Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong, pioneers of spreading kids' poetry via e-books, are at it again. Their last outing was Poetry Tag Time, which I posted about here and shared my poem from here. Their latest Kindle release is p*tag, another poetry anthology, this one aimed at teens.
From Amazon: In this second PoetryTagTime anthology, P*TAG, 31 poets speak to the complicated lives of today's teens, with quirky, reflective, and soulful poems about love and longing, war and worry, tattoos, piercings, watching people, being watched, broken lives, luck, burping up kittens, and more. The list of contributors is a "who's who" of the best poets for young people, including YA poets and verse novelists Naomi Shihab Nye, Margarita Engle, Allan Wolf, Betsy Franco, Paul Janeczko, and Helen Frost, Newbery Honor winner Joyce Sidman, current Children's Poet Laureate J. Patrick Lewis, and poetry legend Lee Bennett Hopkins. Readers can play P*TAG on their own by writing a poem about a photo from the photo library blog at http://teenpoetrytagtime.blogspot.com and comparing it to the P*TAG poem that was inspired by that same photo. More info at www.PoetryTagTime.com.
Here are two of my favorites.
I've been reading the anthology this week, and it's a great one! I love (as you know) poems inspired by images, and the poetry here is top-notch. I don't share full poems from anthologies, but here are just a few brief excerpts that I've loved so far.
"even if we don't / speak the same language, / I'll sip your dream, / and then, and then, say /"
–from Blue Bucket, by Naomi Shihab Nye
"Rapunzel herself / Has NOTHING on me, / A whip of my hair / Could cover a sea /"
–from Hair, by Charles Waters
"I am pretty sure / the singer makes up the words / as he goes along /"
–from Don't You boys Know Any Nice Songs?, by Michael Salinger
"But some hearts are made of china /"
–from Broken, by Jeannine Atkins
"Her energy pours down stairs / in slow motion, / rippling like a golden slinky /"
–from Perfect (for Clara), by Joyce Sidman
What a variety of voices and subjects! And at $2.99 for the Kindle e-book, you really can't beat the price. Poetry is one of the few things small enough for me to read on my phone, and I've read some great poems this week while standing in line at the post office, waiting for my daughter at a doctor's appointment, etc. I hope you'll give p*tag a try! And tell your teacher/librarian friends who are looking for poetry to share with teens.
Mary Ann at Great Kid Books has the Poetry Friday Roundup today. Enjoy!