Poetry Friday Roundup: Celebrating a #BookBirthday by taking a look back at its conception

Welcome to the Poetry Friday roundup! I’m so happy to be hosting the festivities today because I not only get to see the complete, vast, and unadulterated range of poetry blog posts, but I get to celebrate this week’s publication of my eighth children’s book – which is also a poem.

The Thing to Remember about Stargazing (Tilbury House), illustrated by award-winning Italian artist Sonia Maria Luce Possentini, was officially introduced to the world this past Tue., Oct. 3:

^{All images (c) Tilbury House and Sonia Maria Luce Possentini, used with permission.}

Stargazing has been picking up some wonderful reviews, too! In her preview of upcoming titles, Betsy Bird at School Library Journal told readers how much she loved the title: “Ten outta ten. Would recommend. Beautiful.” (Wow!)

BlackRaven at Cannonball Read loved the book, as well, saying, “the poetic, wonder-filled story is contemporary with feeling and emotional.”

I’m also grateful to Instagrammers like Booksource, Just Takes One, and Maria C. Marshall, who called the book “stunning and playful!”

And I can’t thank these four highly-esteemed folks enough for their kind words:

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Would you believe I can be in two places at once? Well, I can!

In addition to my Poetry Friday roundup hosting duties, I’m very honored to also be guest-blogging at WritersRumpus today with an in-depth look at why it’s so important to rewrite/revise/recycle and be open to change – because Stargazing wouldn’t exist had I not been willing to alter my plans.

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(But wait, there’s more!) I hope you’ll check out some of the following posts as part of Stargazing‘s blog tour:

• KidLit.TV hosted the premiere of the official book trailer for The Thing to Remember about Stargazing.
• Linda Baie featured the book at TeacherDance.
• Maria Marshall shared an interview and review at The Picture Book Buzz.
• Jama Rattigan included a sneak peek at Stargazing on her weekly “9 Cool Things” list at Alphabet Soup.
• Michele Knott shared her thoughts on the book at Reading Through the Ages.
• The very first commercial radio station I ever worked, NH Talk Radio WKXL AM/FM in Concord, NH, was kind enough to invite me to chat about the new book, my writing, and a statewide StoryWalk® event! (details below…)

As with any launch, I’m looking forward to signing books! I’ll be at our local indie bookstore, MainStreetBookEnds.com, this Saturday during our town’s annual Fall Foliage Festival, and next month I’ll be co-signing with my friend and fellow author Deb Bruss at GibsonsBookstore.com in Concord, NH.

The super-big news, however, is a statewide StoryWalk® event coordinated with the Children’s Librarians of New Hampshire. Nearly TWENTY libraries throughout the state are featuring Stargazing on their StoryWalks® this autumn! (some of the local papers have been sharing the news, so please check out my Facebook post for more details on this unusual project!)

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All right, time for today’s poem!

As I mentioned earlier in this post, Stargazing began as a poem nearly 10 years ago. I wrote “A Beginner’s Guide to Stargazing” for Paul Janeczko’s anthology, The Proper Way to Meet a Hedgehog and Other How-to Poems (Candlewick, 2019). Unfortunately, he passed away before I had a chance to learn why the poem never made it into the book.

Thankfully, our mutual friend Rebecca Kai Dotlich loved the poem and suggested I consider fleshing out the poem a bit and turning it into a picture book manuscript. Good thing I did, too, because even though the poem was never published, I got not one, but TWO picture books out of it! (How is this possible? Check out my WritersRumpus guest blog today and find out how four books and a poem can be all interconnected!)

Here is the first part of the poem that started it all:
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A Beginner’s Guide to Stargazing

It’s important the conditions be just right.

Wait for a cloudless, moonless night
or one with just a silver sliver
or even a full moon,
……….round and glowing.
Come to think of it,
even a few clouds aren’t a problem.

So let’s say any evening that features at least a few stars
is perfect.

Go outside with someone special
……….or a pet
………………..or no one at all
and find a patch of grass
to lie upon
……….or bring a blanket
………………..or chair
or you can even stand there with your head
craning toward the sky,
and begin counting the stars…
…..

– © 2014 Matt Forrest Esenwine
…..

I hope you like the poem enough to consider checking out the book – it’s been a long time coming, and the fact that the book is a poem unto itself is very comforting and reassuring to me; after all, I got into children’s writing through poetry, so it’s gratifying to know my poetry is being published and enjoyed by readers of all ages.

The book is available everywhere, but if you want a PERSONALLY-SIGNED copy be sure to order through Main Street Book Ends, our local indie store.
(details below)

And since it’s Poetry Friday, drop your links in the comments and I’ll round them up, old-school style! Thanks for visiting, and enjoy the poetry…

