Monday, September 30, 2013

CPitS Poet Teacher Amanda Chiado

One of the currently active Santa Clara County CPitS poet/teachers is Amanda Chiado. She has just had a poem published in Dressing Room Poetry Journal.

You can read her poem, "Honey in Fur," here. I particularly like her line, "The argument of love is / somewhere in the middle." It makes me think of some ambiguous place between people, between any pair of beings, a place where the desperate and necessary battle between egos takes place.

Amanda lives and works in San Benito County, immediately to the south of Santa Clara County, where she is on the staff of the San Benito County Arts Council.

The more poetry the better in as many counties as possible.

That's Madame Laureate!

 

This summer, in a fit of loose-mindedness, I applied for the two-year honorary position of Cupertino Poet Laureate. They picked me! It's rather alarming to toot one's own horn, but any horn-tooting for poetry is always worthwhile. I will have many unofficial and official tasks. Right now I'm planning my events for the next two years and deciding on poems to read at my "inauguration" -- actually "just" an official welcome reception to be held in November. Watch this space for more information about that.

If you're interested in learning more about the position, you can read the city's press release here. And, you can see the actual video of the city council interrogating me about my plans, and hear me read a poem, here. I also include the poem, for those who like to see poetry on a poetry blog.



Birthday With Horses

How do the horses know
where to stand
so the bay shimmers behind them exactly
and Mt. Diablo rises above the watery basin
precisely centered like a waiting wedding cake? 

Cresting Page Mill Road, 10 a.m.,
I come this way every day. 

How do they know, dozens of horses,
where to stand – the sky
widest there.
They are all the colors
of Santa Clara Valley in September.

For your birthday, I notice them
and tell you.
You have lived here all your life
and you know, too,
where to stand. 


Hello, love.  
 ----------------------------

I am very grateful to the City of Cupertino, The Cupertino Library Commission, The Friends of the Cupertino Library, and the Cupertino Library Foundation for this opportunity.  

I am also grateful to walk in the great comfortable footsteps of David Denny, Cupertino's first poet laureate, who is also a great comfortable friend. You can buy his first book of poems on Amazon.com. 

Up-to-date events of interest to the Cupertino (and greater Santa Clara County) poetry-loving community can be found on our Facebook page "Cupertino Poet Laureate."

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Poetry Crossing

A wonderful lady, fellow-CPitS poet/teacher, and awesome Emily Dickinson impersonator, Phyllis Meshulam, has a fun fun fun and colorful blog called "Poetry Crossing: Thoughts on poetry lesson plan book for K-12." Check it out for wonderful ideas about poetry teaching. 

Phyllis, a poet from Sonoma County, has contributed multiple lesson plans to CPitS anthologies over the years. This poem of hers, published in the 2002 CPitS Statewide Anthology, attempts to put in writing the movements of a poet performing in American Sign Language. Poetry is not all on the page or in the ear, it can also be performed by the body without sound. 

The Angel of Muscular Wings

Impressions of an American Sign Language Poem by John Roades

The poet is a skyscraper of a man,
          but flexible,
portraying the New York skyline,
          one humming tower at a time.

His hands take flight like airplanes
          with their fragile cargo;
his body, receiving the blow,
          explodes, and reconfigures

as the Angel of Muscular Wings
          that catches the couples jumping,
          the incinerating ants.
But, in reality, he is just human

sprouting feathers before our eyes
crocheting keratin
into fire-retardant sings
so as to represent those

who know to run
toward disaster:
          earthbound gestures
          eternally generous. 

Phyllis H. Meshulam 

There are lovely videos of deaf poets on YouTube. For example, here's "The United States of Poetry" by Peter Cook. This video includes a spoken rendition of the poem. There are also videos of poetry signed but not spoken. Your students might find the experience of seeing a poem in ASL quite astounding, if they've never known a deaf person or seen ASL performed. 

Enjoy!

Sunday, September 8, 2013

Rattle to Publish Children's Poetry

Reach about it here and here.



CPITS Campaign A Success Despite Missing the Mark

The CPITS indigogo campaign to raise $15,000 for poets in the schools is done. What an experience! I didn't know how hard it would be to ask for money, to keep asking for money, to remember to ask for money. And even though we fell short of our goal, we still raised a lot of money and even more awareness. I had fun pestering so many people. They were so nice about it!

As Karen Lewis, current CPITS Board Member and Secretary, wrote:


Your tax-deductible* contribution will help students learn to write poems like this:

PEARL

White as snow
as smooth as a knife
crying for its own
like ice cream melting in your mouth
hiding deep down waiting to open up and be free
crisp sugar like crystals in the bright sky
You're not all alone in this small world

~Charlene Neo, Grade 5
Marshall Pomeroy Elementary, Santa Clara County
Mara Sheade, poet-teacher
from Sing to the Heart of the Forest, 2013 Student Poetry Anthology

You can continue to contribute, order a copy of the anthology, find a teacher, and enjoy other student work at our website: www.cpits.org. Thank you!