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📜Tennessee Poets Day at WCPL
Join the Poets from the Neighborhood for their Sixth Annual Tennessee Poets Day –
The onsite celebration will be on April 30, Saturday at the Williamson County Public Library (WCPL – Main Branch) in Franklin, TN. The event runs from 10a-3p in the meeting room on the first floor of the Library. This annual National Poetry Month Celebration features the PFTN Awards, open-mic poetry, keynote poetry by Jeff Hardin, authors’ books signings, plus poetry and songwriting with Tennessee Poet Laureate Margaret B. Vaughn. Please visit the PFTN site for detailed information; a schedule of events and speakers.
WCTV will be on-site to record the event.
All library programs are free and open to the public. Learn more about this event or other library programs and services by calling the library at 615-595-1243, extension 1, or by visiting the library’s website at http://wcpltn.org.
Please be aware that photos, screenshots, and videos may be taken at library events and activities for library use and publicity. Anyone not wanting to have their photo taken should notify library staff at the time of the event or activity.
Billy Collins, “the most popular poet in America”
by Chelsea Bennett, Reference Department
“Billy Collins” by Marcelo Noah, 2007
Whether you’re someone who reads a sonnet a day, or one who cringes even at a love poem from your sweetheart – what I mean is, whether you are someone who likes poetry or not –, I submit the works of poet Billy Collins for your consideration.
Billy Collins was born in New York City in 1941. An only child, he grew up with a mother who could recite poems for every situation, and a father born to immigrants from Ireland (that nation of poets, itself). He has spent his career in universities, on stage with popular artists such as Paul Simon and Aimee Mann, teaching workshops at home and abroad, and contributing to magazines and radio shows.
Collins served as US Poet Laureate from 2001 – 2003, and New York State Poet Laureate from 2004 – 2006. He has been continually recognized and awarded throughout his decades-long career. He gives sold-out poetry readings to crowds of people. In short, he is probably “the most popular poet in America,” as Bruce Weber wrote for The New York Times.
The words of his contemporaries help explain why Billy Collins’ poetry resonates with so many people. Poet and critic Michael Donaghy describes him as a “rare amalgam of accessibility and intelligence.” (Collins says of himself that he is “reader conscious,” and tries to “create a hospitable tone at the beginning of a poem.”) Of Collins, fellow poet John Taylor says: “Rarely has anyone written poems that appear so transparent on the surface yet become so ambiguous, thought-provoking, or simply wise once the reader has peered into the depths.” And poet Stephen Dunn elaborates: “We seem to always know where we are in a Billy Collins poem, but not necessarily where he is going. I love to arrive with him at his arrivals. He doesn’t hide things from us, as I think lesser poets do. He allows us to overhear, clearly, what he himself has discovered.”
But it’s best to discover how you feel about Collins’ poetry for yourself. Many of his poems are available online. Here are some I like:
- “Aimless Love” (2002) – https://gratefulness.org/resource/aimless-love/
- “Old Man Eating Alone in a Chinese Restaurant” (2007) – http://inwardboundpoetry.blogspot.com/2007/08/471-old-man-eating-alone-in-chinese.html
- “The First Night” (2008) – https://poets.org/poem/first-night
- “Litany” (2002), recited beautifully by a three-year-old boy – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVu4Me_n91Y
And, of course, we have several books of Billy Collins’ poetry available at the Williamson County Public Library. You can place a hold on one from within your library account (go to wcpltn.org and click on “My Account”), or just come browse the poetry section upstairs in the nonfiction stacks at the Main branch in Franklin.
Poetry collections by Billy Collins at the WCPL:
- Nine Horses: Poems (2002)
- The Trouble with Poetry and Other Poems (2005)
- Horoscopes for the Dead: Poems (2011)
- Aimless Love: New and Selected Poems (2013)
- The Rain in Portugal: Poems (2016)
- Whale Day: and Other Poems (2020)
References:
Spotlight on Poetry Month: Maya Angelou
Born in St. Louis, Missouri in 1928, Maya Angelou was one of America’s most famous and celebrated poets, an author and a civil rights activist. She was the Northern Coordinator for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s SCLC (Southern Christian Leadership Conference) in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s. Some may not know that she was also a San Francisco streetcar conductor, singer, dancer, actress, composer, playwright and director.
As a natural storyteller and performer, Angelou’s poetry benefited from her recitation of it. Her poetry focuses on personal narrative and themes such as hardship, oppression and loss, as well as the resiliency and beauty of African American women. “Once I got into it I realized I was following a tradition established by Frederick Douglass—the slave narrative—speaking in the first-person singular talking about the first-person plural, always saying I meaning ‘we.’” Angelou told George Plimpton in an interview.
