the poetry friday roundup is here!

November 14, 2013September 14, 2017 ~ jama ~ 53 Comments

Hello and Welcome to Poetry Friday at Alphabet Soup!

Please help yourself to a cup of tea and an Apple Pumpkin Walnut Muffin (recipe here). The footed teacup will make it easier to amble from blog to blog as you savor all the wonderful poems, reviews, and poetic musings others are sharing today. The muffins are a Fall tradition in our house — no better way to celebrate the season than to bite into apples and pumpkin at the same time. 🙂

See that beautiful book up there? Views from a Window Seat: Thoughts on Writing and Life (Stone Door Press, 2013) by critically acclaimed author, poet, historian and Poetry Friday participant Jeannine Atkins has been my constant companion all week. I was thrilled when I first heard Jeannine was publishing a book based on her blog, which I’ve been reading and loving for almost seven years.

I don’t know of many writers whose blog entries read like poetry, but I do know that her words nourish, sustain, and make me want to become a better writer and person. You could not ask for a kinder, more sensitive or astute guide as you navigate the day-to-day challenges of a writer’s life.

*Cornelius crushing on Jeannine. Is he taken with her poetry or her cranberry muffins? Probably both.*

This lovely collection of finely wrought inspirational essays, organized by the “seasons” of writing a book (Spring: Beginning, Summer: Moving Through the Middle, Fall: Revising, Winter: Finding an End), is a unique, intimate, revealing ‘innerscape’ laden with deep, gentle wisdom — what a privilege to peek into the soul of this writer!

As Jeannine describes the stages and different aspects of writing poetry, fiction, and biography in metaphor-rich prose, she turns your tired perspective on its head, continually challenging your assumptions.

Oh, to revel in the possibilities of language, linger with the hummingbird hovering near the honeysuckle, celebrate the discovery of just the right historical detail or turn of phrase! Then, to inevitably know the yin to the yang — grief at the loss of a dear friend, staring rejection in the face, learning how to accept the vagaries of the publishing industry without losing faith or direction.

Views from a Window Seat champions the steadfast hope whose name is ‘writer.’ It is a gift to all who read, write, love words, and who might be curious about the heart and mind of a poet. Treat yourself to a copy and give it to your friends this holiday season.

Here’s an excerpt from “Slim Books,” where Jeannine discusses balancing her role as a biographer, “who needs to be exhaustive,” with the poet, “who travels lightly.”

Once I get my facts straight, once I’ve described, say, a bird, with the slant of every feather distinct, I shut my eyes and listen for what flies, flutters, or fails. I shake the poems like doormats. Phrases tumble. Some are swept past the margins and stay there. A few find places in other poems. Some spots need a bit more mystery, and I nudge them around corners, away from the bright light, to let shadows do their work.

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VIEWS FROM A WINDOW SEAT: Thoughts on Writing and Life
by Jeannine Atkins
published by Stone Door Press, 2013
Inspirational Essays for Writers, 190 pp.
*Available in paperback and eBook formats

** Click here to read Jeannine’s thoughts about self-publishing this book!

*** Visit Jeannine’s Official Website to learn more about all her books, and subscribe to her blog, Views from a Window Seat, if you haven’t already.

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♥ TODAY’S POETRY FRIDAY ROUNDUP ♥

Please leave your links with Mr. Linky below. Don’t forget to include the title of the poem you’re sharing or book you’re reviewing in parentheses after your name.

Thanks for joining us today!

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1. Charles Ghigna (“November”)

