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."

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!

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!

Poetry for 1500 More Kids

For every $10 you donate to California Poets in the School (“CPitS”), one child can be exposed to the art of poetry, given the opportunity to learn from a published poet, and enabled to find their own inner voice to produce their own poems and share them with the world.

Here's the link to support CPitS!  http://igg.me/at/CPitS/x/4047592 

CPitS is a 501(c)3 organization that has provided K-12 students across more than 30 counties in California the opportunity to appreciate poetry and learn how to write their own poetry for the past 49 years.

CPitS works with published poets across California to place the poets into classrooms to work directly with students and open those students’ minds and hearts to the world of poetry.

Every year, the CPitS program enriches the lives of more than 25,000 students because:

• The academic curriculum is enhanced by teaching students about poetic forms, grammar, and literary tools like metaphors and personification (CPitS meets arts education standards adopted by the California Department of Education);
• Students are able to express their dreams and concerns in a constructive, nonjudgmental environment;
• Students realize their uniqueness and importance and build self confidence.

CPitS applies uncompromising standards to the poets it brings into each classroom, using only published poets who have undergone a rigorous training regimen.  Each “in-class” session is an hour long, and a poet will usually spend at least 5 sessions over several weeks with a particular classroom.  It costs CPitS around $75 to make each session happen.

Over the past few years, funding for CPitS has dropped, and CPitS has had to make tough decisions to pull out of classrooms in counties across the State.  Humboldt, Madera, Yolo, San Diego, and San Mateo counties have been hit particularly hard, losing CPitS poets in more than half of the schools in those counties that had been historically served.

This Campaign will put CPitS poets back into classrooms across the State.  If you can help us reach our campaign goal of $15,000, we will be able to reach 1,500 more students next year. 

Here's the link to support CPitS!  http://igg.me/at/CPitS/x/4047592 

And, thank you!!

Welcome to SCC-PitS!

Santa Clara County Poets in the Schools is the Santa Clara County home of California Poets in the Schools. 

Since its start in 1964, CPitS has grown to become one of the largest writers-in-the-schools programs in the nation, serving students K-12 in over 30 California counties, stretching from Humboldt and Siskiyou to Inyo, Mono and San Diego, in districts both urban and rural. Each year CPitS reaches thousands of classrooms, teaching in public and private schools, juvenile halls, after-school programs, hospitals and in other community settings. CPitS proudly taught its 1,000,000th student in 2011.

Our goal is to make curriculum-enriching poetry workshops available to every student in California.

• Currently CPitS reach includes 30,000 students served by 102 active poet-teachers, ranging from new MFA graduates to poets with over 25 years classroom experience.
• Our visiting poet/teachers are professional published writers who are trained in the art of teaching poetry at different age-appropriate levels. 
• Our poet/teachers affirm the cultural diversity of California by sharing its multicultural literary heritage with K-12 students. 
•  Poet/teachers are living models of an artist’s commitment to creative and imaginative use of language. 
• CPitS poet/teachers leverage new technology to reach more classroom teachers, young poets and new audiences. 
• CPitS poet/teachers reach and represent the diversity of each local community, including multilingual students.

Poetry workshops and residencies are funded by a variety of sources, including PTAs, school districts, foundations and locally-sourced community and business funds. The statewide office supports the independent contractor poet/teachers by organizing grants, providing training and technical support, networking, hosting literary events and meetings, and sharing best-practices creative writing pedagogy. Statewide poet/teachers submit exemplary student work to be published in annual poetry anthologies, beautifully edited and printed to showcase the talents, voices and diversity of today’s Californian youth.