Book Review: Life on Mars, Tracy K. Smith Poetry: Life on Mars, Tracy K. Smith A few years ago I found a courage I did not know I had. I began questioning things I had always assumed were true. I began exploring my assumptions, opening my mind to new approaches and no longer accepting things at face […]
Category: Poetry
Book Review: Sun Under Wood, Robert Hass
Book Review: Sun Under Wood, Robert Hass Poetry: Sun Under Wood, Robert Hass “You think you’ve grown up in various ways and then the elevator door opens and you’re standing inside reaming out your nose” I do not know whether any other US Poet Laureate has ever written a poem about being caught in an elevator […]
Book Review: Praise, Robert Hass
Book Review: Praise, Robert Hass Poetry: Praise, Robert Hass If you’ll join me in the “wayback” machine, we can travel way back to 1979. Bell bottoms and wide collars. Disco was not yet dead, but was clearly dying. The UN declared it to be the International Year of the Child. Phnom Penh fell and the Pol Pot […]
Book Review: Wade in the Water, Tracy K. Smith
Book Review: Wade in the Water, Tracy K. Smith Poetry: Wade in the Water, Tracy K. Smith Tracy K. Smith is the Poet Laureate of the United States. Her 2018 collection of poems Wade in the Water is her first collection since earning that distinction. The title poem of Wade in the Water tells a story: […]
Book Review: Violent Outbursts, Thaddeus Rutkowski
Book Review: Violent Outbursts, Thaddeus Rutkowski Nonfiction Essay Collection: Violent Outbursts, Thaddeus Rutkowski I love reading authors who live and write in the margins. Don’t get me wrong. I’m down for a Patterson or Baldacci or Grisham any day of the week. But the authors and books that excite me are those that open a new […]
Book Review: Border Crossings, Thaddeus Rutkowski
Book Review: Border Crossings, Thaddeus Rutkowski Poetry Collection: Border Crossings, Thaddeus Rutkowski Border crossings are fraught with tension. Some, like India and Pakistan, or the Koreas, have standing armies. One stray move could start a war. Others are peaceful, but full of reminders that you are going from one country to another. Signs in multiple languages, […]
Booklist: Books with Poems & Rhymes for Shared Reading with Children
Booklist: Books with Poems & Rhymes for Shared Reading with Children Use poetry and song lyrics to introduce your child to the interesting sounds in language. Explore poetry pieces and nursery rhymes with alliteration, rhyming couplets, and onomatopoeia. For older children who enjoy structure, patterns, and math try sonnets with iambic pentameter and haikus. […]