2. Charles Ghigna (Talking GRANDparents at TALKING STORY)

3. Michelle @ Today’s Little Ditty (“A Dirty Kitchen Secret”)

4. Myra @ Gathering Books (A Pablo Neruda Special)

5. Laura Purdie Salas (“Ice Bridge” by Jane Yolen, with audio and poem starter)

6. Steven Withrow (“Comet Eater”)

7. Keri Collins Lewis (“California” – an acrostic)

8. Laura @ Author Amok (“Forgotten Planet” and Science Poetry)

9. Matt Forrest Esenwine (“Problem Solved”)

10. Diane Mayr (“Mr. Klimt’s Garden”, an original ekphrastic poem)

11. Linda Baie (What the Heart Knows – Joyce Sidman, and an original poem)

12. Kurious Kitty (Words with Wings)

13. Semicolon (David McCord)

14. KK’s Kwotes (quote on the process of creation)

15. Margaret Simon (Stealing a line poetry exercise)

16. Irene Latham (Giveaway and excerpts from Views from a Window Seat)

17. M. M. Socks (“To Myself”)

18. Robyn Hood Black (Haiku Series continues with Tom Painting)

19. Tara @ A Teaching Life (“Emily Dickinson” by Linda Pastan)

20. Donna @ Mainely Write (“Sleepover”)

21. Violet N (“Mother Bear”)

22. Tabatha (Robert Louis Stevenson)

23. Greg Pincus (“The Terrible Time-Eating Poem”)

24. The Poem Farm (“Whirligig Cardinal” and A New Writing Friend)

25. Mary Lee (NEW Billy Collins book!)

26. Madelyn Rosenberg (Mortimer Minute and “Sing, Little Songbird”)

27. Carol (new-to-me favorite poet David Whyte)

28. Shelf-Employed (The Highway Rat)

29. Anamaria @ Books Together (On Haiku for the Hop)

30. No Water River (Iza Trapani and Little Miss Muffet)

31. Heidi (My Po Per Day comes to a skidding halt huzzah)

32. Jeannine Atkins (Poetry and Plot)

33. Becky Shillington (Autumn haiku and Halloween Poetry Recap)

34. Ruth (Suzanne Vega song)

35. Dori Reads (Water and Words from Key West)

36. Little Willow – Bildungsroman (“Arcadia” by Tom Stoppard)

37. Karen Edmisten (“Being not unlovable, but strange and light”)

38. Tricia AKA Miss Rumphius (“To Sleep” by John Keats)

39. Dia Calhoun (“Old Man Woodstove”)

40. Jone (William Carlos Williams)

41. Liz Steinglass (Ted Kooser/Essential American Poets Podcast)

42. JoAnn Early Macken (Teaching Authors – thanku for supporting quality education)

43. kort@one deep drawer (Gertrude Stein, Mary Oliver)

44. Joy Acey (“Thanksgiving Colors”)

45. Lorie Ann Grover (Snaking passage)

46. readertotz (Train, Count and Elmo)

47. Anastasia @ Poet! Poet! (“LIKE NEW”)

48. Catherine Johnson (“Bunion”)

49. Kelly Ramsdell Fineman (“A Family Thanksgiving”)

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friday feast: yes! we are latinos by alma flor ada, f. isabel campoy and david diaz

November 8, 2013September 14, 2017 ~ jama ~ 38 Comments

Which of the following statements is true?

Hispanics/Latinos are a single race who all look alike
All Latinos in the United States are recent immigrants, most of whom are here illegally
All Latinos speak Spanish and sound alike
Hispanic immigrants aren’t interested in learning English
Latinos are the largest and fastest growing minority group in the country and have lived in the territories now known as the United States for over four centuries.

If you guessed the last one, you’re correct, but did any of the other statements sound familiar? Chances are good you’ve encountered people who actually believe they’re true.

That’s one of the reasons Yes! We Are Latinos by eminent authors and scholars Alma Flor Ada and F. Isabel Campoy (Charlesbridge, 2013), is a must read not only for young people but for everyone.

This wonderful celebration of the rich diversity and mixed cultural origins of the more than 50 million Latinos in the U.S. informs, enlightens, and helps to dispel many commonly-held misconceptions about who Latinos are and the nature of their vital, historic role in the fabric of our society.

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feasting on judi barrett’s cloudy with a chance of meatballs 3: planet of the pies

October 30, 2013September 13, 2017 ~ jama ~ 6 Comments

Sometimes when people really like something they’ll say: I think I’ve died and gone to heaven.

Could be heaven and Mars are the same place. As long as there’s pie!

