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Robyn Hood Black - children's author, poet, artist

Life on the Deckle Edge

Poetry Friday/Poetry Month... Mini Poem Movies Continue with "Mural Compass"

April 9, 2020
Tags: </br>Poetry Friday, National Poetry Month, Read Across America, Robyn Hood Black, The Poetry of US, poems for kids, poems for teachers, Mural Compaass, Philadelphia poem, I pause for poems
Click here to hear Robyn read "Mural Compass" from THE POETRY OF US.

 

Greetings, Poetry Lovers!  I'm still "pausing for poems" each weekday in April with mini poem movies featuring some of my published poems and haiku. Today, it's "Mural Compass" from THE POETRY OF US, edited by J. Patrick Lewis (National Geographic, 2018). Here's the video link, which goes live at 12 a.m. April 10. 

 

Thanks to Matt Forrest Essenwine for last week's heads' up that this anthology was chosen as the April 2020 "Book of the Month" for Read Across America by the National Education Association. A great choice for folks unable to travel right now! Click here for a teaching guide from NEA.   

 

My poem takes readers to Philadelphia, celebrating the country's largest community outdoor art project.  It is a 'kyrielle' - and that was a fun challenge!

 

 

Mural Compass

 

Tall figures rise from city ground.

They speak to me without a sound

from vibrant faces, facing sun - 

these paintings are for everyone.

 

Chartreuse and purple pop the street,

kaleidoscoping at my feet.

Graffiti marks are now long gone.

These paintings are for everyone.

 

On buildings bare and bridges wide

where history and hope collide

shine songs of freedom, fame, and fun -

these paintings are for everyone. 

 

©Robyn Hood Black

 

 

For a bit more about this poem and book, you can read a post of mine from Sept. 2018 here.  [I don't think I mentioned in that post how this poem was written in the middle of a hurricane evacuation... a story for another day!]

 

Here's a link to my YouTube Channel, where during April I'm posting published poems for kids every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, and published haiku suitable for kids on Tuesdays and Thursdays.  Subscribe if you like, to catch all of them!

 

Oh, and if you want to visit artsyletters land, here's a link to my fresh-off-the-virtual-press Spring newsletter. (You can subscribe to that, too!  I only have my act together to send one out three or four times a year.)

 

Wishing you safe poetic travels as you enjoy all the offerings rounded up for us this week at one of my all-time favorite destinations, THE POEM FARM.  Thanks for hosting, Amy!

 

(Children under the age of 13 may only comment with demonstrated parental consent - Thank you!)

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Poetry Friday - Reading Across America - from Go Dog Go to Grad School

March 1, 2018
Tags: Poetry Friday, Dr. Seuss, Theodor Giesel, Read Across America, P. D. Eastman, Go Dog Go

Happy Poetry Friday, and Happy Read Across America Day!

Every year on or near March 2, the National Education Association sponsors a day to celebrate reading, marking the birthday of beloved children's author Theodor Seuss Geisel (1904-1991), aka Dr. Seuss. Today I'm joining a few other children's authors (including my kidlilt partner-in-crime Kami Kinard) for an event sponsored by our local United Way. It's geared for pre-schoolers through third graders, and I'm not sure exactly what to expect, but I hope to hear some of the college students reading Dr. Seuss books in other languages!

A favorite in our house was always The Foot Book, which begins:

Left foot left foot
Right foot right
Feet in the Morning
Feet at Night...

It's the fiftieth anniversary of The Foot Book this year!

Thoughts of Dr. Seuss this week reminded me of when our son, Seth, first learned to read. (Warning - some parental bragging ahead.) His older sister Morgan - our amazing daughter who teaches third grade in Georgia - was practically born knowing how to read and required frequent trips to libraries to quench her book thirst. Now she's passing that passion along to the next generation in a very direct way. She's a Poetry Friday Anthology practitioner in the classroom, too.

Seth came along and wanted to keep up, but he had to work a little more at the mechanics of it all.
I'll always remember the day a book "clicked" for him. It was Go, Dog, Go! by P. D. Eastman (1909-1986). Eastman wrote for Giesel's Beginner Book series at Random House, after serving under Giesel in the army in the 1940s. (Pretty sure I still have my own childhood copy of Are You My Mother?.)

A couple of decades ago, there was a commercial on the kids' TV channels for "The Phonics Game." (Maybe there still is?) Evidently Seth had paid attention to this commercial. One day when he was five, he ran up to me, clutching Go, Dog, Go!, and announced, "I can read! I don't need The Phonics Game!"

Thus began his journey with the written word. In recent years, I've had to consult a dictionary or two when reading some of his academic papers. He graduated at the tippy top of his college class last May and has been working in an urban ministry internship with homeless folks in Asheville since then. This fall, he'll enter Candler School of Theology at Emory University in Atlanta, pursuing a Master of Divinity degree.

Just last week, Seth found out he's been offered a Robert W. Woodruff Fellowship in Theology and Ministry, named for the businessman and philanthropist who headed up Coca-Cola for many years. Full tuition and fees and a nice stipend for each year of the program. (Yep, we're pretty proud.) Seth turns 23 in about three weeks - what a wonderful birthday present.

Go, Seth, Go!

(Click here for more on Read Across America Day.)

Now, grab your gondola and paddle over to Italy, where the ever-bella Renée is rounding up for us at No Water River this week.  Read More 
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