Saturday, February 11, 2006

Teaching Children Poetry

I'm planning on teaching a poetry class as part of a "Day of the Book" event in Kensington, Maryland. Does anyone have ideas for good books/resources about teaching children poetry? I checked out "Rose, Where Did You Get Your Red?" by Kenneth Koch which is supposed to be the best book on the subject. Since I really like Koch's work, I think this may be the text, but maybe someone has other ideas, too. (Leave them in the comments). Also, I'm being published a few new places in the future, Pinyon, Sulphur River, Hububb, etc. Although Spoon River Poetry Review always seems to send out sort of mean form rejection notes. Maybe they're reserved for writers they really don't like, like me?

Friday, February 03, 2006

Revisions, Revisions

Other than surfing for MP3s last night, what I did mostly was revise old poems. I'm enjoying it, in some ways; in others, it creates a lot of anxiety, because I fear I don't know what I'm doing or if I'm improving anything. I guess I should just keep that Merwin poem "Berryman" to heart; no one knows if anything they're doing is good. I have trouble with the newer stuff; I guess I need time for the ideal version of the poem in my head to pass, so I can see how to improve the one on the page. Any tips for revision out there? I'm working on a book (for the next month) that's going to be critiqued at a writer's conference in June in Nebraska, so any tips would be appreciated.