MODULE 2 MAJOR POETS AND AWARDS

        NCTE AWARD POET

Lewis, J. Patrick., and Lisa Desimini. Doodle Dandies: Poems That Take Shape. Atheneum Books for Young Readers. 1998.

ISBN: 0-689-81075-X

The book, Doodle Dandies: Poems That Take Shape, is a book of concrete poems written by J. Patrick Lewis and is a mix of creative words and illustrations which enables the reader to “picture” the poem.  It covers a variety of interesting subjects and a new way of looking at them.

Each poem in this book is written around or as part of an illustration. For example in the poem “Weeping Willow,” the trunk of the willow tree contains the words of the poem about a widow morning the loss of her loved. The branches of the tree delicately trail down the page containing the words “Her wind –woven hair softly weeping.” Another poem entitled “Skyscraper” is written in the shape of a skyscraper with the words becoming the skyscraper and the people and cars below small like “ants.”

Lisa Desimini has taken the poems and created images which will appeal to the creative mind. The illustrations are very appropriate for each poem and give a visual reinforcement to help the reader in comprehending the intent of the poem. Between the words of the poems and the pictures, each page has the ability to help the reader’s imagination soar with ideas of their own. Lewis has written poems on subjects ranging from seasons, animals, sports, swimming and much more. There is a poem in this book for everyone no matter what their interest. In fact, several of the poems have been published before. “Sky High” and “Winter” appeared in a 1995 issue of Storyworks magazine and “Giraffe” appeared in a 1994 issue of Ranger Rick magazine.

The book does not have access features such as page numbers or an index, nor does it seem to be arranged in any particular order. However this does not diminish the appeal of this book as a good example of concrete poetry. Many of these concrete poems will lend themselves for use across the curriculum.

SPOTLIGHT POEM

This book has many poems which can be used to enhance classroom learning but one of my favorites for a cross - curricular connection to Science would be the poem, “HALLEY’S COMET.”

HALLEY’S COMET

By J. Patrick Lewis

I AM

A COSMIC

SNOWBALL MADE

OF DUSTY ICE AND GAS.

ONCE OR TWICE A CENTURY

I PASS THE EARTH AND

SUN. SEE YA NEXT TIME AROUND…

IN 2061!

I would introduce the poem by playing a Youtube video of Hally’s Comet passing by the earth. After viewing the video, I would have the students read the poem. The students could then research and discuss exactly how often the comet passes, what exactly it is made of, how it was created and other information along these lines and put all the information they find  in a web based graphic organizer such as Popplet.

English/Language Arts connection:

After reading the poems and talking about concrete poetry, I would have students write and illustrate their own concrete poem. For younger students, I might have pictures already drawn and copied for them to choose from and have them write their poem about the picture they chose.

    MULTICULTURAL POET

Mora, Pat. Dizzy In Your Eyes: Poems About Love. New York. Random House Children’s Books. 2012.

ISBN: 978-0-375-94565-6

Dizzy In Your Eyes: Poems About Love by Pat Mora is a book of poetry for young adults. As the title suggests, the poems in the book are about love. The book covers everything from romantic love, to familial love, to love for friends and teachers. Anyone who has ever known the stirrings of first love during their teenage years or the other types of love in the book will relate to these poems.

Written in a variety of poetic forms such as free verse, haiku, sestina, couplet and others, Mora has found a way for the reader to experience a myriad of emotions. In the poem, “Doubts,” she covers the questions we ask ourselves such as “What if guys think I can’t kiss because I can think?” or “What if I ask her out and she laughs?” In her poem “Pressure,” she deals with peer pressure and the age old line “If you love me, trust me.” In “Valentine to Papi,” we read of the love between a father and daughter in the reminiscing of their first dance. This book will truly run the reader through a gamut of emotions while poems such as “Conversation/Conversación” and “Mundo de aqua” will appeal to the bilingual reader.

