The Death of the Poem - Book Giveaway
Not too long ago, I reviewed a fantastic book of poetry called The Death of the Poem and Other Paragraphs. I’m happy to be able to share that book a little further, as I now have a copy to give away to one of you. (If you haven’t read the review yet, please do. Oh, and that’s Justin Courter over there on the left.)
Just a few months ago, I considered myself a sort of non-poetry person, and I always felt bad about that. I’d given up on poetry, cast it aside, called it names, and - well, I was neglectful of Mr. Poetry. But through the development of this blog, I’ve come to grow quite a fondness for the guy, and I encourage you to do the same thing too. After all, we need a little poetry in our lives. Everything is so fast-paced. But slowing down to contemplate a poem doesn’t need to be the ho-hum so many people imagine. They can be edgy, hysterical, thought-provoking. They can be a Courter poem.
Remember being a kid and first discovering Shel Silverstein (if you happen to be of that generation)? How many weeks did you have to wait for it to be your turn to rent one of those books from the school library? And how cool were you, toting around your copy of A Light in the Attic? My friend, you can still be cool and tote poetry at the same time. I shall help you. I shall give away a copy - no wait, I’ll give away two copies - of The Death of the Poem. But you’ve got to do a little something for me. Leave me a comment, if this is how you’re going to enter, and tell me about either your childhood memories of poetry (good or bad) or your adult views of poetry (good or bad). If you hate the stuff, that’s okay. I see that you’re trying–you are entering to win a poetry book after all. I don’t think Justin Courter will mind either. He’s not your average poet.
3 Ways to Win:
1.) Leave a comment telling me either your childhood memories of poetry (good or bad) or your adult views of poetry (good or bad). It’s okay–you can tell me.
2.) Email subscribers are entered into this and all future giveaways, for as long as their subscription is active. Simply place your email address in the little white box at the top of my sidebar on the right. (Please make sure to verify your Feedburner subscription by responding to the email they send you. If you don’t receive it, check your junk mail. Only verified subscriptions are entered for all the giveaways.)
3.) Blog about this giveaway on your blog with a link back to this post. Come back and leave me a Comment with a link to your blog post.
Do all three, and you’ve got three entries to win! You have until midnight EST on Friday, August 22, 2008, to enter.
1karissa
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 12:16
I had a friend that used to take me to poetry slams when I was 21-23 that was fun. that was my FIRST and only touch with poetry that made any sense. I guess I need the poet to read it aloud to me.
2tricia park
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 12:17
all the voices in my head say no. wait, i am getting one yes but she is out numbered too bad down with poetry.
3Lawrence
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 12:43
Excellent! I once caught a carp in my pajama’s…..How it got in my pajama’s I’ll never know….
4SANDY
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 14:22
Remember going to poetry readings growing up with my mom, and some were so strange and some were so cool.
5Maja
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 15:03
In school we had to memorize a lot of poetry and I loved it. I would get into it, like I was acting and just go on and on…It was great. Even after school, when I met my boyfriend…to surprise him I memorized one of Pablo Neruda’s works in Spanish. He loved it.
6Gina Stratos
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 17:01
As kids, if we stayed home from school my grandma would make us memorize a poem. This was supposed to prevent us from faking an illness. I can still recall, “I think that I shall never see, a poem as lovely as a tree….”
gkstratos@yahoo.com
7susan varney
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 17:20
i thought it was boring at the time
8Madam Pince
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 17:58
I feel a bit ashamed, since I was an English major, but poetry has always eluded me. There have been a few poets I’ve enjoyed — William Carlos Williams, Elizabeth Bishop, Ted Hughes — but overall, verse is not my thing. However, I’d liek to give it another try.
9Anne
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 18:17
My first memory of poetry was writing a little poem when I was about 10 and it got published in the local newspaper. My grandmother was also a poet and I’ve writen them all down in a book as she passed many years ago and these poems remind me of her.
10Desmond
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 18:28
As an adult, I’ve found most poetry to be pretentious nonsense, but I’m always on the lookout for good stuff.
11Margaret Snyder
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 19:15
I was always reading poetry as a child then I started writing as a teenager. Haven’t read much as an adult but I do still write some now and again.
12Alyce
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 19:30
I liked poetry much more when I was younger. I started reading classic poetry from a collection my parents had while in grade school. I liked Shel Silverstein too. I haven’t really read poetry since college, so it would be nice to give it a try again.
13Barbara Baker
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 19:47
I have always been fond of poetry…when I was a little girl I’d keep my book of Shel Silverstein “Where the Sidewalk ends” with me everywhere I went. My mother actually got tired of paying for my overdue fines at the library for this book so she went out and bought me my own; in fact, my fifteen year old son reads it now and thinks that there is no poetry better than Shel.
***NOTE: I have also blogged about your giveaway on my site:
http://www.blogfully.net
I would love to win one of the books up for grabs. I love poetry even now!!!
