Learning poetry from the William Tell Overture

Hi everyone,

Last night I dreamed that I was listening to a 14-year-old virtuoso playing Gioachino Rossini’s William Tell Overture on the piano. That segued to memories of playing in my high school German Band. There were five of us — tuba, coronet, trombone, and two clarinets — all good musicians who played first chair in the school’s band and orchestra. We were hastily brought together one night by the Music Director to provide entertainment for a Parent/Teacher event. We were well received and went on to play a number of times over the ensuing years, replaced as we graduated one by one by the next generation.

Our original group played a variety of traditional German Band music such as “Beer Barrel Polka” and “Oom-Pah-Pah” and threw in some Dixieland (I loved “When the Saints Go Marching In”), but our favorite and most popular was the fourth movement of the William Tell Overture, probably best known as The Lone Ranger’s theme song.

Which brings me back to my point. Music and poetry are so intertwined that to practice one is to practice both. Poetry has feet, accents, rhythm, and meter (at least structured verse does) and music has stanzas, notes, accents, rhythm, and meter. Both bring together sounds that go together and one can accompany the other. Ask NILE STANLEY, ERIC ODE, JOSEPH BRUCHAC, RANDALL CHOWNING, and any number of other poet/musicians how writing poems improves musical ability and how composing music is a poetic endeavor.

If you or someone in your circle plays a musical instrument or sings (including in the shower), that person has a head start as a writer, of poetry in particular. I was involved in music (instrumental and vocal) for twelve years, from ages 10-22. Again and again I have been grateful for that experience. The music in my thoughts (and dreams) informs how I write.

Is my blog worth your time?

Hi everyone,

I started posting on my blog in October, 2009, nearly 15 1/2 years ago. I had no idea at the time what a blog was or how to run one. KATHY TEMEAN, designer of my website, urged me to add a blog and Kathy can be persuasive. As I was puzzling over content and approach, here’s a list I sent her of some activities I might want to try and questions I thought should be responded to in one way or another.

LIST OF BLOG ACTIVITIES
Questions asked by kids
1	What inspires you to write a poem?
2	What advice do you have for kids to write poems?
3	How long does it take to write a poem?
4	How long does it take to write a book?
5	How long does it take to get a book published?
6	Who draws the pictures?
7	Do you choose the artist?
8	How many books have you had published?
9	Is it hard to be a writer?
10	What do you like about being a writer?
11	What is your favorite book of yours?
12	What is your favorite author?
13	What is your best selling book?
14	How old were you when you wrote your first book?
15	Where do you get your ideas?
16	Why did you become a writer?
17	Was it hard to get to be an author?
18	Do you still get rejected?
19	Does anyone else in your family write?
20	Why do you write about animals?
21	Are all of your books fiction?
22	What is your favorite genre to write?
23	Have you ever done a chapter book?
24	Have you won any awards?
Establish a word of the month to inspire poems
Talk about finding ideas
Talk about starting stories
Talk about picture books
Establish guests on my blog: poets, authors, editors, agents, etc.

For those of you who have followed the blog for a while, I leave it to you to decide if my original thinking has remained evident in my posts. I know I’ve written often about where I live and the ideas that come from observation of place. I spot a number of items on the q/a list that have received attention. I got the Word of the Month Challenge up and running soon after I made the list. But I’ve also talked about myself more than I had imagined, my books, occasional recognitions, places where I speak, etc. I worry a lot about the me-me-me aspect. It’s my blog and it’s supposed to be about the life of a writer, but too much of that sort of thing becomes tedious and self serving.

I’m glad I found this old list. This is a good time to evaluate what I present on the blog. Since 2009 I’ve posted almost 4,800 times and have averaged about one hour per post. That’s a lot of my time, and yours to read what I choose to say, and I don’t want to waste time for any of us. I’m going to give this some serious thought and I welcome your comments and suggestions while I do. Thank you very much.