Scott Beal : All posts

books & parenting : Poems of happiness, anti-gravity, chaos, and rest from Ann Arbor students

Last Friday night, all 27 kids from my poetry crew at Ann Arbor Open School read poems to a lively and delighted audience at Nicola's Books. Demand for the kids' new book of poems, "Why Is The Sky Purple?" outstripped supply, and several people were unable to purchase copies.

So there's a good chance we'll be printing more. Which means, if any of you out there in reader-land would like your own copy (for $9), please let me know so I can include you on the special order.

The book, as I've said repeatedly, is excellent. And meanwhile, after the students and I went through the process of selecting and compiling poems for the book, we continued to meet and work. And so the students have written quite a few more poems, and in many cases it's some of their best work.

Accordingly, I thought it would be nice to spend a column or two sharing some of the poems that you can't find in the book. Here are four wonderful poems written after the book went to press.

books & parenting: Poems by Ann Arbor youth tackle serious matters with laughter

No true comedy has earned the Academy Award for Best Picture since "Annie Hall" in 1977. Thirty-four years and counting. Doesn't that seem strange?

The ancient Greeks celebrated both comedies and tragedies, and Shakespeare wrote more of the former than the latter. Modern film and television audiences love comedy too. And why not? Laughter feels great. As a psychological state, it's generally preferable to angst and sorrow.

I think that's the problem — if it feels good, we don't trust it. We are acculturated to believe that humor is somehow less substantial than somberness. Comedy is deigned the province of "low culture," whereas "high culture" must comport itself with greater sobriety.

This bias colors the Academy's choices for Best Picture. It also affects what people expect out of poetry.

There are two lessons I would like my writing students to learn about poetry and humor:

(1) Humor is just as valid an emotion in poetry as any other emotion.
(2) Just because something is funny does not mean it isn't also serious.

books & parenting : Poems by young Ann Arbor students give us love, light, and peace

Last week as my fifth/sixth grade students at Ann Arbor Open School were discussing poetry's relationship with the human body, I received a sudden, surprise visit. Three envoys from the first/second grade class next door hurried into the room, handed me two paper parcels, then left.

I couldn't look into them immediately — I had to get back to leading discussion on Lucia Perillo's poem, "To My Big Nose," in which she compares said nose to a gryphon, a pink shadow, the squeaking wheels of a laundry line and a knife blade slicing into her face's future.

But I was intrigued by the mystery, so as soon as I got my students composing their own odes to body parts, I unfolded the pages that the first/second graders had handed me.

Parenting: 'Why is the sky purple?' and other fabulous questions from young Ann Arbor poets

My poetry students' new book — forthcoming from Dzanc Books in conjunction with the Dzanc Writer in Residence Program — is called "Why Is the Sky Purple?"

The book release event is scheduled for June 10 at Nicola's Books and will feature readings by 27 fifth- and sixth-grade poets from Mike Derhammer's class at Ann Arbor Open School.

I like the title the kids settled on for several reasons. First, it's a question. Questions are more inviting than declarative statements; they are open to possibilities.

Also, asking questions is one of the main creative processes by which poems get written; poets are constantly asking "why?" or "what if?" or "what next?"

Second, it's a question that sounds reasonable, but isn't. It echos the classic question, "Why is the sky blue?" but with a twist. The question takes it for granted that the sky is purple, contrary to what we know or think we know about the sky. It takes the familiar and makes it unfamiliar, which is one of my favorite functions of poetry.

Parenting: Poems from Ann Arbor pupils reveal a child's luminous imagination

The Ann Arbor District Library carries several copies of a book called "This Is Just To Say: Poems Of Apology And Forgiveness."

The book's conceit is that a sixth-grade class reads the poetry of William Carlos Williams — specifically, his classic apology poem, "This Is Just to Say" — and then students write their own apology poems for broken windows and dodgeball beanings and other slights big and small.

It's a decent little book, apart from the disappointment of discovering what is not clear to many readers: that the poems are not written by actual sixth-graders, but spring from the mind of the author, Joyce Sidman.

As someone who has spent the last few years working with actual fifth- and sixth-grade poets through the Dzanc Writer in Residence Program, I find myself preferring the real thing.

Christmas tunes worth seeking out

For some people, a solid month of Christmas songs isn't enough. No — some people would be content to listen to "Grandma Got Run Over By a Reindeer" and "Jingle Bell Rock" year round.

You would be right to call such people "crazy." You would also be right to call them my kids.

For most of 2009, my kids' favorite CDs to play over and over again were Christmas CDs. Not good ones. The top three were "Strawberry Shortcake Berry Merry Christmas"; "A Very Merry Kidz Bop"; and "DJ's Choice Kids Christmas Party." I have other family members to thank for my daughters' owning these holiday gems.

Christmas tunes NOT worth seeking out.

The worst Christmas carols of all time

Are you tired of carols yet? This is the time of year when many people are ready to jab a fork in their eye if they hear one more fa-la-la. I'm not there yet.

I've mostly managed to stay out of those big box stores that have had Christmas songs on permanent rotation since Halloween, and I hardy put on the radio in the car except to check the score of a game. So I've managed to keep my exposure to "Feliz Navidad" and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" at a manageable level this season.

Meanwhile, I'm basically a sucker for any holiday tradition that doesn't involve sermons or malls. I used to love singing that "Do you hear what I hear?" song in my fifth grade choir. While I wouldn't choose them myself, I still remember a kind of giddy excitement when my parents would break out their Christmas albums by the likes of Glenn Campbell and Johnny Mathis.