14Kathryn
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 20:08
At the age of nine years old, I began writing letters to the “Brookings Institute”. I wanted to know everything! The thing that captured my heart at a very young age was the disparity between the races. I don’t even remember who it was that gave me a book of poety by Langston Hughes (sshhh…my Mom never knew!) Today, I do much writing myself….I’ve also tried my hand at poetry. Yet, it’s intensely personal, as the poems were written to my hubby.
Today, I’d have to say that my favorite poet is…Maya Angelou. In my opinion, she is light years above all others. However, I fully recognize her writing touches me in a deep way, due to the way my heart is hardwired.
15Chi
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 20:16
I used to love poetry. I was a dreamer, but now I’ve become a realist. As an adult, I’ve found poetry harder and harder to get swept into. It definately doesn’t -feel- like it used to
16Roxy
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 20:44
We had to do a poetry book in 8th grade. It was awesome because not only did i love writing haikus and whatnot, but I LOVED the creative aspect of the book. I drew some great pictures which I can only do when inspired. I should try writing again.
17Jeane
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 21:04
Loved Shel Silverstein as a kid. Wrote poems as a teen. Got bored with it all as an adult. Gee,that author photo is kinda scary. Is he smiling or grimacing? maybe his poems will make me laugh
18dh
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 21:07
I have a love/hate relationship with poetry, I either love it or I don’t care enough to hate it. I liked ee cummings, and my dad gave me a TS Elliot Old Possum’s Book of Practical cats when I went away to college, but there were some that were not as interesting. I read the samples on the author’s page and I think this is one of the interesting writers, so please enter me.
19Mary @ Adventures in Mommyland
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 21:15
As a kid I was interested in poetry-or at least I liked the idea of being interested in poetry. I’d get bored after a while. Now I like poetry but don’t have the time or patience really to read it. Thats my honest opinion! Great giveaway, thanks.
20Susan
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 22:11
When I was a child I spent most of my at home time in my room. I started writing poetry as a form of free expression when I was 11. I still have some of it 30 years later and it was really fun to share this with my daughter. She started writing song lyrics - fun.
21Kayce Crews
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 22:47
I never liked poems as a kid, but having read some good poems, especially lately, I would love to be able to write poetry like that.
22christopher h
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 23:10
must admit your mention of shel silverstein hit me straight in my fourth grade heart
23Cindi
wrote on 14 August 2008 at 23:18
Hi, There are times where poetry is all I want to read! My brother was 14 years older than me and my sister is 10 years older than me. We shared the same bedroom and Carol would read many different genres of books to me. She was in college in education. T.S. Eliot was one of my favorites, then. Poetry can be frank and edgy/fun and sarcastic! Now, I tend to enjoy reading metaphorical or narrative poetry. Pleas enter me in your delightful giveaway drawing. Many thanks…..Cindi
24aquart
wrote on 15 August 2008 at 3:56
My mother had an old school text, Modern British and American Poetry…and read to us from that. Especially, Ogden Nash. We tended toward impromptu Ogden Nash recitations at the dinner table, we learned the poems so well.
My sister and I each have our own copy of that book now. We carried it to our new homes like salt and bread.
25Dawn E Raymer
wrote on 15 August 2008 at 6:09
Quite frankly, I have a certain dislike for poetry in general but will suffer a limerick occaisionally….
BUT I at one time read Harlequin romances (much to my chagrin) and if I can stand that I am certainly willing to at least TRY the dread poetry again…..
BTW thank You for the offer!
26Roger Keeney
wrote on 15 August 2008 at 8:50
Poetry in my youth was very importan, aswe were i the very earlydys of TV, so oral reading was a jouy fo we children. By age 10 I was writing poems, tat seem rather good today for a 5t grder.
27Rose
wrote on 15 August 2008 at 11:24
Count me in!
28Shirley Hodge
wrote on 15 August 2008 at 12:08
When I was a teen I started writing poetry when life caught up with me but after raising 4 kids as a single parent (not really sure if they raised me or vice versa truth be told) and retiring from 39 years in nursing I found myself with too much time on my hands so I decided to write some poetry. Am first to admit not in league with Robert Frost (cite him because someone who read one of my poems said it sounded like Robert Frost)loved the cerebral exercise and still write when the mood strikes. Have won a couple of limerick contests but that is more my sick humor methinks. Ha! Ha! but if one cannot look at life with someout Ha! Ha!’s then one is doomed.
29Anita Yancey
wrote on 15 August 2008 at 13:13
As a child I did not like poetry, but as an adult I love it.I guess it took maturing for me to see what I didn’t as a child.
30Barbara Fox
wrote on 15 August 2008 at 15:50
My childhood memories consist of poetry having to be memorized so I hated it. The older i get the more I appreciate it although it’s still not one of my favorite kinds of reading.
31Mike Weisberg
wrote on 15 August 2008 at 16:26
this looks like it would be a good read
32mark
wrote on 15 August 2008 at 19:55
poems generally suck.
33Tara R
wrote on 15 August 2008 at 19:56
well… I started off really liking poetry. Then I had the WORST literature teacher EVER and she started every 8am class by reading a LONG BORING poem in a monotone voice whilst wandering around the room waving her hands in the air. I have been wary of poetry ever since. But I really should give it another try.
