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I have read so many wonderful books lately–many of which I heard about at NCTE. One of my favorites is Wet Cement, a fantastic book of concrete poems by Bob Raczka.
This is not a new book (Roaring Brook, 2016), and I have no idea how I missed it last year–though last year was freaking crazy, so there’s that. Anyway. This is so clever! Not only are the poems concrete poems, but every title is also concrete. Check out this one, one of my favorites:
Hopscotch, from WET CEMENT, by Bob Raczka, all rights reserved
And my very favorite is the “Poetry” poem at the very end. I’ve seen this one before and shared it with some young poets. It is so perfect! But I’m not going to share it here. Instead, I urge you to find this book and read it yourself:>)
And for lots of fabulous, eclectic, perhaps seasonal poetry, don’t miss the Poetry Friday Roundup with Diane at Random Noodling!
oooh, I’ll have to get this! I love how even the title is, well, concrete! 🙂
Cute book! Now I’m curious as to the “rest of the story”! Thanks for sharing this today!
Still smiling over your freaking crazy year… yes, some books get away, don’t they? Glad you were able to enjoy this one at the right time in your life. xo
Actually, too many books, get away. Word of mouth, like we do here, is a great way to discover what we may have missed.
That’ so true. I always feel guilty, though. Especially when it’s a poet whose work I already like and admire!
I’d heard of this book, but haven’t gotten to see it yet. Thanks for sharing a sample poem. So cleverly done.
Now Hopscotch is creativity thinking out of the box which is a challenge for some of us (me!) to hop out of. Thanks for introducing this poem.
Hehe–out of the box. :>)
I had Ingrid here today and read your post earlier, so then we dug out Wet Cement. She’s now old enough to thoroughly enjoy his poems, and I agree, they are so clever. Glad you shared, Laura.
Isn’t it nice to get a nudge to re-look at a book you already love!
I love concrete poetry. Such fun. I’ll look for this one.
Just requested this from the library and can’t wait to read that final poem. Thanks for sharing!
In Australia we call them shape poems – but having been around the PoetryFriday crew long enough, I’m comfortable with ‘concrete poems’ and I love the cleverness of this book title!! I’ll have to see what I can do about tracking it down – because it looks a beauty!
Oh – and I forgot to say… I did play with a lai this week, thanks to you. 🙂 #ontheblog
Hooray!
We call them both shape and concrete poems, Kat :>)
This looks like a fun collection of poems!
Love this book!