Please Come Flying

The Old Poets of China: A Blog Hiatus

2012-11-01T07:38:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago, I was walking across campus and a colleague stopped to read me a poem. It's not every day that poetry happens out of the blue! It was a short poem, one of those slight Mary Oliver masterpieces that is barely there yet still finds a way to thunder through your brain with a resounding "yes!"

I've been thinking about that poem a lot recently. One of the best things about this summer was that I managed to stay offline about 50% of the time. At first, I felt a bit lost. I had nagging feelings that I could be missing something important, I could be dropping balls, or losing productivity. But after a while, a stillness settled in. My head cleared. I could focus. I finished writing the novel I'd been struggling with. I painted my office. I spent time with family. I planned out better lessons for my music students.

Clearly, there is a balance to be had. And while I strive to find it, I've decided to take a hiatus from my blog. I've been blogging every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday for the past six years, and truthfully, it's hard to let go. I may come back. But for a little while at least, I want to spend some time in the pale mist. We'll see how that goes.

The Old Poets of China
by Mary Oliver

Wherever I am, the world comes after me.
It offers me its busyness. It does not believe
that I do not want it. Now I understand
why the old poets of China went so far and high
into the mountains, then crept into the pale mist.

Summer Vacation: GOALS!

2012-05-29T16:59:00.000-04:00

Singing Songs of the Civil War Era with the 5th graders of Stowe Elementary

Technically, we still have two days until June, but I've finished up my school programs with Stowe Elementary, we had a gorgeous Memorial Day weekend, the Bowdoin seniors are officially graduated, and it simply feels like summer. So I'm going to pack up my blog for the next three months and head outside. I'll try to keep in touch over Facebook and the like, but I hope to be offline more than on.

As usual, I have a lofty and possibly unattainable to-do list this summer:

Finish writing my current novel-in-progress by the end of June.
Write a rough draft of a new novel I've been outlining.
Create a bird-friendly garden in the backyard.
Paint my writing room.
Track down "wish list songs" for each of my music students.
Unpack at least some of the boxes that are still in the basement from our move last summer.
Play music.
Sing.
Spend time with my siblings.
Read.
Try some adventurous cooking.
Walk in the woods as often as humanly possible.

Does that list sound like heaven or what? Do you have similar lofty, restorative, fun goals for your summer? I'm sure as always, I'll get off track, frustrated, and bogged down at some point, and that's when I have to remind myself that life does not conform to goal sheets and lists. I suppose that should be my lucky #13: Be Flexible.

Hurrah for Lovely Maine

2012-05-16T08:00:00.000-04:00

As part of my Songs of the Civil War Era school visits, I show the students how popular songs of the era often changed over time as people "borrowed" melodies and wrote new lyrics to suit their own agendas (a perfect example is "Bonnie Blue Flag," which I discussed during my Bowdoin College lecture/concert).

This spring, I've been visiting the fifth graders of Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary School. After I visited each class, I worked with a group of twenty-five students who put together a rallying song of their own, to the tune of "Bonnie Blue Flag." The students did a great job collaborating. In fact, they were able to brainstorm an idea, come up with five verses, rehearse, and record all in the two hours we had together! Pretty impressive!

You can read the lyrics on the broadside below (click on the image to zoom in). You can also listen to the HBS fifth graders sing their song in the Songwriting for Kids Listening Room.

Don't you think they did a terrific job sticking to the original rhythm and getting their agenda across loud and clear?

Maurice Sendak on Illustration

2012-05-14T15:23:00.003-04:00

Last week, we said goodbye to Maurice Sendak. As a child and as an adult, I've always appreciated that Mr. Sendak never, ever, underestimated his audience. He expected children to read subtext and layers, to grasp and embrace story in a complex yet effortless way. In the below interview, he says as a writer for children,

"...you can count on an audience that is so intuitive by nature...they take it in like air."

Betsy Bird put together a round-up of Sendak tributes on her blog a Fuse #8 Production. You can listen to and read a number of past interviews with Sendak on Fresh Air and at the Horn Book. There are his recent, hilarious, outspoken interviews with Stephen Colbert (part one and part two).

The best tribute of all, of course, is simply to go pick up a Maurice Sendak book and read...take it in like air.

