befus's Full Review: Dirty Laundry Pile: Poems in Different Voices
When you think of poetry, what topics spring to mind? How about beauty, love, death, brave deeds, gardens, grecian urns, wheelbarrows...oh, and of course, your dirty pile of laundry in the corner.
Okay, so laundry does not perhaps leap immediately to mind when you think of settling down to read or write a poem. But hmm...maybe it should. In Dirty Laundry Pile: Poems in Different Voices, poet Paul B. Janeczko has selected a marvelous group of poems for young readers, poems that talk about all sorts of simple, every-day things from shells, snowflakes and scarecrows to kites, brooms, washing machines and crayons.
Excuse me, did I say poems that talk about? I simply meant to say poems that talk. Each of these poems is an example of a persona or "mask" poem, "poems written in the voice of an object or an animal, as if that thing or creature were speaking" (as Janeczko writes in his brief introduction).
That makes these poems particularly accessible to young readers, most of whom love to jump feet first into the kind of imaginative exercise it takes to create such a poem. Thinking about how an animal or an inanimate object might talk, and what it would say if it could, provides a fun leap for child-like imaginations, and these poems provide some terrific examples of where those imaginative flights can take you.
My six year old daughter and I have enjoyed many of these poems together, from the simple and sweet to the wackier and more humorous. Some examples of the former:
Deborah Chandra's "Shell" in which a seashell invites the reader/listener to "press my mouth against your ear,/I hold a special message just for you..."
Karla Kuskin's "I'm Up Here," in which a kite describes the difference between his environment and our's: "Where I sail:/Clouds pass./Where you run: Green grass."
And some examples of the latter, wackier variety:
April Halprin Wayland's "Crayon Dance" in which the "Sky Blue" crayon in the box exults over having been chosen and then chatters his way excitedly through a child's artwork: "Hi, hi! I'm scrubbing a sky!/Some stripes and whorls and -- whee!/Cha-cha-cha, loop-de-loop/I'm leaving bits of me!"
Bobbi Katz's "Washing Machine" and Marcy Barack Black's "Dirty Laundry Pile" (the poem from whence the title comes) are appropriately placed back to back in the collection. The Washing Machine poem provides lots of opportunity to make great sounds like "glubita, glubita, glubita" and "swizzle-dee-swash" while the Dirty Laundry Pile suggests that you might ignore it to your peril: "...you'll notice/When I swell/By my smell."
As you can probably tell, the poems showcase great variety in form and tone, and not all rhyme. If you're looking for a way to inspire children to write poetry, the poems in this collection could provide just what you're looking for: an "assignment" kids will enjoy, yet relaxed freedom in how they tackle it. This book would be a terrific addition to elementary school classrooms; I'd place the age range for it at around 6-10. The language is rich enough to challenge older listeners (I was especially impressed by the vocabulary in Tony Johnston's "Broom" which begins "I am the trusted consort/of floors, accomplice/of water and swash,/confident of corners...") and evocative too, with plenty of excellent examples of simile and metaphors.
The poets collected here represent some of the better children's poets writing today, and Melissa Sweet's colorful, simple watercolor illustrations provide good visual images to help children imagine even further. Often two very different poems by different authors about the same subject are shown together (there are two poems written from the perspective of kites, cats, and turtles, for example) which again should help children find freedom in the way they approach this creative writing exercise.
One final note: my daughter and I have enjoyed this book as part of our family's celebration of National Poetry Month. Alas for us: we're nearing the end of the month, though rejoice with us, for we still have lots more poetry to read! I know we won't stop, especially since I've been collecting lists of books and authors from the blogs we've followed all April. Dirty Laundry Pile: Poems in Different Voices is just one of the bright fruits we've plucked from the poetry tree this spring. It was a great way to introduce the concept of persona poems to my daughter, and yes, she's been inspired to write some. Yesterday she and I wrote this one together:
The Moon
I'm round and white and you see me in the night. Sometimes I'm skinny, sometimes I'm fat. I've got craters and I play peek-a-boo with clouds. Once in a while I shine in the day. Sometimes I look like a smile.
~befus, 2009
Dirty Laundry Pile: Poems in Different Voices Poems selected by Paul B. Janeczko Illustrated by Melissa Sweet HarperCollins Publishers, 2001 ISBN 0688162517
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