34David Holder
wrote on 15 August 2008 at 20:37
I like poetry and like to write it.
35Laura
wrote on 15 August 2008 at 20:50
For the life of me I cannot remember the name of the poet right now, but I grew up loving the poetry of “Alligator Pie” fame. I had that entire book of poems memorized in the second and third grade. And I must say it helped to prepare me for more sophisticated poetry later in life, believe it or not.
36Michelle Y
wrote on 15 August 2008 at 23:49
As a teenager, I remember having every single line or verse analyzed to the ‘nth degree which took all the fun out of reading it;) Now that I’m older, I’ve started to read it again and actually enjoy some of it!! Imagine that!!!
37Jacqueline Carpenter
wrote on 16 August 2008 at 8:23
As I get older poetry is more a part of my life and like I say
quote-I’m a poet and don’t know it
Make a rhyme everytime.
38Erma
wrote on 16 August 2008 at 8:38
As a child I did not like poetry,but I am starting to like it now.
39Shakeia Rieux
wrote on 16 August 2008 at 10:51
i never liked poetry as a child and i still don’t like it
40Sharon Jones
wrote on 16 August 2008 at 11:01
LOVE Robert Frost…always have…and now am sharing with my kids…a classic poet…
41dani
wrote on 16 August 2008 at 12:49
IN fourth grade my teacher told us to write a poem about something sad. I wrote a freeverse about death being the saddest thing in life. I won first place in a contest but then I had to see the school shrink. That was the last time I entered a poetry contest.
42Hesper F.
wrote on 16 August 2008 at 13:29
I remember reading Robert Frost in high school and I liked it a lot.
43Ed Nemmers
wrote on 16 August 2008 at 16:06
In college, I took a class “20th Century American Poetry” and that was the onset of realizing poetry’s potency.
44Elizabeth M.
wrote on 16 August 2008 at 16:36
I grew up loving Shel Silverstein poems for their silliness and goofiness. I still like them actually. As a child, it was about rhyme for me but as an adult it’s more about imagery.
45Jackie B.
wrote on 16 August 2008 at 16:55
I may not be normal, but I do like to read poetry. I have searched many poetry sites on the net. I think I like lost love poems the best.
46Dianne Hurley
wrote on 16 August 2008 at 17:56
the only poet I remember from childhood is Robert Frost
47Pamela White
wrote on 17 August 2008 at 2:29
I liked music lyrics as a form of poetry but did not like the school’s required poetry.
48Buddy Garrett
wrote on 17 August 2008 at 8:31
My adult views of poetry-I don’t believe there are any really good poets today. I cannot recall hearing about any good poetry.
49ken Layton
wrote on 17 August 2008 at 11:02
‘Croak! Croak! sings the frog
From his branch, the lilly pad.
His song invites his death,
But now he’s happy, not sad.”
I was thirteen when I penned this opening. I’m 73 now and still plugging away in the poetic genre. A few lines published keep me trying.
50keith james
wrote on 17 August 2008 at 16:15
ee cummings
51Janet
wrote on 17 August 2008 at 18:13
I REMEMBER having to memorize poems and i enjoyed it in school.
52kathy
wrote on 17 August 2008 at 18:59
My seventh grade teacher loved poetry. She read lots of poetry to us and taught us to love it. Her explanation of the poem and the history behind it made the poem meaningful to us. I would like to thank her for this gift because I love poetry too.
53Charlene Kuser
wrote on 17 August 2008 at 21:18
I remember when I was a kid.I
saw a movie about Edgar Allen Poe.I loved his poetry so much
and my favorite was Tell Tale
Heart.I remember how fascinating
he was,with his use of words and
now I have expanded to other poets like John Keats,Ode on Melancholy.I just plain love
poetry.Thanks for the giveaway
CharlieGurl57@aol.com
54Carolyn
wrote on 17 August 2008 at 22:52
I was in my high school poetry club. I think I was the secretary. Anyway, I loved writing.
55Nick
wrote on 17 August 2008 at 22:53
Poetry - something I was never very good at but enjoyed.
56Lily Kwan
wrote on 18 August 2008 at 4:54
I haven’t read much poetry, but I did enjoy the poems that I did have a chance to read.
57Michele
wrote on 26 August 2008 at 23:51
My first intro. into poetry was the Shel Silverstein books….which I later used in my classroom as a teacher. I’ve always enjoyed poetry, and I was teaching my 4th graders to enjoy it, as well. One their favorite lessons was Picnic Poetry where, after learning about various types of poems, they wrote their own poem about picnics. They were then typed up onto white paper plates along with a giant cartoon ant that they had colored however colorful they wanted stapled to the plate. These were then all displayed on a super cute bulleton board that was made out of a red and white checked table cloth and plastic ketchup and mustard bottles stapled on the edges. We ended the poetry unit with a class picnic…..minus the ants!!
Thanks so much!!
Michele R.(CA)
luvkittysmeowmail@gmail.com
58i.m.small
wrote on 21 November 2008 at 11:58
AFTER KILMER
I hope that I may one day see
Them hanging from the gallows tree
Who plotted foreign wars from home–
It would be lovelier than a poem.
.