The Poetry Oscars!

Okay, not exactly, but don’t you wish you could be at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, NYC tonight for this…

Yes, you see Tina Fey, Patrick Stewart and Julianna Margulies on that GUEST READER LIST OF AWESOME! Here's what I'd wear if I were going...

Heck yeah, why not red? (It's J. Crew, btw)

Now you're curious, right? Here's the link for more info: http://www.poets.org/page.php/prmID/92

POEM IN YOUR POCKET DAY!

Seems like a little thing, but it's kind of awesome and enormous. All you have to is carry a poem in your pocket today and, maybe, if you can find a way, share it with someone (even if it's just your dog).

You don't even need to find a poem because the Academy of American Poets has an app for that (or a widget or something--I don't know exactly what it is but it's easy enough for even me). Here it is:

http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5643

Here's the poem I'll be pocketing. It's one of my all-time favorites:

When I Heard the Learned Astronomer

  by Walt Whitman

When I heard the learn'd astronomer,

When the proofs, the figures, were ranged in columns before me,

When I was shown the charts and diagrams, to add, divide,

   and measure them,

When I sitting heard the astronomer where he lectured with

   much applause in the lecture-room,

How soon unaccountable I became tired and sick,

Till rising and gliding out I wander'd off by myself,

In the mystical moist night-air, and from time to time,

Look'd up in perfect silence at the stars.

OH, PAUL FUSSELL, WHAT YOU DO TO ME!

I'm guest posting at the blog of the inimitable E. Kristin Anderson today. The topic? My intellectual crush on Paul Fussell. WHO IS PAUL FUSSELL, you ask? Click over and see!

A little bit of hope...

In honor of National Poetry Month and Autism Awareness Month, here is a gentle poem from the inimitable Emily Dickinson that speaks, I think, to all of us. And if you're feeling hopeful--and helpful--scroll below the poem to enter for a PRIZE!

Hope is the thing with feathers
by Emily Dickinson
Hope is the thing with feathers  That perches in the soul,  And sings the tune without the words,  And never stops at all,     And sweetest in the gale is heard;          And sore must be the storm  That could abash the little bird  That kept so many warm.     I've heard it in the chillest land,  And on the strangest sea;         Yet, never, in extremity,  It asked a crumb of me.

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From THE SOUND OF LETTING GO & Enter to Win

There are more guys than girls in jazz.

Next-to-no lady trumpeters (oh, there are a few)

but it doesn't matter because, for me, jazz trumpet is all about one guy

Miles Davis.

He made this famous album in 1959

called Kind of Blue

which is kind of, always,

how I feel.

That album gets into your bones

goes and goes

starts, hesitates, reaches out, feels

gor the music, the sound, the thing you want to change

always grasping for the unattainable makes you

kind of excited,

kind of sorry.

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poetry excerpt  c 2014 Stasia Ward Kehoe 

all rights reserved

April Fool's Day & National Poetry Month

Is it fitting that National Poetry Month begins on April Fools Day?

Here, courtesy of poets.org, are 30 Ways to Celebrate, including a poetry-themed filmography and other suprising and fun suggestions! And here's how some writers might answer my question...

My imagination makes me human and makes me a fool; it gives me all the world and exiles me from it.

URSULA K. LE GUIN, Harper's magazine, Aug. 1990

The greatest fool may ask more than the wisest man can answer.

CHARLES CALEB COLTON, Laco

Fools rush in where angels fear to tread.

ALEXANDER POPE, An Essay on Criticism

And perhaps my favorite

A fool thinks himself to be wise, 

but a wise man knows himself to be a fool.   

– William Shakespeare

What do you think?

Bookanistas: Wrapping Up National Poetry Month

I've been a very bad poet this April with not nearly enough celebration of National Poetry Month. By way of apology, I am going to give away A SIGNED COPY of AUDITION. 

All you have to do to enter is LIKE MY FACEBOOK AUTHOR PAGE, then leave me a comment HERE VIA MY WEBSITE (sorry you have to scroll down a bit) or below this post with an email at which I can contact you if you are one of the randomly drawn winners.

Here's a bit of book love for two great titles to round out your poetry shelves. The first is a fantastic resource for teachers and writers...
Here's the  B&N LINK for the book or visit the amazing Sylvia Vardell's poetry blog HERE.









And the second is a great YA verse novel about family and mental illness that never loses its topicality or its power. Here's the B&N LINK and the clicky thing for Sonya Sones's terrific website.

This contest will end when my facebook author page reaches 150 likes so TELL YOUR FRIENDS and the drawing could be, like, tomorrow!

Want more Bookanista Book love...?

Katy Upperman  ponders LOVE AND OTHER PERISHABLE ITEMS by Laura Buzo

Kimberly Sabatini wonders at WHEN YOU WERE HERE by Daisy Whitney
Elana Johson  falls for THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green
Tracy Banghart  loves LACRIMOSA by Christine Fonseca
Corrine Jackson adores the ARCADIA BELL series by Jenn Bennett
Rebecca Behrens delves into CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein
Lenore Appelhans raves about THE RULES by Stacey ade
Christine Fonseca  celebrates UNDER THE NEVER SKY by Veronica Rossi
Jessica Love hails THIS IS WHAT HAPPY LOOKS LIKE by Jennifer E. Smith
Shannon Messenger  discusses some recent reads

A National Poetry Month present...

The opening pages of my first YA verse novel, AUDITION.

When you are a dancer

 

You learn the beginning

Is first position.
Heels together,
Feet pointed as far to the sides
As your rotating hips will allow.

And when you are small

And at that beginning,
Your body is as flexible
As your mind.

There you stand,

Potbellied,
Eager.

They do not say to you then

That, when you are sixteen,
Doubt may cramp your muscled calves,
Arch your arrow back,
Leap into your mind.

They do not say to you

When you start in first position

That you may never be

Thin enough

Strong enough

Flexible enough

That you may never be

Enough.

 

SARA 78

 On the third of July,

I stand with a hundred other girls,
From stick-thin to gently rounded,
From tiny, taut packages of muscle
To gawky, long-limbed sylphs,

All wearing pink tights,

Black leotards.
Hair
Sprayed slick
Against our scalps,
Up and away.
Not a single stray strand to distract
From the tilt of our heads
Or the length of our necks.

I notice a few girls dared

Garnish their chignons
With beads, flowers.

Would it help them grab the attention
Of Dame Veronique de la Chance?
Of choreographer Yevgeny Yelnikov?

Of one of the other important teachers

Who have come to scout talent
Here in Boston today?
Or even catch the spectacled eye
Of the secretary in heavy, blue skirt,
Thick shoes,
Taking notes on a battered clipboard
Where our names
Are connected
To the numbers we wear pinned
Onto front and back?

I was given number 78.

Should I have worn flowers in my hair?

c 2011 Stasia Ward Kehoe

Leave a comment below and your email via the "contact" tab above and I'll email you your very own free AUDITION SAMPLER pdf.