Celebrating Poetic Writing

How often do poets and writers praise the writing of the masters and strive to use their voice and the magic of word play to bring verve to their own work? I am excited to share information about two poet friends who have exciting news.

Buffy Silverman's poetic book On a Gold-Blooming Day Finding Fall Treasures, made it's debut on September 6, 2020, National Read a Book Day. I recently found a special mailing from Lerner Publishing Group, a copy of Buffy's poetic book to publicize.

The hardbound book that will delight both children and adults is

a stunning one to display on a coffee table.

When reviewing Buffy's book, I fell in love with both the gorgeous nature photographs and the accompanying descriptive words, like a sun-dazzling day. Since I started decorating for the autumn season, I plan on leaving Buffy's book on display as a welcome-to-my-house treasure. When my little grandgirls come to visit, they will spot the book, take it in their hands, and be mesmerized by the beauty within each photographic page amidst a flow of poetic thought.

Hopefully, my grandgirls will lift their voices in celebration of Buffy's

pre-school to grade 3 book.

Another poet-teacher-publisher friend living in Switzerland, Bridget Magee is celebrating her one-year book anniversary of The 10*10 Poetry Anthology: Celebrating 10 in 10 Different Ways this October. Bridget single-handedly edited and compiled her first anthology of 87 poems. I am happy to say that I am one of the 10*10 writers celebrating alongside Bridget. 

Bridget writes that in the past year, her "humble wee words inaugural poetry anthology earned Five 5-star Amazon reviews and multiple bloggers have sung collective praises". I was particularly impressed by a wonderful review by Karla Wendlin of Poetry Studio.

Bridget Magee focuses on the number 10 through clever use of language, humor, and heartfelt sentiment. The 87 poems are dived into 10 sections, each with an introductory quote that sets up intention (nod to Bridget!) of the poems that follow (e.g., "The qualing of strength lined with tenderness is anunbeatable combination..." Maya Angelou).The 10 topics address vocabulary (tentative, tenacity, tension), common phrases (take ten, I wouldn't touch that with a ten-foot pole), and more. The poems, written by established as well as debut poets, reflect a wide variety of poetic styles. Brief biographical sketches of the poets are appended. Keep a copy of this book handy, as students will want to reread selections and read aloud their favorites, and possibly use poems as models for their own writing. The entire book might be an inspiration for a class writing project, celebrating a different number, such as "one" (e.g., one-sided, one-up, one of a kind, we're number one, one-hit wonder, etc.

Stay tuned to the month of October when Briget will put the spotlight on the 10*10 writers. Don't miss Bridget's wee words for wee words blog and business Facebook page. 

Below you find my poem that was written with my 2 1/2-year-old granddaughter Aurora in mind. I like to sing the poem to her instead of just reading it out loud. We laugh when I sing because I use gestures and movements to make Aurora giggle. Thank you, Bridget, for all the work you put into this wonderful poetry anthology. 

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Join me for the Poetry Friday Roundup hosted by my Australian poet friend/kidlit author, Kat Apel. Before reading the array of poetic goodness linked to Kat's blog, pause to read her post. She is sharing her successes and summer poem swaps (with beautiful haikus and nature poetry), along with her new books and presentations .