APRIL is National Poetry Month. Time to Start Celebrating and Sharing Our Favorite Poems!

Published on March 29, 2024April 14, 2024 by Nadja MarilLeave a comment

April is almost here, time for National Poetry Month, an entire month to celebrate poetry. Do you have a favorite poem or poet? Let us know and we’ll try to post a story about the poet or the poem on the Old Scratch Press website.

National Poetry Month was launched in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets as a way to promote educational events that encourage students to interact with poets and poetry.

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels.com

One of these programs sponsored by the Academy of American Poets is called Dear Poet. Designed for students in grades five through twelve, participating students can write letters in response to poems this year ( 2024) read online by Patricia Smith, Ed Roberston, Mara Pastor, John James, Nikky Finney, Nicole Cecillia Delgado, Marilyn Chin, and Chen Chen.The submission period for Dear Poet 2024 is now open until April 22, 2024.

If asked, who is my favorite poet it really very much depends on the time of year, time of day, and my mood because I was lucky to have grown up in a household filled with poetry books.

My mom was an English major and she enjoyed reading me her favorites. At a young age I listened to Gerald Manley Hopkins, T.S. Elliot, Robert Frost and Emily DIckinson.

Children love repetition, and when they discover a favorite story they like to have it read to them over and over again. Many Many times I’d ask to be read my two favorite poetry books in pre-school: A.A. Milne’s When We Were Very Young and Robert Louis Stevenson’s, A Child’s Garden of Verses.

I remember reading to myself “The Swing” at age eight.

The Swing

By Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894)

How do you like to go up in a swing,

Up in the air so blue?

Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing

Ever a child can do!

Up in the air and over the wall,

Till I can see so wide,

River and trees and cattle and all

Over the countryside—

Till I look down on the garden green,

Down on the roof so brown—

Up in the air I go flying again,

Up in the air and down!

I found all the poems in When We Were Very Young to be irresistible, but my constant favorite was the one about that difficult girl named Mary Jane.

Rice Pudding

By A.A. Milne ( 1882-1956)

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She’s crying with all her might and main,
And she won’t eat her dinner – rice pudding again –
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
I’ve promised her dolls and a daisy-chain,
And a book about animals – all in vain –
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She’s perfectly well, and she hasn’t a pain;
But, look at her, now she’s beginning again! –
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
I’ve promised her sweets and a ride in the train,
And I’ve begged her to stop for a bit and explain –
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

What is the matter with Mary Jane?
She’s perfectly well and she hasn’t a pain,
And it’s lovely rice pudding for dinner again!
What is the matter with Mary Jane?

If you have school children, don’t forget to check out all the poetry programs this month and whatever your age make a point of reading a poem a day. The Old Scratch Press is trying to make new poetry more available by publishing several chapbooks each year, so check out what’s in our catalogue and what is about to be released by following us here as well as following our Facebook page. Thank you for reading.

What Books Are You Reading? Author Gabby Gilliam Shares Five of Her Favorites

Published on February 19, 2024February 24, 2024 by gilliampoetLeave a comment

By Gabby Gilliam

Author of Drumming for the Dead, Black Hare Press and founding member of Old Scratch Press

Every year, I set a goal of reading 52 books before the year ends. In 2023, I went well above my goal, and read 74 books. I’ve made it a personal goal to read more collections of poetry, and I think that helped boost my number.

One of my top reads for the year was a collection of poems, Unshuttered, by Patricia Smith. An ekphrastic anthology of poems inspired by vintage photographs of Black men, women, and children the author collected, Smith’s poems give the photographs’ subjects a voice. The collection is powerful. I highly recommend it.

The remaining books in my top five are fiction, and have at least a taste of magic in them.

When I was younger, one of my favorite Disney films was The Sword in the Stone. In high school, I read The Once and Future King by E.B. White as an assigned novel for English class. So, when I came across The Once and Future Witches by Alix E. Harrow, I borrowed it from my local library.

I wasn’t disappointed. There’s magic and wit and the tangled storylines of three sisters that slowly converge. The youngest sister, Juniper reminds me of Granny Weatherwax from Terry Pratchett’s books (who is one of my favorite witches of all time). In Once and Future Witches, Harrow gives us a feminist adventure story full of magic, and I devoured every page of it.

