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THE POETRY OF US

Name: THE POETRY OF US
Author: J. Patrick Lewis
ISBN: 978-1-4263-3185-5

MORE THAN 200 POEMS THAT CELEBRATE THE PEOPLE, PLACES, AND PASSIONS OF THE UNITED STATES

edited by J. Patrick Lewis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 25, 2018

Safe, mostly conservative choices in an expansive gathering, with dazzling visuals.

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Some 200-plus short poems about U.S. places, people, and events are superimposed on big, bright landscape and other photographs.

Notwithstanding Lewis’ grandiose claim that these “chiseled words and fabulous photos” present “the underside, backside, inside, and other side of America,” the general tone is blandly celebratory, with only occasional, mild dissension. Robert Frost’s paternalistic “The Gift Outright” (“The land was ours before we were the land’s”) is paired, for instance with Carole Boston Weatherford’s protest litany “Power to the People” (“You Are On Stolen Land”); and Walt Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” appears, rather obviously, side by side with Langston Hughes’ “I, too, sing America.” The poetry largely steers clear of abstractions, violent imagery, or even, aside from a strongly rhythmic final chant by Leigh Lewis, declamatory slam or hip-hop language. Topics range from natural wonders to local festivals, regional food, salutes to celebrities including John Wayne and Willie Nelson, elegies for Emmett Till and Trayvon Martin, sports, religious observances, and statements of ethnic or national identity. Nods to the diversity of American voices include frequent entries by immigrant and minority writers as well as poems in Spanish, Arabic, and Korean with accompanying translations into English by, usually, the poets themselves. The photos, gorgeous as they are, largely serve a decorative function as only a handful bear identifying captions.

Safe, mostly conservative choices in an expansive gathering, with dazzling visuals. (bibliography, indexes) (Poetry. 8-13)

Pub Date: Sept. 25, 2018

ISBN: 978-1-4263-3185-5

Page Count: 192

Publisher: National Geographic

Review Posted Online: July 29, 2018

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2018

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY

- BOOK REVIEW
I AM ELEPHANT
by J. Patrick Lewis ; illustrated by Miriam Nerlove

- BOOK REVIEW
IT'S NOT THE PUPPY
by J. Patrick Lewis & Leigh Lewis ; illustrated by Maddie Frost

- BOOK REVIEW
LAST LAUGHS
by J. Patrick Lewis & Jane Yolen ; illustrated by Jeffrey Stewart Timmins

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AN EYEBALL IN MY GARDEN

edited by Jennifer Cole Judd & Laura Wynkoop & illustrated by Johan Olander ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 1, 2010

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The emphasis is more on funny than scary in this slim collection, though a few individual poems may give pause. Stella Michel’s mummy mourns the waste of good ingredients: “Fruit bat wings with Hollandaise, / eyeballs in a demi-glaze” don’t do much good for a monster with no stomach. Edna Cabcabin Moran’s zombie kid tries to catch a baseball, but the impact takes his hand off with the mitt. But in “The Witching Hour,” by Angela McMullen, an unnamed protagonist lies sleepless, hoping to survive till morning, and Wynkoop’s wishing well delivers an “eyeless beast with jagged teeth... / To search for frightened children with its heightened sense of smell.” Co-anthologist Judd is also well-represented here, with a bat-shaped concrete poem among others. While there are chills and chuckles both among these verses, they are mild ones—an additional purchase. (Poetry. 8-12)

Pub Date: Aug. 1, 2010

ISBN: 978-0-7614-5655-1

Page Count: 64

Publisher: Marshall Cavendish

Review Posted Online: June 14, 2010

Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 1, 2010

Categories:

CHILDREN'S POETRY | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

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LEMONADE

AND OTHER POEMS SQUEEZED FROM A SINGLE WORD

by Bob Raczka and illustrated by Nancy Doniger ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 15, 2011

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Fresh off his engaging Guyku: A Year of Haiku for Boys (illustrated by Peter H. Reynolds, 2010) and inspired by the work of Andrew Russ, Raczka continues to dabble in short lyric forms, here experimenting with images conjured up by breaking down a single word. The smaller components that comprise the subsequent free-verse poem read left to right, cascading down the page while maintaining the same horizontal letter positions as in the original word. For example, “vacation” yields “ac tion / i n / a / va n,” alongside Doniger’s spare three-color drawing of a family and a rabbit traveling through the countryside in a van with a canoe on the roof. For readers who find the spatiality of the lettering a challenge for comprehension, Raczka sets the poem in more standard format, “vacation / action / in / a / van,” on the following page. While these 22 poems are uniformly clever, some, like “earthworms”—“a / short / storm / worms / here / worms / there / wear / shoes”—are more successful than others, such as “flowers”—“we slow / for / free / wows”—both in their playfulness and in evoking the suggestive depths of language. Fun as a prompt for poetic exploration but less fulfilling as a stand-alone volume. (Poetry. 8-12)