Jumping Into The Children's Poetry Blog Hop

Most writers spend a lot of time sitting at their desks, messing around on their computers.  So when we do something called a "Children's Poetry Blog Hop," which sounds like something that involves dancing or, at the very least, moving around, it is no surprise to find that the "hop" involves. . . sitting at our desks, messing around on our computers.Works for me!  I'll dance later.April Halprin Wayland and Janet Wong seem to have started the Children's Poetry Blog Hop back in September.  April nominated the rabbit pictured here on the left, whom she called Mortimer, as the event's meme, which is the first time I have ever used that word.Janet took to calling the exercise "The Mortimer Minute" and offered a logo, I assume because the rabbit photographed in April's blog post filed suit for invasion of his right of publicity.  Here's the task April put before the blog- hopping writers:  "Make up three questions you've always wanted to be asked in an interview about children's poetry and then answer them on your own blog."  Janet added some more rules.  She is, after all, a lawyer.  I am going to ignore Janet's rules because I, too, am a lawyer, and because one of her rules is "Keep it short, please!" which I have already violated.So the weeks spin by.  The thing circles around to fellow D.C.-area writer Mary Quattlebaum.  Mary does her lovely and entertaining post, enlisting her dog, Yoshi, as an assistant, which at first I thought demonstrated a pushback against the whole rabbit thing until I noticed that Yoshi was wearing rabbit ears (see photo).  And Mary taps me and Jess Stork to carry on the blog hop.  And so here I am.  I, too, am enlisting my dog in this endeavor, although I will not outfit her with rabbit ears.  I would like to say that Toby is far too dignified for such a prank, but that would be untrue.Toby is asking the questions here, although in the photograph she is doing something she far prefers to interrogating people about poetry, which is sleeping with her head, and only her head, under the bed.TOBY:  What do you do when you come across a poem that makes your fur stand on end, as if you have just seen a fox in the driveway which causes you to strain and squeal at the door until somebody, *somebody!!* lets you out?ME:  I read it again to make sure I can believe my eyes.  I read it aloud, making sure I can believe my ears.  I try to sit with it, but, since it is like that fox in the driveway--a source of excitement--I get up and pace around, as I am a bit uncontained.  Throughout the day, I look at it periodically.  I may send it to somebody.  And I make a copy of it and put it in a file labeled "Things I Like."TOBY:  Huh.  I thought you were going to say you gently hold it in your mouth, which is the sensible thing to do with something you love.  Anyway, what are some of the things in your "Things I Like" file?ME:  There's a photocopy of page 49 of Jennifer Roy's Yellow Star, with the following lines highlighted:

She does not say "I love you" in hugs or kisses,but her love fills my plate,and I gobble it up.

There's an interview with Cynthia Rylant from Paul Janeczko's The Place My Words Are Looking For, a book in which poets talk about their work.  She talks about a boy she met who told her how he feels every time he walked into the Western Auto Store in his town, which is the way you feel experiencing a good sunset.  She concludes:

A lot of people think they can write poetry, and many do, because they can figure out how to line up the words, or make certain sounds rhyme, or just imitate other poets they read.  But this boy, he's the real poet, because when he tries to put on paper what he's seen with his heart, he will believe deep down there are no good words for it, no words can do it, and at that moment he will have begun to write poetry.

The thing I put in the file most recently is a poem by Frank O'Hara, "Autobiographia Literaria."  You can read it here, at the Writer's Almanac.  It may not make everyone's fur stand up on end, but I find I can't turn away from it.TOBY:  Do you like poems about dogs?ME:  Oh, yes I do.  My son Ben--you remember him, Toby, your first owner in the way all dogs are owned first by a child in the family and then by the parents--introduced me to Mary Oliver's "Percy" poems a while ago.  Here is her "Percy (Six)", from The Truro Bear and Other Adventures:

You're like a little wild thingthat was never sent to school.Sit, I say, and you jump up.Come, I say, and you go galloping down the sandto the nearest dead fishwith which you perfume your sweet neck.It is summer.How many summers does a little dog have?Run, run, Percy.This is our school.

And here is my own dog poem, a haiku:

Emily Post For LabradorsThis is the first rule:Always answer the door witha toy in your mouth.

TOBY:  [Looking pleased.]I am tagging the versatile and talented Jacqueline Jules to carry on the Children's Poetry Blog Hop.  Jackie is the author of the multi-award-winning Zapato Power book series, as well as a host of other books and more poetry than I can quantify.  Her picture book, What a Way to Start a New Year! came out in 2013, and 2014 will bring Never Say a Mean Word Again and Zapato Power:  Freddie Ramos Stomps The Snow.  Jackie will post in this space on November 8.But wait, there's more!  I am also tagging the versatile and talented (I know I used those words already, but they fit) Cynthia Cotten, whose picture book The Book Boat's In and story collection Window Across Time both came out earlier this year.  Look for Cynthia's post next Friday on her blog, Writing It Down.Thank you, Mary Q, for bringing me into this whole mishegas.