I only picked up Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher because I was trying to read all of the Hugo Award nominees. I didn’t expect much since it’s such a short read. The heroine of the novella is given three impossible tasks and, through stubborn determination, begins to make her way through them. What I liked about this fairy tale is that the princess didn’t wait to be saved by anyone. She didn’t even want to marry a prince. Instead, she does her best to kill one.

I’m more than a little late to the party, but I started the Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan last year. I decided to give the first book a try after watching the first season of the television series. The show left me with some questions that I hoped the book would answer. I was right. And the book was so good that I decided to dive into the rest of the series, even though I suspect it will be a few years before I make it through them all since the hold list for the audiobooks is rather long.

My favorite read of the year came from one of my favorite authors, Sarah Addison Allen. Allen is a master of magical realism. While her novel, Other Birds, wasn’t my all-time best-loved book of hers (that honor belongs to Garden Spells), I still loved this story of complicated grief and the bond formed between found family.

I’ve set a goal of 52 books again for 2024. I’m off to a slow start, but I really enjoyed Fourth Wing by Rebecca Yarros (I recommend the Graphic Audio version. A full cast really enhances the experience.).

The year is still young, and I’m looking forward to chipping away at my growing to-be-read list. What was the last great book you read? I’d love to add it to my list! Please leave a comment on this post on the Old Scratch website or on our Old Scratch Facebook page.

Patricia Smith and Dorothy Parker two Favorite Poets

Published on July 25, 2023July 25, 2023 by Nadja MarilLeave a comment

As evidenced in this week’s post, constantly reading poetry helps to cultivate the poet in all of us. Whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been writing poetry for years, there are always new poets to discover and poets from previous centuries to rediscover!

My Favorite Poem

By Gabby Gilliam

I have a hard time picking favorites. Whenever someone asks me my favorite book or favorite song, I’m incapable of narrowing it down to only one. I’ve found the same can be said for poetry.

I try to read at least one collection of poems a month, though I catch snippets of poetry daily. I have some perennial favorites, but I have a new favorite poem every time I come across a poem that resonates with me. I recently finished Unshuttered by Patricia Smith. It’s a beautiful ekphrastic collection inspired by old photographs she has collected from thrift stores. The first poem in the collection immediately struck me and has become my current favorite, though the rest of the poems are also wonderful. The poems in Unshuttered are titled by their position in the book, so my current favorite poem is titled 1.

One of the things I enjoyed about 1 is the end rhyme. It’s rare to come across a poem with such perfect end rhyme that doesn’t feel forced. Nothing about Smith’s poem feels obvious. I also think the direct address to Anna and the speaker’s pleading make the poem feel so personal.

I don’t often read rhyming poetry, but it’s funny that both poems that immediately came to mind when thinking about favorites happen to rhyme. One of my first favorite poets was Dorothy Parker, and I’m still delighted by her poetry. She taught me that poetry doesn’t have to be lofty and difficult to interpret. That sharp words can resonate as forcefully as flowery prose (and usually more so!). Parker’s poems Resumé and One Perfect Rose both made me chuckle the first time I read them. Unlike Smith, Parker’s use of rhyme is purposefully obvious. It’s her unexpected images and phrasing that make the poems an unexpected surprise. I think poets often take themselves too seriously, and Parker wasn’t afraid to have fun with her writing.

One Perfect Rose

By Dorothy Parker 1893 – 1967

A single flow’r he sent me, since we met.
All tenderly his messenger he chose;
Deep-hearted, pure, with scented dew still wet—
One perfect rose.

I knew the language of the floweret;
“My fragile leaves,” it said, “his heart enclose.”
Love long has taken for his amulet
One perfect rose.

Why is it no one ever sent me yet
One perfect limousine, do you suppose?
Ah no, it’s always just my luck to get
One perfect rose.

From Enough Rope (Boni & Liveright, 1926) by Dorothy Parker. This poem is in the public domain.

These two poets are drastically different, but I love their work for the response their work evokes in me––which I think we can agree is what we’re all looking for in a good poem.

We are proud to announce that Old Scratch Press will be publishing Gabby’s first chapbook of poems. The working title is No Ocean Spit Me Out. Approximately 30 pages in length, the poems in No Ocean Spit Me Out explore the dynamics and evolution of family relationships. It is scheduled for release in 2024, so keep following our website as well as Gabby for more details.