She is the first woman to be featured on a series of quarters called the American Women Quarters Program issued by the U.S. Mint. She was awarded over 50 honorary degrees before her death in 2014 and was also awarded the highest civilian honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, in 2010.
Some of Angelou’s most famous poems are: Still I Rise, Phenomenal Woman, Alone, and On the Pulse of Morning (which she wrote and then recited for the inauguration of President Bill Clinton in 1993.) During her lifetime, Angelou published ten poetry collections, eight single poem publications, and a series of seven autobiographies (along with cookbooks, children’s books, and recitations of African literature). The Williamson County Public Library System holds many of these works along with several that have been adapted for children’s poetry collections. A few of the more popular are below:
By Holly, Reference Department
https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/maya-angelou
https://poets.org/poet/maya-angelou
https://www.usmint.gov/coins/coin-medal-programs/american-women-quarters/maya-angelou
Spotlight on Poetry Month
Image provided by Joe Carlson – https://www.flickr.com/photos/vibc/35391745276/
Rupi Kaur is a Canadian poet who was born in Punjab, India in 1992. Her family fled India when she was 3 years old because of the persecutions of Sikh men. Rupi was trained in the art of poetry and painting by her father and mother respectively. She began performing her poetry in 2009 at the young age of 17. She is a well-known “Instapoet,”a poet who has promoted themselves and gained their following on the social media platform, Instagram. Kaur is a pseudonym she adopted when she began distributing her poems anonymously in high school. She stated, “Kaur is the name of every Sikh woman – brought in to eradicate the caste system in India – and I thought, wouldn’t it be empowering if a young Kaur saw her name in a book store?” Her short poems explore her South Asian identity, relationships, immigration, and femininity.
WCPL has two of her published books of poetry, they are on a poetry display on the second floor. We are replacing her first publication, Milk and Honey (2015)
The Sun and Her Flowers (2017)
By Kathy, Reference Department
5th Annual TN Poets Day 2021
Virtually Celebrating National Poetry Month at the 5th Annual TN Poets Day on Saturday, April 24, 2021
EVENTS Include:
- Opening Speech by Williamson County Mayor Rogers Anderson
- Welcome & PFTN Awards Presentation by Founder /Organizer- Veera Dr. Rajaratnam S.
- Poets From The Neighborhood (PFTN) Monthly Featured Poets
- TN POETs Open Mic Poetry Readings
- Singer/Songwriter Kathryn Adams’ Songs Performance
- An Interview of ‘JOYPOET’ VeerajaR on PFTN’s Community Outreach Efforts & Poetry Events – by WCPL Director Dolores Greenwald
- TN POET Jeff Hardin’s Craft Talk****
- All EVENTs are RECORDED and Aired on WC-TV, TN /April 24th & LiveStream online via YouTube!
- Starts @ 9:00 AM CDT
Please check WC-TV, TN Link on April 24th:
https://tn-williamsoncounty4.civicplus.com/629/On-Demand
Amanda Gorman, American Poet
April is National Poetry Month:
The first-ever National Youth Poet Laureate (2017), Amanda Gorman secured the poet’s spotlight on January 20, 2021 reading her poetry at the inauguration of the United States 46th President, Joe Biden. Her recitation of her poem, The Hill We Climb granted international acclaim to the young poet, establishing her place in the history of American poetry.
A writer at a young age, in 2013 Gorman was inspired to pursue activism after listening to a speech given by Malala Yousafzai, the Pakistani activist and Nobel Prize laureate. This ensuing inspiration was a good fit for Ms. Gorman, who was chosen as the first youth poet laureate of Los Angeles, CA in 2014 at the age of 16. She then published her first poetry book, The One for Whom Food is Not Enough in 2015. The influences that taught her to write in her own voice – of a young black woman – were Toni Morrison, Audre Lorde, Maya Angelou, and Phillis Wheatley. Their impact was enough to expand her poetry writing to social justice issues, like the intersectionality of feminism and race.
During an interview for the New York Times in 2017 after winning the National Youth Poet Laureate, Gorman revealed one of her long-term goals, “[t]his is a long, long, faraway goal, but 2036 I am running for office to be president of the United States,” she said matter-of-factly, at the time. “So you can put that in your iCloud calendar.” After winning the Milken Family Foundation college scholarship, Amanda Gorman graduated cum laude from Harvard University, with a degree in Sociology in 2020.
Prior to presenting Chorus of the Captains, a poem to three essential workers named as honorary captains presiding over the coin toss of Super Bowl LV, Ms. Gorman said,
“Poetry at the Super Bowl is a feat for art and our country, because it means we’re thinking imaginatively about human connection even when we feel siloed.”
