A Writer's Moment: Forever Keeping Freshness

A Writer's Moment: Forever Keeping Freshness:   “Like a piece of ice on a hot stove a poem must ride on its own melting ... Read it a hundred times, it will forever ke...

Forever Keeping Freshness

 

“Like a piece of ice on a hot stove a poem must ride on its own melting ... Read it a hundred times, it will forever keep its freshness as a metal keeps its fragrance.  It can never lose its sense of a meaning that once unfolded by surprise as it went.”

 – Robert Frost

 

I almost always think of Frost’s poetry when I hear or see things in nature.  This morning, unlike the bird that bothers Frost in his short poem below, the bird on our house was not creating music, but noise.  It was a Flicker and it decided to “mark” its territory – or maybe it was to attract a mate – by drumming on our chimney with its beak. 

 

After giving it some further thought, I decided a bird on the roof is still better than no birds at all.  I just wish, like the bird Frost is annoyed with in his poem, it would work on a little song to go along with the percussion.  For Saturday's Poem, here is Frost's,

 

A Minor Bird 

 

I have wished a bird would fly away,
And not sing by my house all day;

Have clapped my hands at him from the door
When it seemed as if I could bear no more.

The fault must partly have been in me.
The bird was not to blame for his key.

And of course there must be something wrong
In wanting to silence any song.

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A Writer's Moment: Sharing the Lives of Children

A Writer's Moment: Sharing the Lives of Children: “A child is just a child, no matter what his heritage might be.” - Ezra Jack Keats   Keats, who was born this da...

Sharing the Lives of Children

“A child is just a child, no matter what his heritage might be.” - Ezra Jack Keats

 

Keats, who was born this date in 1916, crossed social boundaries as the first white American picture-book maker to give minority children a central place in children’s literature.

The characters in Keats’ books transcend ethnicity, illustrating family life, simple pleasures, and sometimes complex problems every child encounters.  Keats' books reflect experiences of children growing up in communities around the globe, a commonality tall can understand.

His first attempt (in 1960) at a children’s book was My Dog Is Lost, the story of a Puerto Rican immigrant boy searching for his dog in New York City.  Keats incorporated Spanish words into the story and featured children from Chinatown, Little Italy, Park Avenue and Harlem as central characters.

Then he wrote and illustrated a book featuring a black child called The Snowy Day.  “None of the manuscripts I'd been illustrating featured any black kids — except for token blacks in the background,” he said.   “My book would have him there simply because he should have been there all along." The Snowy Day has never been out of print since and is considered one of the most important American books of the 20^th Century.  It won the 1963 Caldecott Medal for illustration.

"I wanted The Snowy Day to be a chunk of life, the sensory experience in word and picture of what it feels like to hear your own body making sounds in the snow. Crunch...crunch...And the joy of being alive."   

  

Born into poverty and self-taught as an artist, he honed his craft as a mural painter for the WPA and then by doing publicity pieces for the Army in World War II.  He died of a heart attack in 1983 having illustrated nearly 100 books – 70 by other writers – and winning numerous awards and honors.  His work has been translated into 20 languages.

 

 “I never expected to be a children’s author,” he said.  The world got better because he was.

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Biding Time . . . Gets You Nowhere'

A Writer's Moment: 'Biding Time . . . Gets You Nowhere':   “If you can't laugh at your own characters, or shed a tear for them, or even get angry at one of them, no one else will either.” – J...

'Biding Time . . . Gets You Nowhere'

 

“If you can't laugh at your own characters, or shed a tear for them, or even get angry at one of them, no one else will either.” – Johanna Lindsey

Born Johanna Helen Howard on this date in 1952, Lindsey has a legitimate claim to the title “Queen of American historical romance writers.”  All of her dozens of books have reached the New York Times bestseller list and many have been number.  To date, her books have been translated into 12 languages and sold well over 60 million copies.

Born into a military family in Germany, she had the usual “Army Brat” experience of numerous moves before settling in Hawaii in 1964.  She lived there even after marriage before moving to New England, where she still resides.

Lindsey broke into writing in 1977, writing her             first book, Captive Bride, "on a whim.”  Setting the stage for her lifelong successes, that novel went right up the bestseller charts as have almost all of those that have followed. 

Lindsey's books span various eras of history, but by far the most popular are the stories about the Malory family set in the 1700s and 1800s.   Never one to rest on her laurels, Lindsey says to remember, “Biding time is easy – and gets you nowhere.”

 

 

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A Writer's Moment: 'Nothing But Carpentry'

A Writer's Moment: 'Nothing But Carpentry':   “Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood.” – Gabriel Ga...