THE PROMISE OF CHANGE by JoAnn Allen and Debbie Levy

This year, I was a CYBILS judge for the nonfiction (sure, I can read 140 books including 40 novel length books in two months and blog about them and work full time also! No problem!) Actually, I was a teeny bit of a failure, I only got 110 read. One that I absolutely loved was a novel in verse, PROMISE OF CHANGE: ONE GIRL'S STORY IN THE FIGHT FOR CHANGE by Jo Ann Allen Boyce and Debbie Levy.

PROMISE OF CHANGE is the true story of fourteen-year-old Jo Ann Allen's story of school integration. Allen was growing up in Clinton, Tennessee, in the early 1960's, when Brown vs. Board of Education was passed.

In an early chapter, Levy and Allen describe Clinton this way:

Clinton Tennesse
3,500 white people
+
220 black people
+
1 movie theater, where Negroes may only sit in the balcony
+
1 swimming pool, where Negroes may not go at all
+
1 fun rec center, with bowling alleys, pingpong tables,
badminton- but not for Negroes
+
1 public library (only Negroes aren't part of the "public")
+
1 public high school (whites only)
+
1 drug store, where Negroes may buy things, but may not
linger and definitely may not sit and eat at the lunch counter
where, I hear, they serve chicken salad sandwiches made
from roosters
not hens
+
0 restaurants where Negroes may eat
=
Segregation. Separate, not equal.
Segregation.
The way it is and has always been. 

JoAnn and eleven of her friends were forced to start high school at Clinton High School. And face discrimination and loneliness and even threats on their lives.

A terrific novel in verse.

Sally  Murphy is hosting this week's Poetry Friday. Be sure to head over there for lots of great poetry.

POETRY FRIDAY ROUNDUP

Sweet Rooney, the service puppy I'm raising to be a mobility dog for Canine Partners of the Rockies. 

Phew! A long and busy day and lots and lots of wonderful poetry posts to round up. 

I hope I didn't mess anything up or forget anyone, but just in case, feel free to let me know!

Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy!

THE END OF A SEASON

• Karen Eastlund has saved one of her poetry books, THE ANIMALS’ MERRY CHRISTMAS, since she was a very little girl. Her copy still has the original pop-up Santa intact!
• Interestingly, another Karen, Karen Edmisten, celebrates Epiphany with “Journey of the Magi.” Be sure to listen to T.S. Eliot read his poem.
• At Going to Walden, Tara is celebrating the end of a season by making soup. I don’t like cooking, and I’m not a huge soup fan, but Tara’s poem, “Everybody Made Soups” by Lisa Coffman makes me want to haul out the crockpot!

ONE LITTLE WORD-ERS

• Heidi Mordhorst’s has decided “to stop pretending that One Little WORD will ever suit her greedy, undisciplined, spatter focused personality.” Her very clever original, “Dear Words, All Words, made me laugh out loud! My sentiments, exactly Heidi!
• Mollie Hogan, who is one of Heidi’s poetry partners, has also decided not to have OLW this year, but wrote a terrific poem about focus in the process. I learned an interesting new word, bokeh, from Mollie’s post. 
• Linda Mitchell, another member of Hollie’s group, has chosen one little phrase, “at ease.” I’ll be thinking about her line, "Put your heart down," and details that  "bubble and laugh and splash” all day. I want to live like this in 2020! 
• Margaret Simon, another member of Heidi’s group, reflects on her process of choosing embrace  as her one little word. It seems like the uniform confirmed her choice in the poem she received from Irene Latham. 
• Carol Varsalona has chosen balance  as her word for 2020. Her original poem today was inspired by her priest’s homily, which ended with Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem, “Ring Out Wild Bells.” Be sure to give yourself a few minutes to listen to the sung rendition of this poem! It’s beautiful!
• Catherine is also a member of the group that is choosing their one little word. She’s chosen perspective, and written a gorgeous golden shovel poem. She ends with the question, What mysteries would be revealed to eyes that have lived a different life?”
• Ramona’s OLW is light and she’s decided to share light-related poems throughout the year. Today she is featuring Mary Oliver’s When I Am Among the Trees.” Can’t wait to see what other poems she will share this year. 
• Jan Godown Annino will be focusing on plenty this year. One of my favorite poets, Naomi Shihab Nye, serves as her inspiration for today. 

OTHER NEW YEAR/NEW BEGINNINGS POEMS

• At A YEAR OF READING, Mary Lee shares what she describes as a hodgepodge, but a very terrific hodgepodge it is. A graphic, a picture book about William Carlos Williams (oh no, I already spent $44.87 on Laura Shovan’s post), a terrific Barbara Crooker poem, and a tear-jerker podcast. Of course, I had to stop to read the transcript of the podcast (and then I wonder why it takes me so long to get the roundup written!).
• A perfect new-to-me line for this year, “The universe is full of magical things patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper,” Eden Phillpotts, A Shadow Passes, quoted in Little Willow’s post. In case you didn’t know, Eden Philpotts was an English author and poet, who lived from 1862-1960.