Maurice Sendak on Illustration

Grab Bag Friday: The Herons Have Hatched!

2012-05-04T10:49:00.000-04:00

Okay, I admit I've been glued to Cornell's Great Blue Heron Webcam for a full month. Has it been worth it? Absolutely. Five nestlings hatched last week, and the folks at Cornell say the tiny chicks will grow to be four feet tall within the next six weeks!

Ridiculously, after all the hours I spent watching Mom and Dad sit on the nest, I missed every single hatching (though I did get to watch Mom lay an egg, which was crazy). Chick #3 hatched when I stepped away for 30 minutes to go to the grocery store. I came home to a voicemail from my sister saying, "It's hatching! It's hatching! Where are you?"

Video: Great Blue Heron Egg #3 Hatch

Thankfully, the moment was captured on video (a sweet and hilarious video at that). I know we're not supposed to anthropomorphize, but their bedhead reminds me of the New Wave/Punk rockers in the early 80s.

Live feed: Cornell Lab Of Ornithology

Photo Screen Shot by phlegmmy

Marilyn Singer: Mirror Mirror, A Book of Reversible Verse

2012-04-30T20:15:00.001-04:00

How did the last day of Poetry Month sneak up so fast? Quickly, before it's over, I wanted to recommend a fun book of poetry for kids: Marilyn Singer's Mirror Mirror: A Book of Reversible Verse.

Each poem in this book looks at a fairy tale from two sides, flipping both the poem and the story upside down. Besides being fun, the reversed poems are perfect examples of how punctuation, line breaks, and rhythm are powerful tools that can change the meaning of a poem. The results are so surprising and fun, you'll immediately want to try writing one of your own.

The Doubtful Duckling

by Marilyn Singer

Someday

I'll turn into a swan.

No way

I'll stay

an ugly duckling,

stubby and gray.

Plain to see--

look at me.

A beauty I'll be.

A beauty I'll be?

Look at me---

plain to see,

stubby and gray.

An ugly duckling

I'll stay.

No way

I'll turn into a swan

Someday.

Grab Bag Friday: Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary

2012-04-27T10:30:00.000-04:00

Today I'm off to Harriet Beecher Stowe Elementary to talk to 5th graders about Songs of the Civil War Era. Huzzah!

Yesterday, I had a great time with the classrooms of Ms. Bailey, Mrs. Belanger, Mrs. Brescia, and Mr. Kittredge. The students had great singing voices and offered a lot of terrific insights.

In one exercise, I have the students imagine they are slogging back to their tents after a long day at war. Tired, dirty, and possibly wounded, they try to get comfortable and go to sleep. Then someone on the campground (in this case, me) starts to sing,

We're tenting tonight on the old campground
Give us a song to cheer
Our weary hearts, a song of home
And friends we love so dear

Slowly, as the song goes on, people join in until we are all singing loudly together,

Tenting tonight, tenting tonight, tenting on the old campground
Tenting tonight, tenting tonight, tenting on the old campground

At the end of the song, I asked the students if singing the song changed how they felt. Some of the things I heard were:

"I felt less lonely."

"I thought of my family. Singing the song made me feel like I would get to see them again."

"I thought of all the people who died that I cared about."

"I felt stronger."

"I felt proud to fight for what I believe in."

Aren't those great responses? I love how music has the power to stir our souls, even 150 years after it was written.

M. Ward: The First Time I Ran Away

2012-04-25T12:30:00.000-04:00

A new Andrew Bird album AND a new solo album by M. Ward? This is my lucky spring!

To top things off, Joel Trussell, the same director who made the gorgeous music video for Chinese Translation, is back on board as well. He directed a new video for the first release of the album: "The First Time I Ran Away." M. Ward says in The Huffington Post:

"Between now and when I made 'Hold Time' there has been a lot of traveling which requires a lot of reckoning with what to leave behind and what to carry - material and otherwise - and thinking about what I want versus what I need, creatively and otherwise. I wanted to get a reflection of that on the album."

You can stream the whole album, A Wasteland Companion, on M. Ward's website.

