{"id":2498,"date":"2013-01-15T00:01:53","date_gmt":"2013-01-15T06:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2498"},"modified":"2013-01-15T10:01:54","modified_gmt":"2013-01-15T16:01:54","slug":"a-poetry-break","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/?p=2498","title":{"rendered":"A Poetry Break"},"content":{"rendered":"

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“At first you’ll joy to see the playful snow, \/
Like white moths trembling on the tropic air, \/
Or waters of the hills that softly flow \/
Gracefully falling down a shining stair. …”
— From Claude McKay’s “To One Coming North”<\/a><\/strong><\/em>
(Click image to see spread in its entirety)<\/center><\/p>\n

I’m preparing for two presentations about children’s literature this week, on top of my regular work, so I’m going to be brief today. I share some artwork here from Karen Barbour<\/a><\/strong>, rendered in watercolor, ink, and collage, from African American Poetry<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (January 2013, though technically the copyright date is 2012), the latest in Sterling’s Poetry for Young People<\/em><\/a><\/strong> series. <\/p>\n

Edited by Arnold Rampersad<\/a><\/strong> (Stanford University) and Marcellus Blount<\/a><\/strong> (Columbia University), this is a collection of poetry celebrating the works of African Americans over the last two hundred years. Blount selected the poems, and Rampersad writes the informative introduction. There’s a wide range of poetry here from the likes of Langston Hughes<\/a><\/strong>, Lucille Clifton<\/a><\/strong>, Maya Angelou<\/a><\/strong>, Nikki Giovanni<\/a><\/strong>, Paul Laurence Dunbar<\/a><\/strong>, and many more well-known names, as well as some lesser-known poets. Each poem opens with an annotation, which includes biographical info. <\/p>\n

As the Kirkus<\/em> review notes, one interesting thing about this collection is that “[a]typically, the editors steer largely clear of explicit racial or religious themes in their selections,” with but a couple of exceptions. <\/p>\n

See? I really was brief. For once. ‘Cause I really do have my work cut out for me this week. Here’s another piece of Karen’s artwork from the book. (Note: The final illustration as it appears in the book is slightly different from the one below.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Until later … <\/p>\n

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“When I go spinning, \/ your care is given \/ to the steel nerves \/ of reticent angels. …”
— From Afaa Michael Weaver’s<\/a><\/strong> “A Meditation for My Son”<\/a><\/strong>
<\/em>(Click image to see spread in its entirety,
which also includes Weaver’s “My Father’s First Baseball Game”)<\/center><\/p>\n

* * * * * * *<\/center><\/p>\n

POETRY FOR YOUNG PEOPLE: AFRICAN AMERICAN POETRY. Copyright \u00a9 2012 by Sterling Publishing Co. Illustrations \u00a9 2012 by Karen Barbour. Published by Sterling, New York. All images reproduced by permission of the publisher.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“At first you’ll joy to see the playful snow, \/Like white moths trembling on the tropic air, \/Or waters of the hills that softly flow \/Gracefully falling down a shining stair. …”— From Claude McKay’s “To One Coming North”(Click image to see spread in its entirety) I’m preparing for two presentations about children’s literature this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,2,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nonfiction","category-picture-books","category-poetry-friday"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blaine.org\/sevenimpossiblethings\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}