I didn’t make it to this year’s NCTE conference in Denver. MARY JO FRESCH did and reported back on a successful presentation and a great book signing. Our 2020 title with NCTE, Empowering Students’ Knowledge of Vocabulary, was available as well as our 2022 Scholastic books with TIM RASINSKI — Partner Poems and Word Ladders for Building Fundamental Literacy Skills.
There was also the news that MATT FORREST ESENWINE’S 2025 anthology, A Universe of Rainbows, was chosen as one of 10 “Notable Children’s Poetry Books for 2026!” Twenty poets contributed to the collection and I was glad to be one of them. Way to go, Matt and everyone involved!
With great pleasure I announce the additions of the final recordings in Poetry from Daily Life Free Video Library! There are eight of them, some for the first time, others for the second. They are VIRGINIA LOWE, MARYFRANCES WAGNER, REBECCA KAI DOTLICH, CONSTANCE LEVY, BARBARA LOOTS, LOLA HASKINS, AMOS BRIDGES, AND BOB STEPHENS. This is a big day for the project, which grew from the 101 weekly newspaper columns made possible by Amos Bridges, Editor-in-Chief at Springfield News-Leader. The recordings of contributors from twenty-five states and three other countries were created and posted by BRIAN SHIPMAN at Drury University. Way to go, Brian!!
Here’s the link to see all 60 recordings plus my introduction, which welcomes readers and explains a bit about the series and its wide-ranging host of contributors. Please go see it and tell others. Thanks to all who had a hand in creating this resource for the world.
The thing about poetry is that you can write about virtually anything you see, read, overhear, experience, dream of, worry about, or wish for. There is no limit. You can get all that in a novel or play or short story, but those efforts all take considerably longer. Even if a poem runs several pages, it remains one of the quickest ways we have for getting it down.
There are sad writers who tend to write about sadness; angry ones who need to air their reasons; those who are focused on a specific cause, those who aspire to be funny… Whatever the motivation, writing a poem can be cathartic. But we can’t be serious all the time, or humorous or ticked off or pushing the cause. Sometime — often — we write about the moment, we write because it just feels good. Said differently, it feels wrong not to.
T. S. Eliot was a serious poet who loved cats and writing about them. Billie Collins sometimes seems to slouch in the doorway to chat about something he wants to share. He’s not always serious. One of his poems is about walking across the ocean, wondering what the bottoms of his bare feet look like to the creatures below. One of Ted Kooser’s poems is about a guy standing before a mirror tying his tie.
The point is that the act of writing has value of its own. I enjoy reading the poems of contributors to Word of the Month Poetry Challenge. Eliot referred to his light poems as palate cleansers from the more severe themes of his other work. Feel free to borrow his term. Sometimes the best thing to write about is something in the moment. The point isn’t to make a poem for the ages. The point is to make a poem for you.
I haven’t written about the globe locust tree in our front yard for several years although I rarely miss a day without giving it a glance. We planted it and three others when we built our house in 1989. Only this one remains, a wraith of its youth, but somehow clinging to life, raising a few birds, throwing bits of tattered shade, doing what it can with its few remaining resources.
These are old pictures. It looks much worse now. Long ago I stopped predicting that the tree would never make it through another winter, through another storm. Now and then it gives up a limb. Not long ago we had to replace the power station on a concrete slab near its base and it was necessary for workers to saw off a sizeable limb on one side. I begged them not to but it couldn’t be helped. The tree is still here. Over the past few years a healthy looking hackberry tumbled into the lake. A beautiful maple lost its leaves and died of some mysterious ailment. An enormous blooming cherry became sick and died within months. The old globe locust is still here, a hoary elf in winter, a leprechaun in green to greet the spring.
On an occasion when SANDY and I visited a friend in a nursing home, we nodded and smiled to many of the men and women we met up and down the hall. I came home and wrote this poem.
I shiver when the winter flays me bare, But ah the joy when leaves renew in spring! People walking by are prone to stare. They can’t believe I’ll have another fling.
To compensate, as aging trees will do, I make up for my dissipating strength By lightening my limbs with beetle holes. My friends I offer this advice to you, Trees with grit will go to any length. Never underestimate our souls.
BOB STEPHENS is gathering five poems from each of the Bards of Moon City as he prepares our fourth annual anthology. There are twelve or so in the Springfield area who give poetry readings around town, and occasionally beyond, as members of the group. The effort began as a way to observe National Poetry Month (April) but has expanded over time to include readings throughout the year. Each anthology is illustrated by a local artist and can be purchased both locally and online. Proceeds from sales go to support Ozark Literacy Council.
So far I’ve chosen one of my five poems for Volume 4. Four to go. What a pleasant duty.
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