17:30 minutes; my poem is at the 11 minute mark).
The poets are: Nikki Grimes, Lesléa Newman, Joseph Bruchac, Jane Yolen, Tami Charles, Lin Oliver, Hope Anita Smith, Sonya Sones, Carole Boston Weatherford, April Halprin Wayland, Margarita Engle, Ellen Hopkins, and Linda Sue Park.
==============================
Who is your muse? Please tell us in the comments--we want to know...we really do!
Thank you, Matt, for hosting Poetry Friday
this last day of Poetry Month, 2021
posted by April Halprin Wayland, with the help of Eli, Kitty, and Monkey, who were sure THEY were my muses before I broke the news...
