Poetry Friday: Poetry for Young Adults
April is National Poetry Month in Canada and the U.S. so poetry will be my focus for this post this month. As one of my creative writing students gleaned from an exercise she found in Maxine Hong Kingston’s To Be A Poet, poetry is about feeling and seeing, and of course, putting all that into words! Adolescence is a time of life where one is particularly aware of, and sensitive to, sights and feelings, and it is a conducive time for many for the writing of poetry. How wonderful then for the fine model of a book put out by well known Canadian poet Dennis Lee (of Alligator Pie fame) called SoCool (illus. Maryann Kovalski.) The book covers the range of adolescent experiences in that distinctively playful way with words Lee has always exhibited in his poetry. There are humorous poems about acne like “Popping Pimples in the Park” and “Pimples and Zits” and wistful poems about impending adulthood like “Back When I Never Knew.” There are poems about sexuality like “French Kissing with Gum in Your Mouth” and “The Ultimate Sensual Experience.” But the poems I liked best were the ones that spoke about living in the present like “Enough.” In “Enough,” after writing a short list of wonder-ful things like a ‘lungful of air,’ a ‘handful of friends’ and a ‘tongueful of music,’ Lee ends the poem with this stanza:
If I ever lose
The knack of wonder
Just shovel a grave
And dig me under.
Having the knack of wonder is what being a poet is all about and Lee has captured this essential truth in this poem. What is so wonderful about SoCool is this kind of zany Lee wisdom, befitting the audience to whom the book is addressed.
This week’s Poetry Friday host is at Becky’s Book Reviews.
April 18th, 2009 at 1:59 am
The title made me think instantly of “We Real Cool.” Will look for this. Sounds like something we should have in our library.
April 18th, 2009 at 5:35 am
Yes, the title is reminiscent of the Gwendolyn Brooks poem! I hope you find the book.
April 18th, 2009 at 7:43 am
Disappointment! After reading your exciting review, I checked the library catalog for this collection… no luck, at least not within my consortium. And it’s out of print, too! I’ll have to cast my net a bit farther… At least we have some of Lee’s other work.
April 18th, 2009 at 9:23 pm
Lisa, I’m sorry to hear it’s not at your library! I stumbled on it at my own local library but since I knew of Lee already as a poet, it was a very serendipitous find.
April 23rd, 2010 at 3:51 pm
Just today I was delighted to discover that in their free reading period, one of my students was reading Joy Luck Club, and another one, Woman Warrior!