"Unless we read poetry, " writes New York Times columnist Anatole Broyard, "we'll never have our hearts broken by language."
Hearts can be broken by the beauty of poetry, but they can also be healed.
I look forward to April, which is National Poetry Month. Specifically, I love the week of the April 10-16, which is designated by The Children's Book Council as Young People's Poetry Week. This annual event encourages everyone to celebrate poetry — by reading it, enjoying it and writing it. The council collaborates with The Academy of American Poets and The Center for the Book in The Library of Congress for this event.
The following is a sampling of poetry books for everyone, but especially young people..
My two favorite books are "Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices," by Paul Fleischman (Candlewick), and "Walking the Bridge of Your Nose," selected by Michael Rosen (Kingfisher).
In the book, "Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices," Fleischman's 1998 Newbery-Award winner, readers can learn to read poetry as spoken duets.
In the poem "Big Talk," four people can read individually, as two pairs or as a group. What fun!
The poems in the book are accompanied by Beppe Giacobbe's drawings.
"Walking the Bridge of Your Nose: Wordplay, Rhymes, Poems" is stuffed with nonsense things like Mouth Manglers ("Sheila Shorter sought a suitor/Sheila sought a suitor short/Sheila's suitor's sure to suit her/Short's the suitor Sheila Sought!"), Tombstone Tomfoolery ("Here lies John Rose and Family. This Grave's a Bed of Roses."). This is a fun book to take on a trip or read around the fireplace.
Three volumes of poetry written for and by young poets have been collected from online submissions and poetry workshops.
The first, "Movin': Teen Poets Take Voice," edited by Dave Johnson (Orchard), is the end result of Poetry in the Branches, started by The New York Public Library and Wordsmiths, a Web site for young writers. Since these pieces come in from all over the world, anyone can participate. Just visit www.nypl.org/branch/teen.
Esther Watson and Mark Todd also collected entries from Web sites and Seventeen magazine for the second volume: "The Pain Tree: And Other Teenage Angst-Ridden Poetry" (Houghton). Lots of emotion in this book.
And the third book, "Salting the Ocean: 100 Poems by Young Poets" (Greenwillow) is taken from workshops conducted by Naomi Shihab Nye.
All three volumes shed insight into how young people feel and talk in today's world.
Another good collection of poetry is "Stone Bench in an Empty Park," selected by Paul Janeczko (Orchard). His haiku centers around urban scenes, which are highlighted by Henri Silberman's black-and-white photos. I think Janeczko's stretch of the parameters of haiku, which is a poem consisting of 17 syllables: the first line has five, second has seven and the third, five syllables, is not necessarily followed in this collection.
"Wish You Were Here (And I Wasn't): A Book of Poems and Pictures for Globe Trotters," by Colin McNaughton (Candlewick), is a laugh a minute. When traveling for a summer vacation, this is a must-have, especially if there is someone who gets car sick. Just in time for summer games is the book "Jump Rope Magic," by Afi Scruggs with pictures by David Diaz (Blue Sky/Scholastic). Here are some new rhythms and rhymes for sidewalk jumping. Children will enjoy the beat.
Simon James' "Days Like This," (Candlewick) is a good choice for the youngest readers. These are small poems about everyday things like sleeping outdoors, rain and picnics.
"I Love You: A Rebus Poem," by Jean Marzollo and Suse Macdonald (Scholastic), is a fun diversion. "Every bird loves a tree/ Every flower loves a bee/ Every lock loves a key/ And I love you." The patterned rhymes invite new verses to be written and sung everyday.
Marilou Sorensen can be reached at marilou.sorensen@worldnet.att.net