The Eve of National Poetry Month

I have always been someone who enjoys poetry.  From the time I was young and obsessed with Dennis Lee and Shel Silverstein, to my gothy teen years with Edgar Allan Poe, into adulthood and loving found poetry, poems have always been part of my life.

Many tweens are fans of poetry and often write their own.  Here are some links to use during National Poetry Month (and beyond!) to get poetry into the hands of tweens!


Online Magnetic Poetry
Tweens can drag words over to the "magnetic" board.  They can either save their work or start over again!

Gotta Book's 30 Poets in 30 Days
Come back daily to find previously unpublished works from poets such as Calef Brown, Arthur A. Levine,  and Eileen Spinelli!
  
Write A Poem with Jack Prelutsky
Click through and have Jack Prelutsky guide you through the poetry process!

Write an Autobiographical Poem
Use the template to craft your own poem, all about you!

Do you have some resources, or are you doing cool poetry activities with your tweens? Let me know, and I can add to the list!

poetry speaks who i am: poems of discovery, inspiration, independence, and everything else...

I am a poetry girl. Ever since I was small, my dad used to get me at least one volume of poetry every year. It started with Dennis Lee's Garbage Delight, and ended with Barbara Bucknall's The Witch Poems. I've loved poetry all my life, but probably most ardently during my teen and tween years. And that is just where poetry speaks who i am is aimed.

In this eclectic mix, classic poets like Poe, Dickinson, Frost and Yeats meet up with contemporaries like Alexie, Alvarez, Giovanni and Koertge. The poetry itself mixes and mingles along topics like love, kisses, family, school, war, math and bra shopping! Yet it works. Editors Elise Paschen and series editor Dominique Raccah have managed to set every poem in the exact place where it needs to be, and there is a flow to this volume that gives a certain ease to reading.

The book also comes with a CD of several of the poems either read by the poet, or by a reader (as in the case of Yeats). The audio component is powerful, as the poems are heard as they were meant to be.

The end papers are filled with pages for readers to write there own poetry down. In the introduction, Dominique Raccah writes about the poetry books that she used to carry around that were filled with poetry by others and original works. poetry speaks who i am just might be that volume that inspires young poets to do the same!

Wonderful!