Poetry Friday

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Jama's Alphabet Soup.

My selection is "River of words : young poets and artists on the nature of things" edited by Pamela Michael and introduced by Robert Hass.

The book takes its title from the nonprofit organization founded by Pamela Michael and Robert Hass, former U.S. Poet Laureate.  River of Words sponsors an international poetry and art contest for  children K-12 to promote more environmental awareness through the study of local watersheds.

In reading Pamela Michael's preface, I was struck by one sentence "We (Michael and Hass) sought to nurture creativity and promote the idea that while not everyone can be an artist, everyone can be artistic."

Here are a couple of examples:

Oh sun. Oh sun.

Oh sun. How does

it feel to be

blocked by the

dark dark clouds?

Oh child

it doesn't really

feel bad at all

not at all not at

all not at all

Nicholas Sanz-Gould, age 6

The Buttery sun rays

tickle the left-over platters of

last night's

heaping dew.

Leaves

washed clean of their troubles

lay beaten and crippled

trampled by November's soggy shoes

Shallin Ris, age 14

Another of my favorites, too long to be reproduced here, is "Invitation" by Valerie Madamba, age 17

Certainly, River of Words has succeeded in its mission and this book would be a wonderful inspiration for students as teachers strive toward a similar goal of encouraging and developing artistic abilities in the classroom.

Vibrant artwork from realistic to abstract is an invitation to explore both words and images.

It is interesting to note that the poems are grouped by the bioregion represented by the work in the U.S. or designated as International rather than by the locality of the poet.