lill pluta lines our pockets

April 26, 2012September 8, 2017 ~ jama ~ 31 Comments

#20 in the Poetry Potluck Series, celebrating National Poetry Month 2012.

Okay, Cutie Pies — Do you know what day it is??!!!

Maybe I should say: What are you carrying in your pocket today?

I hope that along with a ripe mango, biscuit crumbs, 3 cabbage leaves, 2 chipotle peppers, a handful of lentils, apricot rugelach, 2 cups of oatmeal, 5 blueberry muffins, orzo, almonds and pecans, a bunch of grapes, plain yogurt, shrimpies, a carrot cupcake, wild asparagus, two frozen pie crusts, and a lamb who speaks Irish — there is at least one POEM!

Walla Walla Bing Bang, it’s Poem in Your Pocket Day! — The one day of the year you’re supposed to carry around a favorite poem, stop perfect strangers in the street and read it to them (with feeling). Or maybe impress the person behind you in the grocery checkout line with a little Billy Collins while you’re juggling a few cantaloupes.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU’RE NOT CARRYING A POEM?!

*wrings hands, rolls eyes*

Sheesh! Have you learned nothing this month?

It’s a GOOD THING Lill Pluta is joining the Potluck today, because she has the perfect poem for those of you with empty pockets. Yes, I know that I listed Lill as “Kay Pluta” in the Potluck Menu. That’s because Ms. Pluta goes by a few different names — sometimes it’s “Lillian Pluta,” other times, it’s “Kay Pluta,” and today it’s “Lill Pluta.” You’re allowed to have different names when you’re that awesome.

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jill corcoran: dreaming of big things . . . and cupcakes!

April 25, 2012September 8, 2017 ~ jama ~ 28 Comments

#19 in the Poetry Potluck Series, celebrating National Poetry Month 2012.

Jill Corcoran wears many hats in the world of children’s books — she’s an award-winning author, poet, literary agent and editor who’s creating a new series of poetry anthologies for Kane Miller Books.

You may already know that the first anthology, Dare to Dream . . . Change the World, will be released this Fall, and I’m especially happy because it includes the work of many previous Poetry Potluck noshers, like Jane Yolen, Joyce Sidman, J. Patrick Lewis, Marilyn Singer, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Elaine Magliaro, Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Laura Purdie Salas, Kelly R. Fineman, and of course, Janet Wong, who was just here yesterday. How can you go wrong with a line-up like that?

Since I first “met” Jill online years ago through Poetry Friday, when she shared a touching poem inspired by her sister, it’s nice that for her first visit to Alphabet Soup she’s sharing a poem that just happens to be the title poem from the new anthology, which is fully illustrated by J Beth Jepson. She’s also brought a special recipe that she enjoys making with her daughter. (Those who know me, know that I get a tad ecstatic at the mention of cupcakes.) If you need me, I’ll be drooling over by the dessert table.

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janet wong: handful of this, pinch of that

April 24, 2012September 7, 2017 ~ jama ~ 52 Comments

#18 in the Poetry Potluck Series, celebrating National Poetry Month 2012.

Other

We notice each other right away.
We are the only two Asians in the room.
It does not matter that her hair is long.
It does not matter that I am fat.
I look at her like I look in a mirror,
recognizing my self in one quick glance.

Copyright © 1996 Janet S.Wong (A Suitcase of Seaweed and Other Poems, Margaret K. McElderry Books)

In a recent interview at the Teaching Authors blog, April Halprin Wayland referred to Janet Wong as, “a force of nature in the world of children’s poetry.” Forever brimming with ideas, quick to encourage others, and tirelessly evangelizing the reading, writing and sharing of poetry in different forms and formats, Janet is truly beloved by her readers and an ongoing inspiration to her peers.

Often, when reading Janet’s poems, I have to stop for a fist pump, my inner child shouting, “YES!” It’s so good to feel understood, validated and simply human. I love when her humor surprises me, when she takes something small and ordinary and turns it on its side so I can see it from a fresh perspective, and I always appreciate the genuine, authentic voice that proves she really gets it, gets you.

I’ve lived the truth of “Other” countless times. Is it better to feel invisible, or to stick out like a sore thumb, when all you want is to belong and be proud of who you are? I’m glad this poem is there for anyone who’s ever felt like the odd man out.

I’m happy that Janet chose to share another poem from A Suitcase of Seaweed today, since it’s my personal favorite of her poetry collections. With razor sharp perception, she examines some of the differences between Korean and Chinese customs and holds them up to the American way of life. I laughed at “Rice Cooker” because I did the very same thing, and I could just smell those sheets of seaweed and taste that “Beef Bone Soup.” See why I like this book so much?

