Trying to get in tune

Hi everyone,

For no particular reason, I’d like to share a trombone poem with you today. I don’t remember when I wrote it or where it originally appeared. I might have written it specifically for SYLVIA VARDELL and JANET WONG for their book, The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School, published by Pomelo Books in 2013. At some point I made a video of the poem with SANDY playing the role of my music teacher. She was a natural. Of course.

In the School Band

I play a slide trombone,
My teacher says I’m flat,
I’m not as good as I’d like to be,
But there’s nothing to do about that.

I play the slide trombone,
At least I’m not the worst,
I’m one chair up from the guy who’s last,
Twenty-five chairs from first.

My teacher says I’m flat,
I sound all right to me,
First chair practices every night.
When does he watch TV?

I’m not as good as I’d like,
A trombone isn’t easy,
Even guys I like a lot
Say I make them queasy.

I play a slide trombone,
My teacher says I’m flat,
I’m not as good as I’d like to be,
But there’s nothing to do about that.

(c) 2013 David L Harrison, all rights reserved

You can’t catch me!

NOTE: For those of you who are interested in attending the virtual Poetry Reading on the 13t, it might help to know that I’ll take the opening ten minutes of the program, which start at 7:00 CST. I’ll read some of my children’s poems followed by the other three poets reading their work for adult readers. The final twenty minutes, starting at roughly 7:40, will be open for Q and A. Hope this helps.

Hi everyone,

A few days ago I saw a video of my poem, “You Can’t Catch Me!”

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10222524021543336&id=1054445851&sfnsn=mo

that appeared in HOP TO IT, a recent title from Pomelo Books by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. I was charmed by it and went to the source for information.

Turns out that Sylvia is having each student in one of her classes at Texas Women’s University take a poem from the book and as a class project create a video of it. There will be new videos posted throughout April, National Poetry Month. Is this cool? Sylvia says all the videos are good but she suggested a few coming attractions to watching for, including Margaret Simon’s “Zen Tree” (on April 28), “Me and the Beach Creatures” by Susan Blackaby (on April 26), and “Wiggle Your Ears!” by Jay Brazeau (on April 21).

And don’t forget, you can always pick up a copy of the book and enjoy every poem in your own way in your own place in your own time. Hop to it!

Hop to It!

Hi everyone,

Today at 3:00 CST I’ll participate in a Zoom poetry party to celebrate the October 15 publication of Pomelo’s newest release, HOP TO IT, Poems to Get You Moving.

A group of 28 poets with poems in the book will chat and take turns reading their poems. Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong will be our hosts so it promises to be an entertaining event. This will be recorded so that segments of it can be used at later times to promote the book.

My poem is titled “You Can’t Catch Me”.

Thanks to Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong

Hi everyone,

This week I received a royalty check for five of my poems that are in various Pomelo books published by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong in their line of poetry collections. It was a reminder of how much these two have contributed to the state of poetry in our country. Not since Kent Brown created Wondsong at Highlights dedicated to publishing children’s poetry has anyone done as much for the genre and the people who write it. Thank you, Sylvia and Janet. I appreciate the check, but I love what you have done.