Welcome to Poetry Friday!
Last week, I mentioned that I would feature Cybils Finalists on the next several Poetry Fridays. Who knew that today I would be doing that while celebrating a Newbery Honor for one of the poets I look up to most, and whom I’m proud to be in a critique group with: Joyce Sidman.
Joyce’s collection Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night is full of mystery, darkness, and wildness. I shared a poem from it a while ago, and I hope her publisher won’t be upset that I’m sharing another. (Shhh! Don’t tell.) I love so many poems in it, but I’m going to share this one because not only is it an exquisite poem, but it’s also a wonderful metaphor for what I want to do in my own writing. And it’s what I look for in the books I read, too!
| Snail at Moonrise Each night, Snail unhooks himself from earth, climbs a slick trail of silver up, up the horizon of log, up stems of leaves to their dewy tips, seeking with his tiny sandpaper tongue morsels of green to mix in his dark, moist body and spin into whorls of light. Shell-maker –Joyce Sidman, all rights reserved |
 |
I’m elated to see ALA recognizing poetry in its awards (though I echo Lee Bennett Hopkins’ wish that there be an actual poetry category). How can kids NOT be hooked when they’re exposed to fabulous poetry like this?
The roundup is right here today, so leave your link with Mr. Linky. I can’t wait to see what you all have to share and to celebrate the way poems spin darkness into silvery lights.