Friday, January 24, 2014

Poetry Friday: When We Last Left Ramona and Her Poetry Project...

... she was hunting down Billy Collins (not in a stalker-ish way -- that's my beat -- but in an, "I have to find 'Snow'!" way.)

And, yes, Mary Lee was spot on (have you been dropping in at our house, Mary Lee? You know how we do things around here....) We listened to the music mentioned in the poem: Thelonious Monk's "Ruby, My Dear" and the Ronettes singing "Walking in the Rain" and George Thorogood (Billy didn't specify a tune, so I picked "Move It On Over.") We listened to Samuel Barber's "Adagio for Strings"and then we talked briefly about Jean-Paul Sartre, because you can't read a poem that mentions Being and Nothingness without making sure your child gets the reference, even if she is only eleven years old.

And since I'm finally getting over that cold/flu thing I had, we've forged ahead with Project Mommy's Daily Poem, as Ramona named it. We had an eclectic week around here, poetically speaking, and Ramona's hunts included the following:
And today, I'm highlighting a book that Ramona and I found a few years back and both fell in love with. After repeated library check-outs, we gave The Cuckoo's Haiku: and Other Birding Poems by Michael J. Rosen to Ramona for her seventh birthday (and I could have sworn that was ten minutes ago.)


I blogged about the beginning of our infatuation with this book here, and linked to an interview with Rosen at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast here. Here's another extended interview with the author in The Columbus Dispatch.

And this week for the Daily Poem, Ramona hunted down the following from The Cuckoo's Haiku:

hunkered, plumped sparrow
each feather pockets the heat 
a mitten-warmed fist 


Her self-assigned project continues to grow. We've decided to start a Poet Notebook, too. I'll keep you posted.

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The Poetry Friday round up is at A Teaching Life

7 comments:

tanita✿davis said...

Wow - the idea of a poetry scavenger hunt is pretty limitless, and you guys sound like you're having so much fun!!!

Also: Sartre!!! Whoa.

That haiku makes it easy to understand why that book was a frequent check-out. Love it, love it.

Makes me wistful for April...

Karen Edmisten said...

To clarify: the Sartre discussion was more like a blip. We didn't go deep. :)

It's a gorgeous book, isn't it?

Doraine said...

What a great project for mother/daughter fun!

Jeannine Atkins said...

There's so much that I love here. It's like a novel, and I don't say that implying anything against poetry! But the two of you investigating so much is a book I want to read. Sartre as a blip vs discussion is perfect. Honestly, that might be all I could manage. And I last read Rosen's dog poems, which I adored, and missed this. Thank you for sending me on my own quest!

Violet N. said...

Love your poetic adventures. They sound like a treasure hunt!

Karen Edmisten said...

Doraine, yes, and the best part is that she initiated it. :)
Jeannine, I love your characterization of it as a book you want to read. :) And, when we first discovered Michael Rosen, we didn't have a dog and now we do, so we are also on a new quest. :)

Violet, thanks -- a treasure hunt it is!

Mary Lee said...

Tee Hee! I'll claim "Great Minds Think Alike!"

Sounds like a fun week! What a project.