The Hill We Climb: An Inaugural Poem for the County will be published this spring and Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem, and The Hill We Climb and Other Poems will both be published in September of 2021. We will carry copies of all of these titles.
D. Duff, Reference
https://poets.org/poet/amanda-gorman
April is National Poetry Month!
April is National Poetry Month! As are many of you, I’m spending loads more time with my kids. We’re attempting to keep up with reading and math, as encouraged by the school system. What better way to keep up with reading than by reading poems? For many kids, poetry can seem a bit abstract and perhaps not as engaging as a full story. But with exposure (and a convincing delivery!) comes understanding and appreciation.
Of course many of us turn to the master, Shel Silverstein, to introduce our kids to poems. With a perfect mix of utter silliness and a touch of self awareness, truly those collections are classic. But my favorites, without question, are two books of poetry by beloved Winnie the Pooh creator A.A. Milne.
“When We Were Very Young” is a collection originally published in 1924. “Now We Are Six” is a follow up collection from 1927. All the poems are written by Milne, and each page contains illustrations by Ernest H. Shephard. The content is positively charming.
Your kids will encounter familiar characters, like Pooh himself, and Christopher Robin. Concepts like imaginary friends, changing of the seasons, and growing up crop up in the pages. With the works being almost 100 years old it might seem as if they’re no longer as relevant… but the innocence of childhood is something that transcends time. And it’s something these collections capture in a most pure and heartfelt way. I know many of these poems by heart and can recite them from memory. You may find yourself familiar with some of the lines, as a few of them became ubiquitous Pooh quotes!
If you’ve never had the pleasure of reading these books, now is the perfect time! These poems find joy in the simplest things, and emphasize the power of imagination. Sharing these poems with your children will be the highlight of your day!
Both of my boys are now well past 6, but on their 6th birthdays I recited to them the title poem from “Now We Are Six“:
When I was One, I had just begun. When I was Two, I was nearly new. When I was Three, I was hardly Me. When I was Four, I was not much more. When I was Five, I was just alive. But now I am Six, I'm as clever as clever. So I think I'll be six now for ever and ever. ~ A. A. Milne
The Space for True Reception: Why We Love Great Verse
By Allan Cross, Reference Department
Poetry isn’t the simplest thing to appreciate. At a passing glance, it may not have the same immediacy of film, music, and visual art. When placed alongside other forms of literature, a book of poems can struggle to match our latest bestsellers in accessibility. For all these reasons, some of us might dismiss poetry as a medium for high-minded wordsmiths, rather than a readership of less heady taste. But exceptional poetry has endured for millennia, and verse as a creative avenue stretches onward still. Why, then, do so many others read and derive worth from it today?
The convenient answer nowadays might be to quote Dead Poets Society. Mr. Keating, an English teacher played by the late Robin Williams, inspires his students (and unceasing scores of audiences) with his speech about why people read and write poetry. One of the film’s great strengths lies, of course, in its poetry readings. These, combined with well-chosen samples, bring forth the emotional meaning that fuels successful verse. The film serves as a great access point to poetry, emphasizing the importance of reading it aloud. When we readers encounter a given poem, we can better involve ourselves by audibly speaking the work. By doing so, we should enhance the piece with our individual voices, each one conducive in its own distinct way.
Testing this in light of three widely known poems seems a good place to begin. The trio we have selected consists of Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” Rudyard Kipling’s “If–,” and Shel Silverstein’s verse children’s book The Giving Tree.
In the third stanza of “The Road Not Taken,” Frost writes:
And both that morning equally lay/
In leaves no step had trodden black./
Oh, I kept the first for another day!/
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,/
I doubted if I should ever come back.
Andrew Spacey, a commentator for Owlcation, points out that Frost’s work reflects on the many choices we make in life, and how we tend to regret those decisions after committing to them. It is also commonly read as a statement in support of individualism, and the promotion of opinions that contrast with majority views.
Below is an excerpt from Kipling’s “If—”:
If you can dream—and not make dreams your master;/
If you can think—and not make thoughts your aim;/
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster/
And treat those two imposters just the same;/
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken/
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools/
Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken,/
And stoop and build them up with worn out tools:
The theme of Kipling’s work, which regards the importance of thought, but not to the point where it impedes action, seems like a stirring antidote to Frost. It acknowledges the significance and moral need for regret, but urges the reader not to allow past mistakes to obstruct the path to future growth.
