How did you spend Take Your Poet to Work Day? We want to know. If you write something up that’s a good fit, we might even ask your permission to reprint. Like this, from Callie Feyen. What a marvelous, ticklish, soul-jazz way to spend Take Your Poet to Work Day!
Tweetspeak Poetry arrives in my inbox every Saturday morning, and while I prefer to read things I love on paper, I eagerly delve into the website’s newsletter. Each weekend morning, writers share possibilities for playing with words, telling stories, and ways to notice all that shimmers (or perhaps look at a thing until it does shimmer). It’s like recess.
Last week I read that Wednesday, July 16 was Take Your Poet to Work Day, and the website offered a free coloring book filled with different poets that we can color, cut out, stick on a popsicle stick (or maybe one of those cool hipster red and white straws…are those hipster?), and go to work with a poet.
I printed out the coloring books for Hadley and Harper, then added a few blank sheets of paper for them to add pictures or favorite phrases of poets on, then slipped the pages between two pieces of card stock and tied it up with yarn. We headed to the library for a poetry hunt.
We found a bunch of books with Emily Dickinson and Langston Hughes in them and thought we’d start with those two. Hadley also found some books of poems on Frankenstein. I’m pretty sure Mary Shelley would roll over in her grave if she knew about these.
The girls colored their pictures of Langston Hughes and flipped through some of the books with his poems in them. Harper was very concerned about getting his blazer color correct. I told her that probably, he wore a variety of colors.
“Did he wear sparkly blazers?” my child, who has decided to wear fairy wings wherever she goes, asked. I told her I didn’t think he had blazers with sparkles on them, but I wasn’t 100% sure.
I read some of his poems, then asked which words the girls liked. Harper loved the words, “sweet silver trumpets, ” from Hughes’s poem, “When She Wears Red, ” allegedly written by a gal he once knew in high school. Hadley loved “Low….slow/slow…low-/stir your blood./Dance!” from “Dance Africane.”
Here’s Harper’s picture of the girl with the red dress on.
We also took a look at Emily Dickinson’s poetry.
Harper had a hard time understanding her poems. She likes to look at the pictures that accompany the words. It’s always interesting to me to see how much more she grasps (and grapples with) when there are pictures on the pages. But since she is still learning how to read, it was hard for her to focus on Ms Dickinson. I think she’ll like her in no time, though.
Hadley thought this poem was nice:
“There is no frigate like a book./To take us to lands away, /Nor any coursers like a page/of prancing poetry./This traverse may the poorest take/without oppress of toll;/How frugal is the chariot/That bears a human soul!
She made this picture after she read the poem:
After Hughes and Dickinson, we decided we were getting a little hungry, so we walked back home for lunch. As we walked, we heard Motown coming from a nearby restaurant and as she always does, Hadley began to stomp her feet and shake her hips to the beat (that girl’s hip shakin’ are going to be the end of me, I swear it).
“How’d that poem you liked go again?” I asked Hadley as she danced. “Slow, low, boom, what was it again?” I’d completely forgotten.
“It went like this, Mama, ” Hadley began and she clapped as she said: “Low, ” clap, clap, clap, “Slow, ” clap, clap, clap, “slow, ” clap, clap, clap, “low.” She turned around and said, “Stirs your blood.” Then she jumped in the air and exclaimed, “Dance!”
I think she tested Dickinson’s theory about words living the moment they are said today.
Featured photograph by Emilio Labrador, Creative Commons, via Flickr. Post and inside photographs by Callie Feyen. Reprinted with permission.
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Download your Free Take Your Poet to Work Day Coloring Book
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Maureen Doallas says
Love what you did, Callie! This is where the magic of poetry begins.
Callie Feyen says
Thank you very much, Maureen! We had a great day!
L. L. Barkat says
Callie, I am envious! I wish this was how *I’d* spent the day. Oh, to go on poetry hunts, and get poetry into our feet, all with a red dress in the mix.
Happy sigh 🙂
Callie Feyen says
Thank you! And thank you to Tweetspeak for providing ways to get poetry into our feet and in our days. Now if only I had a red dress….:)
Elizabeth W. Marshall says
Callie,
How perfectly delightful. I want to be as a child, always hunting for the beauty and the poetry. This is a gift, perfect and precious and poetic. Welcome, officially to this poetry community.
elizabeth, poetry barista, Tweetspeak
Callie Feyen says
Thank you, Elizabeth! I’m very thankful for Hadley and Harper as they show me how to “look again” with fresh eyes. It could be the best part of motherhood. Thank you for your kind welcome. I am quite happy to be here!
SimplyDarlene says
Oh, yes, indeed.
Like a I often say, “Let there be dancing!”
Thank you for sharing this poetical whimsy with us.
Callie Feyen says
I find that allowing dance (and poetry!) into our days makes for lots of shimmer. I’m thankful Hadley provided me with that reminder.
SimplyDarlene says
I reckon you already know, but Emily and I fended off a rude reporter (who smelled of bacon). 😉
http://simplydarlene.com/2014/07/16/take-your-poet-to-work-reporter-on-the-scene/
Callie Feyen says
I’m going to check out this link, now. Thanks!
Kerry says
Oh what a wonderful day with your girls! When I saw the picture of your little fairy browsing the poetry books, I thought
“Come away o Human child!”
But now I can’t get the image of your little one dancing to a Langston Hughes poem out of my head. I love it and think that Langston would be very happy to see how his poetry connected with your little one!
L. L. Barkat says
Kerry, that is one of my all-time favorite poems. When I read it to my girls, I can’t get through it without my eyes getting teary.
Callie Feyen says
Thank you for your lovely comment, Kerry. I couldn’t get through reading this comment without my eyes tearing. 🙂 Thank you!
Charity Singleton Craig says
What a wonderful celebration of poetry and life and family. The dancing was a great ending.
Callie Feyen says
Thank you, Charity! I loved watching the girls dance, too. 🙂
Will Willingham says
Of course, it always makes me happy to see how people spend the day. This just took it up about 12 notches.
In fact, I think I’d say it “stirs the blood.”
Thank you so much for sharing your day with us. 🙂
Callie Feyen says
Mr. Willingham, I believe you and Hadley would be fast friends after reading this comment. And are you the one who created the coloring book? I owe you many, many thanks. You provided the three of us with a splendid day. Thank you.
Sandra Heska King says
Simply awesome!
Callie Feyen says
Thank you, Sandra! 🙂
Kristi Campbell says
What an incredibly magic day, Callie! Seriously awesome. I love that you are already involving your girls with the awesomeness of words and drawing and well LIFE. Well done!!!
Callie Feyen says
Thank you, Kristi! You’re the best!