Click on the "comment" button below to leave your blog post. I suggest you type your response first in a word document, and then copy and paste it into the comment box. Your blog post should be at least 500 words of original prose (do not duplicate anything other bloggers have already said here) in which you engage with the text for the week critically AND pose an original discussion question. Be sure to write your full name and word count at the bottom of your post. The cut-off time for this blog post is Monday, February 24 at midnight.Discussion Leaders: Liz, Andrea, Chelcie, Shaina
The poems included in Paul B. Janeczko’s anthology of concrete poems provided to be an intriguing and entertainingly easy-read. This collection was much different from Sharon Creech’s Love That Dog, in that it was not intended to tell a story by continuing on from one poem to the next. The reader could actually begin reading at any point in the text and read every poem out of order, and each would make just as sense at it would had the reader proceeded in chronological order. While reading the poems, it was fun to look at Chris Raschka’s unique illustrations. Although the content of the poems had little or no connection, the appearance and style of the illustrations were able to link them all together in some way.
ReplyDeleteBecause these poems are concrete, it is an adventure to read them—not only in content, but in shape. Each poem took me on a path, one very different from the next. The entire book captures the essence of concrete poems. Even the paratext displays this format, from the copyright and title pages to notes from the editor. Also, I realized after reading that the inside cover pages display parts of Helen Chasin’s poem “Joy Sonnet in a Random Universe”.
Reading and understanding most of these poems at face-value was relatively easy to do. Many to the form of the animal or thing it was describing or talking about. To me, these didn’t have much depth. They seemed to be more straight-forward, as opposed to interpreting poems like William Carlos Williams’ “The Red Wheelbarrow”. In this text the illustrator even creates his own play on words with his poem “Cat Chair,” in which the word cat is embroidered on a pillow that’s sitting on a comfortable looking armchair. It couldn’t get simpler than that! Some took some figuring out to read correctly. Robert Froman’s “Sky Day Dream” read awkwardly until I realized I was reading it backwards. The shape and size of the words and lines in his poem reflect the subject. As the words get smaller and further away, the story unfolds about crows flying off into the distance. In a similar fashion, Douglas Florian reflects the upstream and upward movements of spawning fish in his poem “The Salmon”.
One poem that was more of a struggle to understand its significance was Mary Ellen Salt’s “Forsynthia”. It was challenging for me to understand the shape and theme of this poem. I can’t make out what shape the author is intending to form, and the words I read are as follows: “Forsynthia/Out/Race/Spring’s/Yellow/Telegram/Hope/Insists/Action”. I have read and reread this poem and still haven’t been able to form any meaning or flow from these words.
Colleen Thibaudeau’s “Balloon” is really fun. The shape of the words makes a balloon to show the reader what the poem is about. Without this depiction, there may be many possibilities for what the words are describing, as the poem never actually says the word balloon, other than in the title.
Poems like Froman’s “Whee,” are cute, but hard for me to justify as a poem. I accept that it is because it exits in this collection. But, what makes it a poem? Why is Froman allowed to put six words together, surrounded by m-dashes, and call it a poem?
My favorite poem in this collection is definitely Monica Kulling’s “Tennis Anyone?” Once I realize the lines were to be read across the spread rather than down and then over, it caused my eyes to perfectly simulate what my head and neck would be doing if I were watching an actual tennis match—moving back-and-forth and side to side.
Discussion Questions:
1. How do the connecting images affect the reader’s experience?
2. Why is Froman allowed to put six words together, surrounded by m-dashes, and call it a poem? (“Whee”)
3. What were you able to surmise about the meaning within was Mary Ellen Salt’s “Forsynthia”?
Andrea Fitzpatrick
Word count: 659
A POKE IN THE I, a collection of concrete poems selected by Paul B. Janeczko and illustrated by Chris Raschka.
ReplyDeleteThis book is a collection of poems selected by Paul B. Janeczko and Chris Raschka illustrated and drew pictures to go along with each poem. The pictures are mostly the same style of very bright colors and sharp pointy edges were used to draw the pictures. I really like the notes “from the editor” page in the beginning of the book. This description of concrete poems really helped me understand what was going on through out the book. A concrete poem is more “playful” than regular poems. They can be a one-word poem but it depends on where they are placed like on page 6 when the poem is just the word “cat.” Chris Raschka places this word “cat” on a chair, hence the poem’s name, “cat chair.” This is very playful and can amuse the reader. I thought the overall mood of this book was very literal and had a dry sarcastic humor. On page 30-31 is a poem called, “tennis anyone?” This poem has you read back and forth from page 30 to 31 to read the poem kind of like when you are watching tennis. This is so playful and very creative of Monica Kulling who is the author of this poem.
I have always been turned away from reading this book in the past because it looks different and not your usual looking children’s book. The first time I read through this it was a lot to take in. I am not used to reading these concrete poems. I am used to poems, which have structure and order. These poems in this book do not and that is what makes them so great. On page 33, there is a poem called, “Joy sonnet in a random universe,” by Helen Chasin. This poem starts off by saying, “sometimes I’m happy: la la la…” and goes on and on with random letters and words and you can tell by the illustration that this girl is in her own little world. You can relate to this girl because she looks so happy and joyful. I think children would really like the playfulness that this poem has to offer and you could really have fun creating concrete poems in a classroom.
Although some of these poems were easy to understand, some were not. On page, 18 there is a poem called, “No pretending,” by Robert Froman. This poem is about a dandelion just being a dandelion. It’s kind of sad that this dandelion is just there. I guess I just don’t understand why someone would write about this poem unless it is supposed to connect with the next page’s poem, which is called, “She loves me,” by Emmett Williams. It shows this cucumber looking person picking his hair out one piece by one piece. It seems strange because usually it’s a flower that your picking off the petals saying the famous words of, “she loves me, she loves me not.” The words are not finished and so your wondering if they forgot to add words to the poem or he meant it to be like that.