• At Gathering Books, Myra kicks off her “Year of International Literature” with “Remember,” a poem by Native American author, Joy Harjo. Myra is looking for non-native speakers that publish in English for her “Year of International Literature.” Be sure to send any resources her way.
• I’m intrigued by Joann Macken’s poem about recycling old ideas into new poems. I have this crazy vision of all of us throwing our used ideas into a bucket, and randomly pulling them out and writing off of them. 
• Although they were probably not intended to be the focus of his post, I especially loved Tim Kulp’s four thoughts on New Year’s resolutions. His “story in verse,” written off of William Hope Hodgson’s “The House on the Borderland” creeps me out a little, but I think my sixth graders would love it!
• Ever brilliant poet, Laura Salas ,also has an original about the New Year. I’m intrigued by her mention of a poetry diary. Maybe that would get me started writing again.
• Irene Latham is kicking off this year with a brand new Artspeak series. Her theme this year will be “red.” Red is my absolute favorite color, and yet as I read her poem, I think about how all that energy sometimes makes me feel a little chaotic. Hmmmm.
• All Jane Whittingham, rocking a cranky teething baby at 4:30 a.m., wants for the New Year is a good night’s sleep! Doesn’t sound like too much to ask!
• Matt Forrest Esenwine reflects on a very productive 2019 and looks forward to lots of projects and publications in 2020. Matt was a first round CYBILS judge and shares the poetry finalists. 
• Sylvia Vardell was also a CYBILS poetry judge. I can’t imagine trying to choose one book from the seven finalists. The competition will be fierce!
• Jone would love to be part of an online poetry group. Please contact her if you are interested. Jone started out this year by writing two haiku. 
• Rebecca Herzog has big goals for 2020. She wants to write a poem a week and get one hundred rejection letters. She had that goal last year, and only got 26, but she also had four poems published! Keep up the good work Rebecca!

ENCOUNTERS WITH NATURE

• Michelle Kogan is thinking about climate change. She has not one, but TWO original poems today- one a golden shovel based on a line from David Bowie’s, “Changes,” and the second, a proclamation for the New Year. 
• Christie Wyman and her kindergartners kicked off the new year with a walk to her school’s vernal pond (how cool is that!), where they observed a really interesting phenomena, which led Christy to create (her OLW) a photograph and cinquain!
• My Denver colleague, Linda Baie, found herself on the receiving end of a winter poetry swap from Robyn Hood Black. She’s written her own poem in response. 
• Janice Scully’s original poem, “The Snowplow,” was inspired by Carl Sandburg’s “Fog,” which is one of the first poems I remember from childhood. 
• Our hearts break with Sally and Kat, and all of our Australian posters, over the fires in their country. Sally’s line, “We need to start treating our earth as the fragile thing it has always been,” will stick with me for a long time!
• Carol LaBuzzetta has written five new and original color haiku. Don’t miss her beautiful words and photographs. 
• Mandy discovered a small miracle today. She used it to start her poetry writing plan for this year. 

OTHER POSTS...

• Laura Shovan’s review could not have come at a better time for me. I’m starting a new unit on REFUGEES next week, and have been trying to decide how I wanted to start. Laura shared a breathtaking reverso poem, REFUGEE by Jason Fotso, as well as reviews of three novels in verse. I’m looking forward to Laura’s newest book, A PLACE AT THE TABLE, which will be available in May, 2020. 
• Do you ever wonder about themes that keep showing up in your life? I’m about to start GOOD DOG, a book by Dan Gemeinhart (a middle grade author whose work I am loving) about a dog who returns to Earth to take care of his boy. And then Amy Ludwig VanDerwater writes a poem about pets revisiting. Hmmmm….
• I don’t even know what to say about Ruth’s poem, but you have GOT to go read it. Heart breaking and breathtaking, all at once. So very beautiful…
• Rose Cappelli wants to participate more in Poetry Friday. She’s starting with an original triolet, a love poem, that I think would make a terrific Valentine’s Day Card. 

POETRY FRIDAY IS HERE!

Welcome to my little corner of the world! One of my resolutions for 2020 is that I get back into participating in Poetry Friday on a much more regular basis. I guess one way to do that is to host!

A few days ago, a friend shared this beautiful Maya Angelou poem on Facebook. I knew right away that I wanted it to be the poem I shared with you today. I wanted to use only part of it, and link you to the rest, but I couldn't find it anywhere else online. It's too perfect not to share...

CONTINUE: a poem

Maya Angelou

By Maya Angelou

My wish for you
Is that you continue

         Continue

To be who and how you are
To astonish a mean world
With your acts of kindness

         Continue

To allow humor to lighten the burden
Of your tender heart

         Continue

In a society dark with cruelty
To let the people hear the grandeur
Of God in the peals of your laughter

          Continue

To let your eloquence
Elevate the people to heights
They had only imagined

         Continue

To remind the people that
Each is as good as the other
And that no one is beneath
Nor above you

        Continue

To remember your own young years
And look with favor upon the lost
And the least and the lonely

        Continue

To put the mantle of your protection
Around the bodies of
The young and defenseless

        Continue

To take the hand of the despised
And diseased and walk proudly with them
In the high street
Some might see you and
Be encouraged to do likewise

         Continue

To plant a public kiss of concern
On the cheek of the sick
And the aged and infirm
And count that as a
Natural action to be expected

         Continue

To let gratitude be the pillow
Upon which you kneel to
Say your nightly prayer
And let faith be the bridge
You build to overcome evil
And welcome good

       Continue

To ignore no vision
Which comes to enlarge your range
And increase your spirit

       Continue

To dare to love deeply
And risk everything
For the good thing

       Continue

To float
Happily in the sea of infinite substance
Which set aside riches for you
Before you had a name

       Continue

And by doing so
You and your work
Will be able to continue
Eternally

Put your link in the comments and I will round them up tonight or tomorrow.