Poetry Friday is Here!

So pleased to be hosting Poetry Friday this week! Thanks for coming.

I wanted to share two poems by James A. Emanuel, but I wasn't sure how to get permission. They aren't old enough to be in the public domain. Mr. Emanuel is 90 years old himself, and I'm not sure how to contact him. This is a common dilemma! I ended up deciding to link to one and post a portion of the other.

Jazz Singer by Creative Enterprise with Keith Mallett fabric
Excerpt from "I’m A Jazz Singer," She Replied
by James A. Emanuel

He dug what she said:
bright jellies, smooth marmalade
spread on warm brown bread.

“Jazz” from drowsy lips
orchids lift to honeybees
floating on long sips.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's Emanuel's Poet as Fisherman.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

* Over at TeachingAuthors, April offers an original poem about what she's learned in writing a poem a day for more than a year. It's about being present and ready to catch the poem when it appears. (sometimes...!)

* Books4Learning shares A Kick in the Head: An Everyday Guide to Poetic Forms by Paul B. Janeczko.

* Kerry gives us an original poem/action rhyme called "Let's Dance!" in honor of both National Poetry Month and National Dance Week.

* Anne at Little Sprout Books is using poetry to get ready for teacher appreciation week (and enjoying some funny-poem giggles while we're at it!).

* Mary Lee graciously supplies some twitkus, inspired by Dave's bummers.

* Maria brings us an original poem about an original topic -- OAA state tests.

* Tara has a poem from the New York Times' series "Poetry Pairings."

Diane shares a smorgasbord of poetry:

* At Random Noodling, there's "poetry exercises."

* Kurious Kitty looks at Poetry Tag Time.

* Kurious K's Kwotes' P.F. quote is by Socrates.

* And, at The Write Sisters: "A Shower" by Amy Lowell.

* Heidi posted her new original "a way."

* Continuing her series of Maryland poets this month, Laura Shovan has Lalita Noronha's nature poem "At Sea" with a related writing prompt that's school-friendly.

Laura Purdie Salas also has multiple PF posts:

* She's got "Jellyfishing" from Leslie Bulion's At the Sea Floor Cafe.

* Plus 15 Words or Less poems (come play).

* And she invites anybody who enjoys writing poetry to join in the Wednesday club where she and Susan Taylor Brown are doing a kind of ongoing book club on Sage Cohen's Writing the Life Poetic.

* Amy at Hope Is The Word reviewed a picture book of Edward Lear's poetry.

* Amy LV has a classroom poetry peek into Dale Sondericker's room where we learn some new ways to help children connect with poems. Also, she has silly poems and the almost-end of her year roundup.

* Carol brings us A Cloth of Fine Gold by Dorothy Walters.

* Tanita is here with the final poem from the Oakwood School on Mare's War, titled "Everything She Wasn't."

* Jama is wrapping up her Poetry Potluck today with a soup poem by Kelli Russell Agodon.

* Ruth brings us original recess duty haiku.

* It's the fourth and nearly final round-up of Dave's thrice-daily twitter haiku today.

* Carlie shares an original poem about personal panic: "Chocolate, Balm For All Ills."

* Katie lets us know about a dog poetry collection by Patricia Maclachlan and Emily Maclachlan Charest.

* Student poetry today ("30 Days = 30 Students") from McMac

* Isn't it funny for poetry that is over two hundred years old to be timely? But it is. Robyn shares William Blake's Songs of Innocence.

* Happy Birthday to Liz Garton Scanlon's husband, who is the recipient of her 29th daily haiku.

* Charles Ghigna (Father Goose) posted a terrific list of Poetry Forms with descriptions and examples at the HOW TO WRITE A POEM Blog

* At Wild Rose Reader, Elaine has a review and excerpts from Janet Wong's poetry collection THE RAINBOW HAND: POEMS ABOUT MOTHERS AND CHILDREN, which would make a wonderful Mother's Day gift!

* More Janet Wong! Michelle has the second part of her fascinating interview with Joan Bransfield Graham, April Halprin Wayland and Janet Wong on the Writing Process.

* Blythe offers Ode to the Brain, a slice of sciency poetry spun from the words of scientists by melodysheep. We all have an enchanted loom...

* For all the little aspiring princesses, Brimful Curiosities has "Purple" by Nikki Grimes.

* Like me, Martha is into hats today.

* Judy brings us Bishop's One Art, as she thinks about loss.

* Rain is on Sarah's mind as she offers Emily Dickinson's take on the subject.

* Karen E shows us how much she will really miss Michael Scott.

* One post by Elaine is never enough. She's back with two original acrostic poems about the month of May.

* Ben at The Small Nouns shares his 29th new (to him) poem of the month: "For My Daughter" by David Ignatow.

* Get a breath of fresh air with Andi's haibun!

* Inspired by the blowing of giant bubbles in her yard (and maybe by Prince William's sartorial splendor), Hannah is offering up "A Fairy in Armor" this week.

* Greg has two poems up today as part of 30 Poets/30 Days: Linda Sue Park's sijo Explaining Baseball to an Alien and Kristine O'Connell George's Daze of the Week.

* Tricia is in today with a poem by Barbara Hamby and a round-up of last week's national poetry month posts.

* Janet Squires' selection is "A Crossing of Zebras: animal packs in poetry" written by Marjorie Maddox and illustrated by Philip Huber.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

In honor of National Poetry Month (and my blog's upcoming first anniversary), for a limited time I'm giving away The Opposite of Indifference bookmarks featuring Sir Monkey of Sock. Just email me at tabatha(at)tabathayeatts(dot)com with "bookmark" in the subject line and your address in the body of the message. The bookmark art is by Rachel King Birch.