M. Ward: The First Time I Ran Away

Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators

2012-04-23T15:23:00.000-04:00

I met so many nice people at the NESCBWI conference this weekend, and am ready to get down to work (as soon as I catch up on my sleep)! Here are a few notes I took at the conference that struck me as being applicable to both storytelling and life:

-Part of growing up is aligning desire with actions...kids often say and do things that are the opposite of what they want (I'm pretty sure I still do this on a relatively regular basis!)

-Think: Does this FEED me or does it COST me?

-Instead of "what does my character want": "what does my character care about?"

-Write to your strengths, revise to your weakness.

-What would you do if you knew that failure was impossible?

Grab Bag Friday: Beanie Baby Hunger Games

2012-04-20T17:27:00.001-04:00

This weekend, I'm lucky to be at the New England Society of Children's Book Writer's and Illustrators conference. Which means three whole days to talk about writing and books! I've already been to a fun session called "Writing Camp for Grown-Ups" taught by Jo Knowles and Cindy Faughnan, and I'm looking forward to learning from great authors like Cynthia Lord, Kate Messner, and Linda Urban over the weekend.

In between today's sessions, though, I took a little time out for silliness and watched this fantastic video. Of course, it begs the question: Who did the Hunger Games better? Hollywood or the Beanie Babies? May the odds be ever in your favor!

Beanie Baby Hunger Games

Doris Day: My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time

2012-04-18T16:30:00.000-04:00

More Doris Day nostalgia. Here is one of my favorite Les Brown/Doris Day tunes. And check out the outfit on this album cover!

Doris Day: My Dreams Are Getting Better All the Time

Grab Bag Friday: Geoff Slattery This Is United

2012-04-13T16:30:00.000-04:00

This is just ridiculously cool.

Geoff Slattery: This Is United

This Is United: Geoff Slattery Full Video Part HD from Channel 4Down on Vimeo.

Doris Day on Fresh Air with Terry Gross

2012-04-11T16:30:00.000-04:00

It was Doris Day's 88th birthday last week, which means April is filled with all kinds of fun Doris Day nostalgia. TCM is airing 28 of her movies (yes, my DVR is filling up quite nicely). And lucky for us, Ms. Day granted Terry Gross an interview to celebrate the occasion.

Doris Day has rarely been interviewed since she left Hollywood in 1968, and it was a treat to hear her talk about her life. She discusses the tragic accident that became the impetus for her singing career, the roles she played, songs she sang, and her second career as an animal activist.

What I found most striking is how much she seems to take everything in stride. Hit songs, blockbuster movies, 30 dogs living in her house. "I loved...doing what I was supposed to do and be. That's the way I worked."

Doris Day on Fresh Air with Terry Gross

Latern Review: Poetry Month Digital Broadsides

2012-04-09T16:30:00.000-04:00

The Lantern Review is embarking on an interesting project for National Poetry Month. This month, they've paired designers with poets to create a series of free digital broadsides. Anyone can download them, print them, post them, or use them as desktop wallpaper. The Review is also posting a series of Pocket Broadsides on Tumblr.

This month, I'll be talking to ten different 5th grade classrooms about how broadsides were used to advertise songs during the Civil War Era. I love the concept of reviving the broadside format to spread poetry in the digital world!

Digital Broadside #1: Vanitas (poem by R. A. Villanuevas, design by Debbie Yee)

Pocket Broadside #1: Vanni Taing

Grab Bag Friday: The Wrecking Project

2012-04-06T07:39:00.000-04:00

18 dances
9 choreographers from 5 different cities
16 performers
3 separate programs over 1 weekend

Putting on a professional dance production of any size is a gargantuan task, but my talented friend Kate Corby seems to always take it to the next level. Kate and her collaborator Julie Mayo have curated a choreography experiment called The Wrecking Project which will premiere next weekend in Chicago (ticket info).

The Wrecking Project is an ambitious and expensive undertaking and the group is raising money to help with the cost of airfare and rehearsal space. Even a small donation will make a difference: Support The Wrecking Project.

Here's a sum-up of the project (I wish I was in Chicago next weekend!):

Julie Mayo and Kate Corby have invited a group of rigorous dance-makers with distinctive sensibilities to wreck, or re-imagine, one another's finished work, inspired by choreographer Susan Rethorst's work with wrecking dances in the mid 1990's. The "wrecking process" parameters stipulate that the original work's performer(s) must remain the same, but everything else is fair game.

