for the parent, teacher, poet, and reader.

Dear Wandering Wildebeest: And Other Poems from the Water Hole by Irene Latham is EXACTLY the kind of children's book I want my future little ones to read. It is SO good, unlike any other collection of children's poems I have ever read kind of good. The poems are rather deep for a K-4 picture book revolving around animals in the wild, and are written in both free verse and rhyme. The giraffes for instance have a poem describing thirst with such imagery, I felt my own tongue swelling and in need for a drink of water. What a wonderful way to teach children about imagery and to expand their vocabulary. The zebras and rhinos have their share of whimsical poetry as well. This is an elementary teacher's DREAM book.

for the love of poetry.

I have never read a collection of poetry that told as many stories as Charles Harper Webb did in What Things Are Made Of.  Typically poets hide behind literary elements and figurative language, making their meanings subjective to readers. You never really know for sure what the poet thinking exactly. Well, Charles Harper Webb lays it all out there in this poetry series.

Webb gets very personal in the stanzas about the birth of his son. He is relatable in the poem “Bed & Breakfast,” where Webb and his wife are spending a childfree holiday and his poem about his first unrequited love. Webb has slapstick humor down pat, and had me laughing out loud as much as he had me thinking about my own memories on past and present love.

This collection is modern, real, and FUN to read. Take THAT poetry haters.

poetry from the past.

I have mentioned once or twelve times how much I love poetry. I would love to do a poetry unit with my students, but my school would rather me turn them into NYS Regent taking robots, than let them show anything even remotely close to creativity. I think that maybe I belong in a school of the Arts. I'd like to trade my principal in for Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi, please.

Rumi was a 13th-century Perisan Muslim poet who's work has been translated into three books, the newest released back in September, and the perfect holiday gift. Rumi's Little Book of Life is a beautiful collection of 196 poems by Rumi, previously unavailable in English. Translated by native Persian speakers, Maryam Mafi and Azima Melita Kolin, this collection speaks to the inner journey that each of us experience through our lives. Many do not read like traditional poems, I'm sure the translation is to blame. However, the deeper meanings of Rumi's words are not lost on me.

"Tell me," my lover asked me tenderly,

"how could you live without me?"

I said, "without you I am lost

like a fish out of water."

He smiled, "This is only your own fault." 

sometimes words fail, but albert goldbarth's don't.

I am the biggest poetry nerd, ever. Those of you who are obsessed with song lyrics are also poetry nerds, I am happy to be the person to make you aware of that. There is something so incredibly impacting about a person's feelings written in stanza, where words are more carefully chosen.  And that is exactly what a poetry nerd would say.

Albert Goldbarth's newest collection of poetry (he has twenty-something others), Everyday People is filled with poems of simple truths. What I love about this collection so much is that number one, the poems are not painfully long, and two, anyone can relate to them. Everyday People is a collection of beautifully crafted poems from everyday life. There is humor, love, loss, and a sense of camaraderie among the author and his readers.

“I brought a book of many words

to an emptiness in my heart,

and I shook them out in there, to fill it."