I’m convinced Judi Barrett wrote the first Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs book just for me. A story about edible precipitation, with mashed potato snow, hamburger storms and SOUP rain (forcryingoutloud) has my name written all over it, does it not? My toes still tingle when I read about the giant pancake that covered the school, and how the residents of ChewandSwallow set sail on rafts made from giant pieces of stale bread (holy peanut butter).

And then, some 19 years later, Ms. Barrett gifted me with Pickles to Pittsburgh. I swooned over the giant airlifted hot dogs and tuna fish sandwiches and a charitable world where “there is always enough food for everyone.”

Fast forward another 16 years, when the inimitable and perpetually hungry Ms. Barrett (no doubt having heard of my “eternal quest for pie”), has just published Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 3: Planet of the Pies (Atheneum, 2013)!!

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a chocolate chat with author mara price + her recipe for mexican chocolate brownies!

October 1, 2013September 2, 2017 ~ jama ~ 41 Comments

Not too long ago, I walked into this tiny chocolate shop in Kailua, Hawai’i:

I was anxious to try the award-winning artisanal bean-to-bar chocolate I’d heard so much about. (Did you know Hawai’i is the only state in the country where cacao can be grown?) I was greeted by this cute, friendly chocolate maker named Dave Elliott:

*How could anyone resist buying chocolate from this man?*

As he told me about the two lines of chocolate they make on site — one with cacao grown in Hamakua on the Big Island, the other with cacao sourced from Central America and the Caribbean, I spotted an interesting children’s picture book on the top shelf:

Grandma’s Chocolate? My kind of book! Dave told me the author, Mara Price, had recently done a presentation and signing at Madre Chocolate.

As soon as I returned home to Virginia (after taste testing several luscious bars — Coconut Milk and Caramelized Ginger, 70% Hamakua Dark, Triple Cacao, Passion Fruit, 70% Dominican Republic Dark), I contacted Mara and she graciously agreed to talk chocolate with us at Alphabet Soup. 🙂

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friday feast: chatting with natalie s. bober about papa is a poet: a story about robert frost

September 27, 2013September 2, 2017 ~ jama ~ 49 Comments

The last time I was in New Hampshire, I visited Frost Place in Franconia. I regret not also seeing Derry Farm, where Robert Frost found his literary voice, developed his poetic style, and garnered a lifetime of inspiration from his surroundings and the interesting people he met.

I might say the core of all my writing was probably the five free years I had there on the farm down the road a mile or two from Derry Village toward Lawrence. The only thing we had was time and seclusion. I couldn’t have figured on it in advance. I hadn’t that kind of foresight. But it turned out right as a doctor’s prescription.

(From: Selected Letters of Robert Frost, Lawrence Thompson, ed. New York: Holt, 1964)

I love Natalie S. Bober’s new picture book, Papa is a Poet: A Story About Robert Frost (Henry Holt, 2013), which describes Frost’s crucial years at Derry Farm as told through the eyes of his oldest daughter Lesley.

We come to know Frost as a loving husband and father, an impoverished poultry farmer, and a word lover who not only instilled a love of reading and writing in his children, but who also taught them how to look carefully at the natural world, to make comparisons, and “to bring on what he called ‘metaphor'”.

Young readers will enjoy reading about the Frost family all-day Sunday picnics, how they wandered through fields and woodlands learning the names of flowers and birds, how they watched the sunset and studied the stars at night, how the children were encouraged to tell stories and record what they saw and felt on paper.

When listening to the speech of his farmer neighbors, Frost “heard the words that had the ring of pure poetry,” inspiring him to “make music out of words.”

While Frost’s passion for writing, his family and their rural lifestyle are clearly celebrated in Lesley’s narrative, she also mentions how her father struggled to make a living as a poet, how he felt like he was a “disappointing failure” to family and friends. She explains why, despite a life “filled to the brim” even when the “cupboard was often bare,” they eventually left the farm and moved to England.

Her Papa had courageously made the difficult, “reckless choice” to pursue the life of a poet. Despite years of poverty and rejection, he’d chosen the road less traveled by.