For now, though, let’s imagine we all have a Chinese grandmother to bake us these cookies. I loved them as a child, but ours came from a Chinese bakery. Lucky Janet!

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sunday bear: mary oliver from New Poems (1991-1992)

April 22, 2012October 2, 2017 ~ jama ~ 13 Comments

*“Hilda” by Barbara Ferrier (cream mohair, hand knitted sweater, hand stitched pink nose, gold locket, 1992)*

Spring Azures
by Mary Oliver

In spring the blue azures bow down
at the edges of shallow puddles
to drink the black rain water.
Then they rise and float away into the fields.

Sometimes the great bones of my life feel so heavy,
and all the tricks my body knows —
the opposable thumbs, the kneecaps,
and the mind clicking and clicking —

don’t seem enough to carry me through the world
and I think how I would like

to have wings —
blue ones —
ribbons of flame.

How I would like to open them, and rise
from the black rain water.

And then I think of Blake, in the dirt and sweat of London — a boy
staring through the window, when God came
fluttering up.

Of course, he screamed,
seeing the bobbin of God’s blue body
leaning on the sill,
and the thousand-faceted eyes.

Well, who knows.
Who knows what hung, fluttering, at the window
between him and the darkness.

Anyway, Blake the hosier’s son stood up
and turned away from the sooty sill and the dark city —
turned away forever
from the factories, the personal strivings,

to a life of the imagination.

Copyright © 1992 Mary Oliver (New and Selected Poems, published by Beacon Press). All rights reserved.

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LAST WEEK’S DOOR PRIZE WINNERS

The President’s Stuck in the Bathtub by Susan Katz and Robert Neubecker: Linda Baie from Teacher Dance

UnBEElievables by Douglas Florian: Tabatha Yeatts from The Opposite of Indifference

CONGRATULATIONS LINDA AND TABATHA! Please send me your snail mail address so I can get your books out to you: readermail (at) jamakimrattigan (dot) com.

Thanks for all your wonderful comments, Everyone!

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Week of April 23 – 30, 2012

Guest Poets:

April 23: Doraine Bennett
April 24: Janet Wong
April 25: Jill Corcoran
April 26: Kay Pluta
April 27: Heidi Bee Roemer
April 30: Lee Wardlaw

Door Prizes:

The Declaration of Interdependence by Janet Wong (Poetry Suitcase, 2012)
Won Ton: A Cat Tale Told in Haiku by Lee Wardlaw and Eugene Yelchin (Henry Holt, 2011)
A Stick is an Excellent Thing by Marilyn Singer and LeUyen Pham (Clarion Books, 2012) – Previously unannounced surprise door prize!

**Comment on any post (April 23-28) to be eligible to win!

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♥ Today’s Sunday Bear Hug is brought to you by Cornelius Oliver, who has renamed himself after his favorite poet. He requests that everyone wear blue today in Mary’s honor.

(((MARY)))(((MARY)))(((MARY))))(((MARY))))

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friday feast: sondra gash, quite a cookie

April 20, 2012September 6, 2017 ~ jama ~ 66 Comments

#16 in the Poetry Potluck Series, celebrating National Poetry Month 2012.

If you give a poet a cookie, she will eat it, learn to make more, and then grow up to write a poem about it that millions of people will hear on the radio.

I’m talking about Sondra Gash’s, “Rugelah, 5 a.m.,” of course, which Garrison Keillor read on The Writer’s Almanac back in August 2010. Sondra’s poem made me hungry to learn more about this popular Jewish confection, which is enjoyed year round and often called “cream cheese cookies” here in the U.S.

*Rugelach dough is commonly rolled into a circle, then sliced into pie wedges which are then rolled up to form crescent shapes (via S. Filson).*

Depending upon whom you talk to, the Yiddish term”rugelach,” can be translated as “royal,” “little twists,” or “horns.” The practice of combining cream cheese or sour cream with fruit, nuts, jams, and spices to make cookies, cakes and other pastries is a central European tradition with ancient Middle Eastern roots.

We have to thank Eastern European immigrants for bringing the first rugelach recipes to this country. According to Joan Nathan (Jewish Cooking in America), “There is no other Jewish sweet that has gone more mainstream than rugelach.” Though I have yet to bake any myself, thus far I’ve been unable to resist these rich, flaky little crescents whenever they appear on a holiday cookie tray or in a bakery window: raspberry jam and dark chocolate! marzipan and walnuts! cinnamon, poppy seeds, apricot preserves, raisins! A bite of history that stays with you forever.