Miles Davis: So What

2012-04-04T07:30:00.000-04:00

Kevin was out of town at a trade show this weekend, so I took the opportunity to spend my evenings curled up with a pint of chocolate peanut butter ice cream and the PBS adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. As anticipated, the mini-series was satisfying and entertaining (Matthew from Downton Abbey plays Edward!), but as the credits rolled, I noticed there were still 20 minutes left on the DVR recording. Hoping for some Austen-related special features, I waited.

Instead of more Sense and Sensibility, I got a black and white shot of a guy in a black sport coat announcing in a smoky, art-house voice, "For the next half hour, our story will be in the music, the sound, of one man, Miles Davis. He will tell his story in his own way, and in his own language, the language of music." I got through a fantastic version of "So What" and the first half of Dave Brubeck's "The Duke" before the DVR ran out.

Turns out this was recorded April 2, 1959 and aired on "Robert Herridge Theater" on July 21, 1960. I read in the session details that Cannonball Adderley missed the recording date because of a migraine headache, so maybe that's why Davis solos twice.

I should let the DVR tape ahead more often.

Miles Davis Quintet - So What

Happy Belated April Fool's Day

2012-04-02T07:30:00.000-04:00

A little treat for the day-after-April-Fool's:

The Top 100 April Fool's Day Hoaxes of All Time (from the Museum of Hoaxes...did you even know there was such a place?)

I've only worked my way through the top 10 so far, but I love the bumper spaghetti crop from 1957, and the San Serriffe Islands (in the shape of a semi-colon) from 1977. And it made me grin from ear to ear to learn that hundreds of people honestly thought they had succumbed to The Jupiter Effect when a 1976 April Fool's report from the BBC report claimed it would cause people to feel a "floating sensation." Several people even claimed they floated across the room...well, it was the 70s after all!

If you didn't get enough April Fool's yesterday, the Top 100 should keep you well entertained until next year.

Grab Bag Friday: Great Blue Heron Webcam

2012-03-30T07:00:00.000-04:00

Great Blue Heron Webcam

The novel I'm writing has a blue heron in it, so I couldn't believe my luck when the Cornell Lab of Ornithology announced (yes, I get their email newsletter because I am a total nerd) that their new webcam focuses on the nest of a Great Blue Heron!

It is amazing to see the nest up close, and two camera angles allow you to focus both on the bird and the tiny blue egg that was laid on Wednesday. At least one more egg will likely be laid in the next day or so, and then in 25-30 days, they'll start to hatch. I predict that my productivity level is going to take a serious dive toward the end of April. I can only imagine I'll be glued to the screen 7-8 weeks later as the young ones learn how to fly.

One amazing thing that you can't really get a sense of from the webcam is the size of the nest. According to the website:

"In 2009, the herons brought in the first few twigs that would become the first known Great Blue Heron nest in the history of Sapsucker Woods. Early in the spring of 2012 we installed two cameras to bring the hidden world of their nesting habits into full view. The nest itself is nearly four feet across and a foot deep, and wraps almost entirely around the trunk of the tree. The birds have slowly built up the nest over the last three years."

Happy bird watching!

Playing Hooky with the Great Books Club or, The Importance of Being Taken Seriously

2012-03-26T15:30:00.000-04:00

Last week, my mother sent me an article from my hometown paper. It described a scholarship fund for my high school, set up in the memory of Carol Yahr who died in a car accident in 2009. I read the article three times through, and I haven't been able to put it out of my mind.

Back in the early 90's when I was in high school way up in the breathtaking boondocks of Northern Wisconsin, our English program was less than serious. In "College Bound English" (the highest level senior English course you could take, designed for those few seniors who might consider going to college), we read books like Robert Ludlum's The Bourne Identity, Louis Lamour's western novel Last of the Breed, and (because Shakespeare was state mandated) Hamlet. The latter was delivered in both a "modern English" version ("Hey, Hamlet!") and a cartoon version where mice dressed as Hamlet and Ophelia explained the plot of the play. I searched for an image, and the best I could find was this odd taxidermy vignette, which gets the point across just fine.

