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Forget fairy-tale pirates and dive into the real world of the pirate’s life. It’s not always pretty. David L. Harrison’s poetry collection Pirates (Wordsong, 2008), with beautiful oil paintings by Dan Burr, is that rare thing–a boy-friendly poetry collection that isn’t light verse. Check out this grim, but moving, poem about the common ending on a hangman’s noose that many pirates faced: Farewell I knew one day I knew one day I had my share Farewell, then. –David L. Harrison, all rights reserved |
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This despairing but resigned feeling describes how I used to feel about public speaking. But I’ve gotten a little better. I’m very comfortable with school visits now, which is a good thing! I’m still nervous speaking to adults, though. Today, at the Texas Library Association conference, I’ll be reading my poems to a room full of librarians. Librarians are some of my very favorite people! And yet…it feels a bit like the hempen rope. I just always feel gripped by fear before I address a room full of grown-ups. Wish me luck! (On the plus side, I get to share the speaking table with Douglas Florian and other terrific poets, and I’ll get to spend some time with Sylvia Vardell, wonderful advocate of children’s poetry and organizer of this presentation. Yay!)