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A review by pattydsf
One Last Word: Wisdom from the Harlem Renaissance by Nikki Grimes
4.0
Storm Ending by Jean Toomer
Thunder blossoms gorgeously above our heads,
Great, hollow, bell-like flowers,
Rumbling in the wind,
Stretching clappers to strike our ears…
Full-lipped floweres
Bitten by the sun
Bleeding rain
Dripping rain like golden honey –
And the sweet earth flying from the thunder.
Truth by Nikki Grimes
The truth is, every day we rise is like thunder --
a clap of surprise. Could be echoes of trouble or blossoms
of blessing. You never know what garish or gorgeously
disguised memories-to-be might rain down from above.
So, look up! Claim that cloud with the silver lining. Our
job, if you ask me, is to follow it. See where it heads.
I read a few children’s books last year and realized that I should be paying more attention to these amazing authors and stories. I learn a lot from juvenile literature. Also, I try to find books that will interest my grandchildren. They are still young but like to read and I like to encourage that.
From this book by Nikki Grimes, I have learned more about the Harlem Renaissance, found some great poetry and learned about a poetic form that I had never encountered before. I expected the first two things, but it didn’t occur to me that I would be learning more about writing poetry.
Golden shovel takes words from one poem and helps the poet make a new poem. Here are the basic rules as listed by Grimes in this book: ´The idea… is to take a short poem in its entirety, or a line from that poem…, and create a new poem, using the words from the original.” So if you look at the poem above, Grimes takes the first line from Toomer’s poem and ends each of her lines with a word from the line. The words must be used in the order of the first poem, so that you can read down the new lines and see what was borrowed.
I am not a poet, but I love poetry and I love this technique. It makes obvious links between two poets. I would think that writing poetry in this way could be lots of fun, but very hard.
Grimes takes fourteen poems from the Harlem Renaissance and creates her own poetry from these. All of the poems were wonderful, but the craft that Grimes has that helps her make these golden shovel poems is phenomenal. I loved this book.
I hope that I remember how much I liked this book and pick up a few more poetry books this year. I only read two books of poetry last year. Let’s see if I can manage four in 2020.
Thunder blossoms gorgeously above our heads,
Great, hollow, bell-like flowers,
Rumbling in the wind,
Stretching clappers to strike our ears…
Full-lipped floweres
Bitten by the sun
Bleeding rain
Dripping rain like golden honey –
And the sweet earth flying from the thunder.
Truth by Nikki Grimes
The truth is, every day we rise is like thunder --
a clap of surprise. Could be echoes of trouble or blossoms
of blessing. You never know what garish or gorgeously
disguised memories-to-be might rain down from above.
So, look up! Claim that cloud with the silver lining. Our
job, if you ask me, is to follow it. See where it heads.
I read a few children’s books last year and realized that I should be paying more attention to these amazing authors and stories. I learn a lot from juvenile literature. Also, I try to find books that will interest my grandchildren. They are still young but like to read and I like to encourage that.
From this book by Nikki Grimes, I have learned more about the Harlem Renaissance, found some great poetry and learned about a poetic form that I had never encountered before. I expected the first two things, but it didn’t occur to me that I would be learning more about writing poetry.
Golden shovel takes words from one poem and helps the poet make a new poem. Here are the basic rules as listed by Grimes in this book: ´The idea… is to take a short poem in its entirety, or a line from that poem…, and create a new poem, using the words from the original.” So if you look at the poem above, Grimes takes the first line from Toomer’s poem and ends each of her lines with a word from the line. The words must be used in the order of the first poem, so that you can read down the new lines and see what was borrowed.
I am not a poet, but I love poetry and I love this technique. It makes obvious links between two poets. I would think that writing poetry in this way could be lots of fun, but very hard.
Grimes takes fourteen poems from the Harlem Renaissance and creates her own poetry from these. All of the poems were wonderful, but the craft that Grimes has that helps her make these golden shovel poems is phenomenal. I loved this book.
I hope that I remember how much I liked this book and pick up a few more poetry books this year. I only read two books of poetry last year. Let’s see if I can manage four in 2020.