The expectation was that high school kids wouldn't and in fact couldn't understand anything more complicated than plot-driven suspense novels and watered-down sum-ups. Nor would we want to.

Most of my classmates loved our English teacher, but I was an odd kid. I read Chaucer and Beowulf over the summer. I refused to read the cartoon Hamlet and brought my own version of the original Shakespearean to class. On one visit to the local library, I saw a flyer for a weekly Great Books Discussion held in the mornings, and I petitioned the school to let me and a couple friends attend.

Each week, my friends and I left school to sit around a table in the basement of the Demmer Library with eight or nine retirees holding cheesy-looking volumes filled with selections from the greats. Chekov, Aristotle, Kant. Writers I'd never be expected to read in school. We discussed each selection for an hour, and probably nobody said anything spectacular. But here's the thing: every week, the adults in that room took us seriously. They had fifty and sixty years on us, yet they listened as if a sixteen year old kid actually had something valuable to bring to the conversation. In school, I wasn't expected to do anything but show up. These people not only expected me to think about literature, they expected my thoughts to matter.

Eventually, I lost permission to attend Great Books. I can't remember the reason. Probably I was missing an important gym unit on bowling. All I remember is that I didn't care whether I had permission or not. I kept going. The Great Books club had given me permission to take myself seriously. Some kids play hooky to go to the movies or skip class or smoke. I snuck out of school to talk about books.

So. The scholarship. I met Carol Yahr in that room. When I graduated, she sent me yearly Christmas cards wishing me good luck in my studies, congratulating me on my accomplishments, encouraging me to be the person I wanted to become. When I came home the summer before graduate school to work as the curator of the local historical museum, she and her husband Warren would come to visit and chat. Warren had written a book, Smokechaser, and it was the first time I'd read a book written by someone I know. It was exhilarating to see firsthand that real people write books. Even people who come from the middle-of-nowhere Wisconsin. People like me. When I got married, Warren gave us six leaves he'd carved out of wood, each labeled with the type of leaf and the type of wood it was made out of. They are among of my favorite possessions and I keep them on the windowsill of my writing room for inspiration.

I know Carol would be so proud of the scholarship that Warren established in her honor. She cared deeply about students, about literature, about learning. Believe me, when you are a rural kid from way Up North, it can be easy to feel like your options and opportunities are limited. Like your voice is too small to matter. Like you couldn't even be expected to try. But even the smallest encouragement, the smallest light in a dim, musty library basement can change all that.

I guess all I want to say is this:

To Carol, and Warren, and all the adults out there who take kids seriously, thank you.

postscript: I'm glad to say that eventually, the school approved the Great Books program and allowed a few students to participate each year. I believe the library is still sponsoring the program, and I hope there are students out there who are participating and enjoying it as much as I did.

Grab Bag Friday: The Banking Game

2012-03-23T07:30:00.000-04:00

My friend Kirk has been busy creating a fun new advertising campaign for Maine Savings Bank that is a bit of an homage to The Dating Game. I love the vintage set and costumes. This particular "behind the scenes" spot is my favorite. Nice work, Kirk!

Interesting side note: Kevin's dad was once on The Dating Game back in the late 60s, but no one in the family has ever seen the episode. I need to figure out a way to get my hands on that tape!

The Banking Game: Mr. Maine Savings

Songs of the Civil War Era Grant!

2012-03-21T16:00:00.000-04:00

Thanks to a generous grant from the Senter Fund, I'll be returning to the Brunswick School District this spring! I'm looking forward to teaching my Songs of the Civil War Era workshop to a whole new batch of 5th graders. I'll give four school performances, teach a workshop on songwriting, and participate in a Civil War Reenactment run by the fifth grade class.

Last year, the Brunswick students wrote "class verses" to two popular Civil War songs. We recorded the verses and created an 1800's style broadside (click on the image below to see a larger image, or check it out at the Songwriting for Kids website). I'm so excited to be back in the classroom again this year!

Edna St. Vincent Millay: Wild Swans

2012-03-19T15:30:00.000-04:00

A couple years ago, I signed up for the Academy of American Poets Poem-a-Day email list. Thinking, of course, that it would introduce me to interesting new poets, remind me of old favorites, and most importantly, help me infuse each day with poetry. Instead, the emails piled up, cluttered my inbox, and made me feel like I was falling behind on one more thing. This is not how poetry should make you feel.