Mora has grouped the poems in the book to represent the cycle of emotions that love brings. She begins with the poems about the beginning of love then transitions to the heartache and pain of love. She follows this with poems of healing and solace and then those which deal with falling in love again. The book has a table of contents and page numbers. One aspect of the book that I find interesting to note was the explanations of the poetic forms used in the poems. Mora provides a pronunciation guide for the various forms used and a definition that is clear and concise on the page before the poem. This is a valuable resource for teachers looking to use this in a classroom setting.

SPOTLIGHT POEM

There are so many poems to choose from in this book that is hard to spotlight just one. One I would definitely spotlight, however, is “FOUR-LETTER WORD.”

FOUR-LETTER WORD

By Pat Mora

Like breathing, I started when I was born,

            started loving. I didn’t know its name.

            but I knew pleasures: eating, warmth.

One day, like a flash of lightning, I linked

            the four letters, the feeling , with the word.

            The word was never the same.

Very soon, I could list loves galore;

            sunshine, Mom’s smile, Dad’s laugh, our house,

            my bed, jeans, friends; the taste of peppermint,

            music that lifted me soaring off the floor.

Ever since I met you, the word, the same four letters

            became a private place

            your face takes me,

            ours the only keys

            to the invisible door.

This particular poem is an acrostic which means that the first letter of each line spells a word or name. The word spelled is the subject of the poem. After introducing the poem and reading it several times, I would ask the students for other words which a poem like this could be written around. As a group, we would brainstorm each word given and maybe write one together. The students could then write their own acrostic poem with the word of their choice.

             FLORIAN POETRY

Florian, Douglas. Dinothesaurus. New York. Atheneum Books. 2009

ISBN: 978-1-4169-7978-4

Dinothesaurus by Douglas Florian is a book of poetry which puts a humorous spin on the paleontological subject of dinosaurs. The poems in this book give the reader useful and factual information about dinosaurs in such a way, that the reader will able to remember the information.

Through the rhyming schemes of the poems, children will love hearing/reading about the “pterrifying pterosaurs” and the “Giganotosaurus” which takes “giga-bites.”  The use of descriptive words in the poems will enhance the image one gets of these long, extinct creatures. “A lashing, slashing dino-saw” from the poem “Baryonyx” brings forth the image of a large dinosaur with sharp claws. “You have a frail and fragile frame” from the poem “Micropachycephalosaurus” takes us to the other end of the spectrum with an image of a small, delicate dinosaur.

Florian’s poems in this book are of good quality and the attention to details about the dinosaurs will appeal to children. This is evident in the poem, “Deinonychus,” in which the poet describes the claws and jaws of this dinosaur and how it hunted. All of the poems in this book give this same attention to detail. The illustrations are reminiscent of collages and continue the detail and humor found throughout the poems.

The book begins with a poem about the dinosaur age and ends with a poem about the end of the dinosaur age. The pages are numbered along with a table of contents and included on each page is a pronunciation guide for each dinosaur type. The “Glossarysaurus” at the end of the book gives more information about the dinosaurs in the poems. Also included is a list of dinosaur museums, fossil sites and further reading material which might be of interest to the reader.

SPOTLIGHT POEM:

Giganotosaurus

JIG-ah-not-oh-SAW-rus (giant southern lizard)

By Douglas Florian

One hundred million years before us

Lived the Giga-not-o-saurus.

Gigantic, titanic, enormous, colossal-

What once was humongous is now just a fossil.

When it was hungry or got into fights,

It opened its jaws and took giga-bites.

This poem is a good poem to use to work on synonyms. First, I would have the students read the poem to themselves then out loud as a group. We would discuss which words in the poem describe the Giganotosaurus. I would lead the students to discover that these words are synonyms – different words that have the same meaning. The students could then pick one of the other dinosaurs in the book and use a thesaurus to find several synonyms to describe the dinosaur they picked.

Art Extension:

Students could create their own dinosaur picture and use small bits of construction paper and/or tissue paper to make it collage-like as depicted by the illustrations from the book.