The Giving Tree addresses similar concerns, as shown in some of its final lines:
“I am sorry,” sighed the tree./
I wish that I could give you something…/
But I have nothing left./
I am just an old stump./
I am sorry….”/
I don’t need very much now,” said the boy./
“just a quiet place to sit and rest.”/
I am very tired.”
Rivka Galchen, in her 2014 review for The New York Times, argues that there is an unavoidable dilemma in The Giving Tree, it being whether we read it as a statement on thoughtless acquisition or unreserved giving. The two characters, the boy and the tree, do what is most fundamental to their natures. It’s up to the reader to then decide how to feel about the situation, including the conclusion about whether it turns out morally right.
The takeaway from all of this, in spite of all the people who attempt to influence our points-of-view, is that we allow ourselves to read and study works on our unique terms. As mentioned earlier, it may prove worthwhile to read these pieces and others to ourselves (at the risk of seeming foolish), in order to bring out their inherent humanity. We should remember that reading can be, in its way, a roomy type of interpretation. There’s a mysterious element of poetry, one we cannot entirely rationalize and so must trail behind. Rather than strain for full understanding, this is the process we might instead come to accept.
Sources:
- https://allpoetry.com/poem/8538991-The-Giving-Tree-by-Shel-Silverstein
- https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/46473/if—
- https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44272/the-road-not-taken
- https://interestingliterature.com/2017/04/20/a-short-analysis-of-rudyard-kiplings-if/
- https://owlcation.com/humanities/Analysis-of-Poem-The-Road-Not-Taken-by-Robert-Frost
- https://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/books/review/the-giving-tree-tender-story-of-unconditional-love-or-disturbing-tale-of-selfishness.html
- Weir, Peter, director. Dead Poets Society. Touchstone Home Entertainment, 1989.
- Wikimedia Commons
Poetica
By Howard Shirley, Teen Department
Poetica
Howard Shirley
It’s April.
It’s National Poetry Month.
1996.
There. You have a year.
That’s when it started.
The American Academy of Poets.
That’s who started it.
Not much else factual to say.
But poems aren’t about facts.
Poems are about themselves.
They say whatever they say.
You hear whatever you hear.
That’s a poem.
They’re not about rhyme (though they can be)
They’re not about time (though they can be)
They’re not about meter (rigid or free)
Or fanciful words like “lugubrious.”
Which no one uses any other day.
Or any other way.
Poems are just whatever you want to say.
The way you want to say it.
Your poem is yours.
It can be no one else’s.
It’s National Poetry Month.
So go write a poem.
I just did.
— Howard Shirley
Now it’s your turn! If you are a teenage resident of Williamson County, age 12-18, you are invited to submit your own poems to our Teen Poetry Contest. You may submit up to three poems. Poems are welcome in any form on any subject—the choice is yours (as it should be). A poem may be any length and any style—haiku, sonnet, ballad, limerick, free verse; however your muse takes you. All poems must be your original creations.
All poems must be typed on plain white paper in an ordinary font. Poems with multiple pages should be stapled together. All poems must include the poet’s name, age, school and grade, and contact information (e-mail or phone) at the top of the first page.
We are accepting poems through April 30. You may turn your poem in at any Williamson County Public Library branch, or upstairs in the Teen Room of the Main Branch in Franklin. Contest winners will be announced in May during our Teen Poetry Slam as part of our Summer Reading Kick-off event.
You’ve All Heard of Limericks, I’m Sure
By Lon Maxwell, Reference Department
Limericks can even be done for Math!
You’ve all heard of Limericks, I’m sure
Whether racy or actually pure
They’re funny old rhymes
From good old times
And the good ones are rarely demure
They all start in jolly old Britain
Whose poems were occasionally written
In lyrical styles
To bring forth some smiles
And the poets were instantly smitten
City of Limerick, Ireland
The name, it comes from good green Erin
The Maigue Poets used to declare in
the city, Limerick.
Those bards got a kick
from the poetry style used there in.
The transition to bawdier verse
(Or something ocassionally worse).
The decade was roaring
and not a bit boring,
still, reactions were quite terse.
Original Edward Lear Limerick
There once was a man, name of Lear
Who wrote them, though not very clear
His meanings were nonsense
With ridiculous contents
And his fame stretches from then to here
Some people delight to change form
From the meter and scheme as a norm
They sometimes depart
On whole, a la cart
But can do so in in whatever manner they choose and still leave it mildly humorous
So let us praise the limerick this way
On this, the Limerick’s Day
They bring joy and delight
And the length is just right
Except like now when I’m carried away!
As one last PS I must add
A very hard time I have had
To not use Nantucket
Or mention a bucket
But I know that would really be bad.
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