April 18, 2008
by Carol Birch
Think you hate poetry? I did for the longest time.
Poetry’s seeming delicacy left me feeling clumsy. In school, poetry just put me to sleep, but hearing it out loud by wiser friends than I finally woke me up. Poetry has brought me delight and respite ever since. Poetry is a feast of sweets and savories that will feed your family dollops of pleasure like nothing else in our word-clogged world.
April is National Poetry Month. Please come to the Chappaqua Library to celebrate Poetry Out Loud with us on Monday, April 28 at 7 p.m. Children’s Librarian, Miriam Budin, and I will share our favorite poems. You can bring yours too, or just savor the sounds. Families with children in kindergarten and up, as well as teens and adults, are welcome. Please call 914-238-4779, extension 3, or register on-line at . We appreciate when our patrons register so we have some idea of how many to expect.
You can leave the library with one big book, one tiny book or an armful of poetry books to dive into. The poet and novelist Osbert Sitwell said: “Poetry is like fish: if it’s fresh, it’s good; if it’s stale, it’s bad; and if you’re not certain, try it on the cat.” In the Children’s Room of the Chappaqua Library, we have the fresh kind!
Pick your metaphor. “Most people read poetry listening for echoes because the echoes are familiar to them. They wade through it the way a boy wades through water, feeling with his toes for the bottom: The echoes are the bottom,” wrote distinguished poet Wallace Stevens. The writer and critic John Wain suggested: “Poetry is to prose as dancing is to walking.” So come to the library on Monday April 28 to wade in or to dance as a family to the rhythms of sound and silence.
Carol Birch is the Head of Children’s Services at the Chappaqua Library. She has two favorite novels written in poetry: the newer one is “Home of the Brave” by Kathleen Applegate, the story of a boy from Sudan living in Minnesota. The classic, “Out of the Dust” by Karen Hesse, tells the story of the Dust Bowl that ravaged the land and lives.
Copyright 2008 NewCastleNOW.org