No Sew Poetry Tote for Week 3 of The Artistic Mother Workshop

Guess what? You don't have to sew your poetry totes! There is another option. Hallelujah! Shona has done it again. In her post today she has a tutorial on how we can alter an existing canvas bag or how you can take fabric and staple and glue it together. Now who would have thought you could use staples and glue? We just have to learn to think outside the box. There is always more than one way to do something. The project instructions in this book are just a guide. They are not a prescription. So if you were dreading the sewing portion of this workshop, just head on over to An Artful Life and get some other ideas. And sign up for her giveaway of art supplies that you can use for the projects in this workshop in a previous post while you're there. Then head on over to the Arts & Healing Network to read a book review they have done on Shona's book, The Aritistic Mother.

Now I have to decide if I am going to sew mine or alter a canvas bag. The photo above shows my poetry journal from Week 2, a canvas bag I could use and fabric quarters I have already purchased to sew my tote. So we'll see. I look forward to seeing what you come up with. And don't forget to load your completed projects on to The Artistic Mother Flickr Group when you are done. The link is in my sidebar.

And if you would like to join The Artistic Mother's Art Group or find out more information, follow the link I have in the upper right-hand corner of my sidebar to the post I've done about this group and leave a comment there.

Have a great day!

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.

A Weed or a Flower?

Weeds upon my windowsill?

I should say not!

When presented by sweet little hands
and beaming faces,

but the most beautiful of bouquets.

"For you, Mommy."