Kevin, as usual, was the hero in this situation. "Why don't you set up an email filter?" he asked. (And a light shone down from heaven, and the angel choir began to sing.) My filter now automatically redirects every Poem-a-Day email (as well as a few other newsletters) to a folder titled Poetry. The result? I have a (relatively) uncluttered inbox, and when I have some down time, I can open up my Poetry folder and leisurely catch up on all the poems I've missed. True, it's not the daily infusion of poetry that I imagined, but it's one of those tiny adjustments that makes life feel a bit more sane.

Which brings me to the wild swans. I've been struggling like crazy with the new novel I've been writing, and turned to my Poem-a-Day folder for solace. What I love about poetry is that it can hit you differently every time you read it. I've read "Wild Swans" by Edna St. Vincent Millay before, but this time it seemed to speak directly to the creative process. So often, I feel like what I've put on the page is "nothing to match the flight of wild birds flying." That is to say, the words seem dead and dull on the page. And so I go for a walk in the woods. When I've stepped away, let go of the tiresome heart (or mind), and simply experienced something tangible, wild, and real, then I feel I might be able to write again.

Wild Swans

Edna St. Vincent Millay

I looked in my heart while the wild swans went over.
And what did I see I had not seen before?
Only a question less or a question more;
Nothing to match the flight of wild birds flying.
Tiresome heart, forever living and dying,
House without air, I leave you and lock your door.
Wild swans, come over the town, come over
The town again, trailing your legs and crying!

Grab Bag Friday: The Joy of Books

2012-03-16T07:30:00.000-04:00

This must have taken forever.
I'm in awe.
(Thanks to Fuse #8 for the link.)

The Joy of Books (Type Bookstore in Toronto)

Julie Lee and the Baby Daddies

2012-03-14T07:32:00.000-04:00

My friend Paul tipped me off to the fact that Julie Lee has a new album out this month. Hooray!

Kevin and I first saw Julie Lee a few years back at a club in Nashville. She knocked us off our feet with her old-timey, genuine style and sweet, clear voice. What I really remember about the evening, though, are the "kitchen instruments."

During one song, she handed vintage kitchen gadgets to the audience so that we could be her rhythm section. There were flour sifters and wooden spoons. I had one of those old strainers you make applesauce out of, and Kevin had a glass mason jar to tap on. The effect was this rough, metallic, clanky, and energetic rhythm section that was undeniably cool.

Until Kevin broke his instrument. Yep, smashed the mason jar to pieces. The boy doesn't know his own strength! (Don't worry, no one was hurt, Ms. Lee was very gracious, and after a bit of clean up, the rollicking concert continued on without a hitch.)

To celebrate the new album, here are two videos, one old and one new:

Julie Lee: Born to Pine and Sigh (2008)

Julie Lee and the Baby Daddies Promo Video (2012)

Battle of the Kids' Books Begins Tomorrow

2012-03-12T17:30:00.000-04:00

Are you ready? Check out the great Round One line up of contenders for the 2012 Battle of the Kid's Books. Plus, celebrity judges like Jeff Kinney (of Wimpy Kid fame, in case you live under a rock and had to be told), and Matt Phelan (one of my favorite contemporary illustrators), and SO MANY more!

Didn't I tell you this was going to be exciting?

Round One:
Match 1 (March 13, Judge Matt Phelan) Amelia Lost vs Anya's Ghost

Match 2 (March 14, Judge Gayle Forman) Between Shades of Gray vs Bootleg

Match 3 (March 15, Judge Sy Montgomery) The Cheshire Cheese Cat vs Chime

Match 4 (March 16, Judge Sara Zarr) Daughter of Smoke and Bone vs Dead End in Norvelt

Match 5 (March 19, Judge Barbara O'Connor) Drawing from Memory vs The Grand Plan to Fix Everything

Match 6 (March 20, Judge Sarah Weeks) Heart and Soul vs Inside Out and Back Again

Match 7 (March 21, Judge Lauren Myracle) Life: An Exploded Diagram vs A Monster Calls

Match 8 (March 22, Judge Jeff Kinney) Okay for Now vs Wonderstruck