Question:
How do the pictures either help you understand the poem or take away from the meaning of the poem? Do you think the illustrations are necessary in these concrete poems?
By Elizabeth Ruimveld
Word count: 572
A Poke In the I is a very creative book, right from the start. I found myself being amused before even turning to the first poem by the dust jacket and introductory pages. The artwork was colorful, the way the words were arranged on the page to create new shapes and interesting forms, it all caught my eye immediately. The jacket includes an introduction about concrete poems, saying “the words in a/concrete poem may/wiggle about/curve around”, the page that states all the copyright information had its words circled and turned around the page, so that the copyright statement themselves made up the usual copyright simple (the letter “c” inside of a circle.)
ReplyDeleteWith a first impression like that, the actual meat of the book did not disappoint. So many of the concrete poems in this book are very unique and imaginative. I kind of expected there to be a lot of simple poems where the shape of the words took up the subject matter, which we got from Joan Bransfield Graham’s “Popsicle” and Robert Froman‘s “No Pretending,” but I was glad to see poems that really surprised me. Poems like “Merging Traffic” by Allen Jones, which features the two words merging together onto a single line. Or “Sky Day Dream” by Robert Froman, where the words created birds that floated away, with the actual words meant to be read inversely, from the bottom of the page to the top.
Another interesting facet of the poetry in this book are the illustrations that go along with the words. They’re integrated deeply into the form of the poems, sometimes acting as the backbone that the words are built upon. It really hit me as one of Philip Nel’s postmodernism ideals, the metapictures seen in children’s books where the pictures (and the entire page, in a lot of cases) can be seen and read in different ways. A child reader would have to spin the book around and turn their heads to different angles in order to read the words and the pictures that accompany them. My favorite example of this is the poem “Tennis Anyone?” by Monica Kulling. This poem is a two page spread, and the lines are broken up upon each of the pages. It’s done this way so the reader would have to turn their head back and forth in order to make sense of the words, and it echoes the very thing the narrator is complaining about: turning their neck back and forth to watch a tennis game. The illustrations on this page are doing the same thing, turning their heads from either direction.
While reading through this book, I also couldn’t help but wonder how younger audiences would interpret these poems. I feel like the poems that were difficult for me and took me a while to read (because I was figuring out HOW to read them) would be even worse for a younger kid. Or even still, there might even be children who could catch on to some of the forms quicker than I could.
Discussion Questions:
1. In some of the poems the illustrations act as part of its form, and for others it does not. Why do you think that is? Is there benefit to adding illustrations to a poem that doesn’t directly depend on it? Or is it just to fill up white space?
2. How do you think children would respond to poetry like this? Would the topsy-turvy form of some of these poems be too difficult for them to read, or would they like the shapes? Is there any teaching value in showing poems like this to an adolescent audience?
Shaina King
Word count: 621
I was not expecting A Poke in the I to be a collection of poems. I found it interesting the writer who is a teacher wanted to inspire young readers to see the possibilities with poetry. This had inspired me because there is looking at the poems, it boggled me mind at how messages can be perceived. I think of how this could jumpstart other children’s imaginations to create inventions and seek out goals.
ReplyDelete“A Seeing Poem” is very tricky. I like how the word ‘turn’ juts out and gets the reader’s attention. The word does not really turn itself which is puzzling making me want to read it over and over again because the meaning is deceitful. This kind of interacting with the book stimulates the mind. It really gets the imagination working and creates multiple double meanings that may not be seen in a regular ‘flat’ poem.
“A Weak Poem” was quite a simple poem but it had gotten my attention as it comments on itself. It seems to tilt over more and more as if the lines are sick from what exactly it had eaten…along with the cartoon of a blue man lying down ill. Next, “A Poem” is simple. It is the direction of the words and the cartoon figure puzzling over the fact that “a poem moves down a page/faster than a novel.”
“Eskimo Pie” is silly as it begins to sound so sophisticated with philosophical lines, “I shall/never pretend/to have forgotten/such loves as those.” It starts out slowly with short lines then catches up pace with longer ones with energy “Now I am eating into the creamy/treasure which to have tasted is to/have begun to lose to the heat of a famished sun.”
Another thinker is “She Loves Me.” The poem curves as if a dandelion and the green man’s neck turning. The poem concludes the girl does not love him, yet “she loves/she loves me/she/she loves/she.” It is a sweet gesture resulting in the fact that she is sweet and will always love anyone. There is an emphasis on “she.” The word stands alone in space echoing it’s strength.
“Whee” is like a sound poem in the shape of a trail of a snow sled. “Packed snow steep hill fast sled.” Ideas jump out to represent movement. When said slowing and quickly, the line makes sense as if the phrase “fast sled” exists.
“Tennis Anyone” is a poem that may be read in multiple ways. I first read the poem down-wards. It made some sense but not much alone. I looked over across to me and read the poem the “correct” way left to right. Then I read the poem on the right page alone with and then read the left page again. I found myself tricked as if I was the one watching the tennis match. It is as if one wrote on the inside cover “turn to the back of the book” and the book of the book says “turn to the front of the book.”
I found the carton characters interesting in the book. They have distinctive features that look odd and disproportionally. The characters contain different colors considering multi-cultural norms in a child’s society. People of different ethnicities are representing in the background of the book as if one is experiencing the inner city with different styles of speech.
Chelcie Ziegler
560 Words
How would this use of multi-cultural diversity affect a child’s perspective?
ReplyDeleteHow can the parent of adult read help lead the child to interpret the many ways to read the poems?
Chelcie Ziegler
Words 31