MIXED MEDIA - COLLAGE - CRAFTS WITH MY KIDS - THE ARTISTIC MOTHER ART GROUP

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Poetry Recommendations for The Artistic Mother Art Group

A big thank you to my husband, Marty Callan, for taking the above photo.

As part of The Artistic Mother workshop, we are encouraged to read poetry each day. See Pages 48 through 51. Much poetry is just so deep and vague that you have to really try to figure out what the meaning was behind it. As a busy momma, I don't have time to sit around thinking that hard. I need something that is easily accessible for my mind to digest, that I can still be reflecting upon as I go about my day. I want poetry that will lift my thoughts to a higher plane, that will give me beautiful thoughts to think. If our minds are filled with lovely things, they will not be as likely to wander to the negative. I want poetry that will make me smile and cause me to reflect on my life around me, that will lead me to appreciate my world a little more.
This is the list recommended by Shona Cole of An Artful Life on her blog. I have her permission to share this with you. She also has more recommendations for poetry in the index of her book The Artistic Mother on Pages 126 and 127.
1) Late Wife by Claudia Emersen – This is about a woman’s experience of a divorce. Powerful, brilliant, moving. Brilliant metaphors at every turn. 

2) Mean Time by Carol Ann Duffy 

3) The World Doesn’t End by Charles Simic – this is a brilliant, surreal, fun, devastating look at the absurd

4) The Trouble with Poetry by Billy Collins – funny, insightful, cuts through, holds up and describes the oddest things. 

5) Delights & Shadows by Ted Kooser – what a lovely world this poet lives in, concrete, real, he studies those around him and reflects their mundane lives with dignity

6) North by Seamus Heaney – This is a little dense, but the words are layered and lovely and earthy. 

7) Anne Stevenson selected poems – a delight, she is that wise older woman who is gentle and insightful. Her poems are real and well ‘seen’. 

8) The Art of The Lathe by B.H. Fairchild – This poet is a MASTER of the English language. He writes about subject matter in such a way that makes the reader compelled, riveted, amazed! 

9) Good Poems complied by Garrison Keillor – this is the perfect starter poetry book, he has complied a complete, easy to read, diverse look at modern poetry. 

10) Small Knots by Kelli Russell Agodon, She has insights and sensitive observations on life as a woman, daughter and a cancer survivor. Reading this book is like being touched by a light breeze ~ gentle and feminine, but sure. 

If you have any poetry books that you recommend, please share.

*** Disclaimer – Some of these books are like watching movies that have been awarded an R rating. I would not recommend them for children ;) ***

For poetry for children that they would love and would cause them to love poetry, I highly recommend the works of Shel Silverstein. He has writen Where the Sidewalk Ends and A Light in the Attic.
IF YOU HAVEN'T JOINED US YET AND WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE in The Artistic Mother Art Group, LEAVE ME A COMMENT. I'M STILL ACCEPTING NEW MEMBERS.

13 comments:

  1. Thanks for the list Trudy!

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  2. Thanks Trudy....I love poetry.
    by the way, love your new look here!

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  3. thanks for the recommendations!
    i haven't read poetry consistently since high school & as i went to the library yesterday i realized i was stuck in a bit of a rut....going back to what i knew, which is russian poetry. trying to get outside the box i picked up "the best american poetry 2008" but your list will be of great help.
    thanks...:)

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  4. You are all very welcome. Thank you for the compliments on the new look of my blog, Rayanne. So goad you like it. Dani, I am not able to leave comments on your blog. You may want to look into that.

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  5. Hi Trudy!
    Thank you for your kind comment - and for these updates. I am really having a great time - and we are only getting started. Kristin xo

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  6. You are very welcome, Kristin. I'm so glad you are having a great time. I appreciate you letting me know.

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  7. thnks very much...don't know if you realise it or not, but this group has made me take a whole new look on life...i wnt to create and be creative..i was a poetry writer, artist, painter as v child...this group is making me realise i can still do this as a adult...thankyou with all my heart!!!xxx

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  8. I love your photo Trudy. It's so alive and calming.

    Colette

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  9. That is so wonderful to hear, Mandy. I'm so glad you are getting so much out of it. And to think, you don't even have the book yet. Wait till you get the book. You will really be changed.

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  10. Thank you, Colette. My husband and I took it on our walk this weekend at the arboretum near our home.

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  11. i love Ted K -- great list Trudy!:) Thanks:)

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  12. I especially like to read poetry by women poets. Two collections edited by Marilyn Sewell are exceptional: Claiming the Spirit Within and Cries of the Spirit. There are poems about childbirth, for example, and mothering... and all stages of being a woman. Excellent reads, none of which feel esoteric and difficult to me (but a tiny disclaimer is I am a poet as well, but I specifically aim to be accessible and not difficult to understand. Mary Oliver is also incredible - so succinct, not a word wasted.

    My Artistic Mom book should be arriving today or tomorrow via Amazon. Very excited.

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