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• Irene at Live Your Poem has constellations on her mind, too – but not exactly the same kind!
• Jone Rush MacCulloch is “playing with pantoums” and helped her 4th grade class to write one.
• Meanwhile, Catherine at Reading to the Core is playing with the “laws of motion” with the Inklings and shares a touching original draft.
• Linda Mitchell also tackles the Inklings’ challenge by putting her “gears” in motion to create a sonnet at A Word Edgwise.
• At Nix the Comfort Zone, Molly Hogan came up with two poems for the challenge and chose the road “more” travelled!
• Mary Lee, who gave the Inklings their challenge, comes up with three poems – a haiku, a type of found poetry, and free verse – that you can read at A(nother) Year of Reading.
• And at Reflections on the Teche Margaret Simon responds to the Inklings challenge by showing how she has been “juggling” life.
• There is beauty even in the images we may at first think are dull or bland, and Alan J. Wright shares an ekphrastic landscape poem that is anything but dull or bland!
• At Alphabet Soup, Jama shows us what happens when you write a tale about an English garden with language that is very decidely British English!
• Have you ever heard of “poison books?” Tabatha Yeatts will fill you in at The Opposite of Indifference.
• At Teaching Authors, Carmela starts off by talking about endings (brilliant!) and wraps up with a beautiful draft of a hummingbird poem.
• As Denise Krebs awaits the arrival of her copy of Fly: An Anthology of Poetry, she decided to write a poem inspired by the book’s art.
• It’s Bird-tober over at There is No Such Thing as a God-forsaken Town, where Ruth is writing poems about a different species each day of the month!
• Linda Kulp Trout has a new book out (I did NOT mean to rhyme that, ha!), and today she shares one of its poems.
• I might have been inspired by the stars, but Michelle Kogan was inspired by the October moon and offers an original poem at More Art 4 All!
• Linda Baie, who posted a wonderful review of Stargazing earlier this week, has had stars on her mind at Teacher Dance and shares a beautiful poem.
• Friends, beauty, darkness – these sound like elements from my book, but they are actually elements of a new poem from Kat Apel at Kat’s Whiskers!
• Sally Murphy wrote a poem to one of her verse novel characters – and he wrote back!
• Libraries can be full of inspiration, and at Wee Words for Wee Ones, Bridget Magee shares a poem that was inspired by a doll and a scooter – in a library!
• Mary Cronin is feeling the beat – and the love – as a local school’s music teacher used one of her poems as part of a project on percussion.
• At The Poem Farm, Amy has a new poem about foxes and fire and all the colors and images of autumn!
• It’s a tale of sunflowers (and a haiku!) that Marcie Flinchum Atkins shares today.
• My poem was inspired by the nighttime, and that – along with a poem by Kate Baer – is also the inspiration behind an original poem by Rose at Imagine the Possibilities.
• At BookSeedStudio, Jan shares a portion of a new YA novel by Han Nolan that, through the use of creative enjambment, reads beautifully as a poem!
• “Diminishing verse” is a fun – if not challenging – form of poetry, and Laura Purdie Salas shares a draft she’s working on, along with her process of writing it.
• Patricia Franz is “painting with words” by creating a concrete poem about something that was “hanging around!”
• Tracey at Tangles & Tails has October on her mind and shares an original poem as well as one from Paul Laurence Dunbar, one of the first African American poets to become popular nationally.
• Also for October, Anastasia Suen kicks off a “small poem challenge” for the month.
• And October is on Donna JT Smith’s mind, too, as she shares an original autumn poem at Mainely Write.
• Carol at The Apples in My Orchard is on a 15-day river cruise through Europe (how cool!) and decided that a castle poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow would be very apropos for a Poetry Friday post.
• At Chicken Spaghetti, Susan Thomsen has swimming on her mind and shares a wonderful poem from Susan Browne.
• Last but not least, our ‘other’ Carol (Varsalona) is celebrating autumn at Beyond Literacy Link with a Golden Shovel that praises those wonderful autumnal moments that mean so much to us as the seasons change.

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AND…I’m booking author visits for the 2023-24 shool year!

I love chatting with elementary and middle school classes about writing: why poetry is fun to read and write, the importance of revision, and how imagination and creativity can lead to fantastic careers! My presentations are tailored to fit the needs of the classes and students’ ages. One day I might be sharing details of how a picture book like Flashlight Night (Astra Young Readers, 2017) was created; the next, I’ll be discussing dinosaur breath or origami sea turtles!

Student presentations include:

• The Making of a Picture Book
• How a Child Saved a Book
• “Once Upon Another Time”
• The Most Imporant Thing about Writing Poetry
• “I Am Today”
• “A Beginner’s Guide to Being Human”
• “Everybody Counts: Counting to 10 in Twelve Languages”

Adult presentations include:

• The Making of a Picture Book
• The Most Important Thing about Writing Poetry
• Free Yourself with Free Verse
• Tight Language, Loose Narratives: Crafting a Non-Traditional Picture Book

Learn more at MattForrest.com!

If you or someone you know might be interested in having me visit your school, library, or other organization, please email me
at matt(at)mattforrest(dot)com!

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NOW AVAILABLE EVERYWHERE:
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Order a PERSONALLY-SIGNED copy of this or or ANY of my books
from my local independent bookstore!

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I’m now on BOOKSHOP!

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I’m also very happy to be part of the BOOKROO family!

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Ordering personalized signed copies online? Oh, yes, you can!

You can purchase personally-signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Astra Young Readers, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly EVERY book or anthology I’ve been part of!

Click here to view all my books and to order!

Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send a comment to the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH requesting my signature and to whom I should make it out. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it, and then they’ll ship it! (Plus, you’ll be supporting your local bookseller – and won’t that make you feel good?)

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Thank you to everyone for your support!

FLASHLIGHT NIGHT:

• NY Public Library’s “100 Best Book for Kids 2017” AND “Staff Pick!”
• KIRKUS Starred review!
• Kansas NEA Reading Circle Recommended Books!
• “Best Reads of 2017,” Unleashing Readers
• Finalist, 2019 New Hampshire Literary Awards
• Positive reviews from Horn Book, School Library Connection, School Library Connection, Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, and Shelf-Awareness!

DON’T ASK A DINOSAUR:

• “Rollicking rhyme!” – Booklist
  • “A wild romp!” – Parenting NH Magazine
  • “Cute…intriguing…4 out of 5 stars”     – Tulsa Book Review
  • “Rhythmic…funny and informative”     – Unleashing Readers

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Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!

To keep abreast of all my posts, please consider subscribing via the links up there on the right!  (I usually only post once or twice a week – usually Tues. and Fri. – so you won’t be inundated with emails every day) . Also feel free to visit my voiceover website HERE, and you can also follow me via Twitter , Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and SoundCloud!