How about some poetry for National Poetry Month?
For You:
Make sure you get the edition with excerpts from her notebooks. “A poem has to be pinned to the world with something specific, something ugly. Life holds on to suffering. Otherwise, a poem would disappear, life would fly away.” Or, “My hand craves writing like the woodcutter’s hand craves an axe. Only this reminds me that I am alive.” One excerpt a day could be a blog post, a journal entry, a writing prompt (a sermon? a lesson plan?) for a good, long while.
I’m no poetry buff, but I think Kamienska’s poems are very accessible. If you’re nervous, start with her “Small Things” poem, and you will want to make a list of all the “clumps of moments” that you are startlingly thankful for in your days.
For Young Adults:
This is a story told in free verse, and you’ll want to start at the beginning and work your way through the story of LaVaughn, who lives in the projects, who has a fierce mama that loves her, who is trying to get into college, who has a mad crush on a boy in her apartment complex, and who wonders what it means to believe in God. It’s a story for brave readers. That’s what I used to tell my students if I suggested it to them: “You’ll have to be brave if you read this.”
For the kids:
I Lettered Creatures by Brad Leithauser in Santa Fe the first year I went for a residency. Every year Eighth Day Books comes and sells books in a corner of the St. John’s campus. The room where the books are isn’t even the size of a classroom, and once the books are set up, there are just two aisles to walk up and down. But you could spend hours in that room looking at books (and looking up from books to check out how those mountains are doing just outside the window).
There’s a great kids’ section and I bought Lettered Creatures for Hadley and Harper. The concept is simple: a poem and drawing based on a letter, but the poetry and sketches are complex. Sometimes it’s tricky to find the letter in the picture, sometimes the stories the animals tell are very sad. But, like Kamienska writes, “life holds on to suffering.” I think it’s up to Hadley, Harper, and I to find some beauty in that suffering.
The girls tried their hand at their own poems and illustrations.
Happy Poetry Month to you!
Here in S.F., the Mechanics’ Institute hosted a poetry month kick-off with readings by poets Robin Ekiss, Dean Rader, Matthew Zapruder, Jane Hirshfield, and Brynn Saito. Inspiring, gutsy, funny, daring. I don’t read poetry nearly enough, and was reminded of the power in just one line, one word — placed just so. And then, at the Easter Vigil, the priest in his sermon quoted from Wendell Berry’s “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front.” The last line — “Practice resurrection” — fit the event, of course, and sent me back to the whole thing. I’ll quote this, from the start of the 2nd stanza: “So, friends, every day do something that won’t compute.”
I LOVE that last sentence. That should’ve been my New Year’s Resolution. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.