Poetry Speaks Who I Am

by Paschen, Elise

• ISBN13: 9781402210747
• ISBN10: 1402210744
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2010-03-01
• Publisher: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky

Summary

Poetry Speaks Who I Am is filled with more than 100 remarkable poems about you, who you are, and who you are becoming. Dive in-find the poem you love, the one that makes you angry, the one that makes you laugh, the one that knocks the wind out of you, and become a part of Poetry Speaks Who I Am by adding your own inside the book. Poetry can be life altering. It can be gritty and difficult. It can be hilarious or heart-breaking. And it's meant to be experienced, so we've included a CD on which you'll hear 44 poems, 39 of which are original recordings-you'll only find them here. You'll hear poets both classic and contemporary, well-known and refreshingly new, including:-Dana Gioia expresses the hunger of a "Vampire's Serenade"--Elizabeth Alexander waits for that second kiss in "Zodiac"--Langston Hughes flings his arms wide in b"Dream Variations"--Marilyn Nelson reads to her class in "How I Discovered Poetry"--Paul Muldoon's poem "Sideman", brought loudly to life by the band Rackett--And 39 more poems that are immediate and vibrant from Lucille Clifton's "Here Yet Be Dragons" to Edgar Allan Poe's "Annabel Lee" to "Tia Chucha," by Luis J. Rodriguez, Poetry Speaks Who I Am is a collection that is dynamic, accessible, challenging, classic, edgy, and ultimately not quite perfect. Just like you. If you're lucky, it'll serve as a gateway to a lifetime lived with poetry. At the very least, it'll be a good time. Dive in, and happy hunting.

Table of Contents

A Note from the Publisher	p. xi
Introduction	p. xiii
Poem titles/authors
Eternity	p. 1
Perhaps the World Ends Here	p. 2
Still I Rise	p. 4
Cinderella's Diary	p. 6
Vampire's Serenade	p. 7
Alone	p. 8
Alone	p. 9
Caroline	p. 10
"What are friends for...?	p. 12
I Loved My Friend	p. 13
In the Fifth-Grade Locker Room	p. 14
Bra Shopping	p. 16
Blood Charm	p. 18
Pause	p. 19
The Delight Song of Tsoai-talee	p. 20
Indian Education	p. 21
One Art	p. 22
Here	p. 23
Haiku	p. 24
Good Girl	p. 25
Bad Boats	p. 26
No Images	p. 27
won't you celebrate with me	p. 28
What I'm telling you	p. 29
How I Learned to Sweep	p. 30
Sonnet 130	p. 32
Litany	p. 33
A Teenage Couple	p. 35
Free Period	p. 36
Zodiac	p. 38
The Skokie Theatre	p. 39
Valentine	p. 41
An Angry Valentine	p. 42
What Great Grief Has Made the Empress Mute	p. 43
Mad Girl's Love Song	p. 45
How We Heard the Name	p. 46
The Gladiator	p. 47
Worth	p. 48
I Am A Black	p. 49
Lost Sister	p. 51
Flash Cards	p. 54
Arithmetic	p. 55
Dream Variations	p. 56
Dreams	p. 57
Blackberry-picking	p. 58
Manners	p. 59
Mascara	p. 61
from For a Girl Becoming	p. 62
Every Day It Is Always There	p. 64
Dear Mama (4)	p. 65
A Boy in a Bed in the Dark	p. 67
The Talk	p. 68
A Small Poem	p. 69
Fears of the Eighth Grade	p. 70
When I have fears that I may cease to be	p. 71
Death of a Snowman	p. 72
Oatmeal	p. 73
Eating Poetry	p. 75
The Bagel	p. 76
Hope Is the Thing with Feathers	p. 77
If I Can Stop One Heart from Breaking	p. 78
The Duke's castle	p. 79
Ozymandias	p. 80
The Sacred	p. 81
The Road Not Taken	p. 82
Prowess	p. 83
What We Might Be, What We Are	p. 84
Sideman	p. 85
XVIII Oh, when I was in love with you	p. 87
Sometimes with One I Love	p. 88
In the Desert	p. 89
Annabel Lee	p. 90
The Summer of Black Widows	p. 92
Permanently	p. 94
A Dog on His Master	p. 95
Mowing	p. 96
Seal	p. 97
Seahorses	p. 98
So Far	p. 101
The Germ	p. 102
Baseball	p. 103
Poetry Slalom	p. 106
How I Discovered Poetry	p. 107
Used Book Shop	p. 108
The Survivor	p. 110
New Clothes	p. 111
Mediation	p. 112
A Fable	p. 11
Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

<p><em>From the Introduction:</em></p><p>This is not a poetry anthology for adults, for children, for classroom study, or for required memorization and recitation. It's made just for you.</p><p>When I was younger, I wish I had possessed an anthology like this one-a compilation that brings poetry to life through words and recordings. In grammar school, I memorized the poems I discovered in a favorite poetry anthology my parents had given me. In high school, after my British Literature teacher introduced me to the work of William Butler Yeats, I began to understand how to write a poem. But in middle school there were no poetry anthologies compiled just for students and poetry was not taught in class. So I gravitated toward poets of the past and read William Shakespeare's love sonnets, trying to imitate them. I had no idea that poets were alive and writing. This anthology attempts to fill that void by offering poems about subjects that might express what's on your mind.</p><p>Youth inspires poets. So when we asked poets to send poems either that were important to them at your age or that they'd written about <em>being </em>your age, we received hundreds of submissions. Many writers try to capture those moments you may be thinking about now as you step into a new world.</p><p>We strived to create an anthology where you can discover poems about the changes taking place in your life. We offer first kiss poems like "Zodiac" or "The Skokie Theatre." If you've ever stood in the outfield, waiting to catch a fly ball, check out "Baseball." There are some Bar Mitzvah poems called "33" and "49." Poems about changing bodies such as "Bra Shopping." Poems about the times you think you hate your mother as in "The Adversary" and poems about loving her such as "Dear Mama (4)." Poems about loneliness like Robert Frost's "Acquainted with the Night." We even have a "Vampire Serenade." There are poems about navigating the turbulence of friendship like "Caroline" or the riptides of your parents' marriage as in "Mediation." We have paired classic poems with contemporary poems, from John Keats to Toi Derricotte, so you can read how poets throughout the ages have mulled over the same subjects.</p><p>Some poems will help you catch your breath, others will let you slowly exhale. Many of the poets traveled to studios to record their poems for <em>Poetry Speaks Who I Am</em>. When you listen to the CD, you will hear the immediacy of their words and the nuance of expression, and you will be able to hear and perhaps understand the poem from the poet's perspective.</p><p>In seventh grade, my friends and I would get together at each other's houses, listening for long afternoons to our favorite records. Older siblings introduced us to Carly Simon, James Taylor, Carole King, and we would sit and talk and sometimes just sit and listen to the songs, memorizing each one, playing them over and over in our minds. Let's hope that these poem recordings touch that same nerve for you and that they hold the same power that music did. Throughout my life, whenever I read a book I often scribble down a draft of a poem in the back pages. In <em>Poetry Speaks Who I Am</em>, you will find pages at the end where you can write down your own thoughts. Maybe some of the poems in this anthology will stir you to write some poems of your own.</p><p>We hope you will find inspiring company with these poems and with these poets. As the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke writes: "Live a while in these books..." So live a while with these poems.<br>-Elise Paschen</p>