Young playwrights serve up Five Bowls of Oatmeal tonight at the Lydia Mendelssohn Theater

There are so many great arts and literature events in this town starring young people that sometimes I don't know what to do with myself. A couple of weeks ago, teenage poets performed for a paying audience of over 700 people at Poetry Night in Ann Arbor. A week ago, seven elementary school students wowed the crowd at the New Millennium Poetry Series at Sweetwaters Cafe. And this past Friday, a capacity crowd turned out for the "Dreams" art show at the Neutral Zone.

The trend continues tonight with "Five Bowls of Oatmeal," a festival of one-act plays written by playwrights ages 11 to 15 from 826michigan. Four student-written plays, each featuring a bowl of oatmeal, will be performed by prominent members of Ann Arbor’s theater community, including award-winning actor and director Malcolm Tulip.

Parenting: Have the courage to speak with your kids about respecting sexual and gender identities

Since the beginning of the school year, without really meaning to, I've let this column lapse. It's been a month since my last dispatch. Since then, the following events have been reported:

On September 9, Billy Lucas, 15, hung himself in his family's barn in Greenburg, Ind., after enduring anti-gay bullying at school.

On September 13, Cody J. Barker of Shiocton, Wisc., an openly gay 17-year-old who had planned to start a gay/straight alliance at his high school, took his own life.

'Wrestle the Great Fear' offers a dynamic look at teaching tonight at EMU

Consider a donation for arts education as part of this year's back-to-school shopping

School starting next week means that local arts nonprofits are ramping up their educational programs for the year.

826michigan will be posting a fabulous slate of free fall writing workshops on Sept. 6. Dzanc Books will be placing writers in schools through their Writer-in-Residence program. The Neutral Zone is bringing staff and teens together to kick off a full schedule of programming in literature, art, education, music, entrepreneurship and social justice.

parenting: How not to talk to your kids about giraffes vs. Iron Man

In this case, we opted for McDonald's over, say, Wendy's on the basis of small plastic animals. McDonald's is currently offering Littlest Pet Shop toys in its Happy Meals. About the only thing that could compete with Littlest Pet Shop currently for my daughters' attention would be Silly Bandz, but as far as we know, no fast food joint is giving away small silicone rubber animals. Yet.

Last time we went to McDonald's, out of eight possible animals, the girls really wanted koalas. And that's what they got. This time, they were really hoping for giraffes, and that's what they got. I don't remember having luck like this with Happy Meals when I was a kid. Instead of the Hot Wheels Corvette Stingray, I'd get the stupid Hot Wheels camper, three stupid times in a stupid row.

Because we'd been through this routine before, when the drive-through lady asked if our Happy Meals were for boys or girls, I knew to answer: for girls. If I had answered "boys," then instead of giraffes, the kids would've received little plastic superheros: Iron Man or Captain America or the Silver Surfer. I didn't think about my answer. It came automatically, just another menu choice, the way I know that saying "number two with no onions" gets me a quarter pound cheeseburger with ketchup, mustard, and pickle plus a carton of french fries.

Column: How not to talk to your kids about Aquanet and '80s music

A couple of weeks ago I went to see Iron Maiden at the outdoor theater I will always know as Pine Knob (just as the corner store at State and William I will always know as Tice’s). I wanted my kids to be impressed, so I told them how a 12-foot zombie named Eddie marched around the stage as the band played their closing song.

They weren’t impressed. Zoe remembers watching my Iron Maiden Rock In Rio DVD, in which Eddie appears five stories tall, with glowing eyes and fake fire. Who cares about a dude in a big zombie suit?

So then I went old school on them. When I saw the band in 1986, I told them, Eddie’s giant alien zombie head rose up from underneath the drum set, and giant zombie hands rose at the edges of the stage, where the guitarists stood on platforms, so that the entire stage transformed into a giant sculptural Eddie who held the band in his arms.

Whoa, they said. Can you show us a video?

Ann Arbor poets represent at the Brave New Voices Festival in Los Angeles

At the finals of the International Youth Poetry Slam on July 23.

Ann Arbor youth poets arrive at the Brave New Voices Festival in Los Angeles

Todd Jones Photography, under Creative Commons license.

Parenting: Two great summer camp opportunities for young writers

I know many people who swear by the full-blown summer camp experience, who send their kids away for weeks at a time to wooded lakefronts for singalongs, crafts, and capture the flag. My partner and I have not as yet been so adventurous with our kids, and it remains to be seen if we will as they get older.

I never went away on an extended camp outing in my youth. I seem to recall having attended one day camp as a boy in Oklahoma, perhaps some place with an Indian name where I fumbled with archery and canoeing and macaroni art. But I couldn't swear to it—my memories are fuzzy. I was once talked into spending a week at Vacation Bible School with my next-door neighbor, but nothing about it smacked of either vacation or school. I just remember sitting in church a lot. So it's safe to say my day camp experiences have not left an enormous impression.

'Soccer practice is boring!' and other coaching highlights

When I lived in Tennessee in fourth, fifth grade I played on a travel team that included second-graders and up, because in the 1980s in Tennessee there were few players and no organized soccer at the school level. We had one good player on our team, a German exchange student named Guido. Our game strategy was to get the ball to Guido and have him dribble through the entire opposing defense and score. (Our coaches' knowledge of soccer technique and strategy was limited by their being American men in rural Tennessee in the 1980s.)

Young poets take center stage at the Neutral Zone tonight!

Tonight, Friday May 14, several students of mine from the Dzanc Writer-in-Residence Program at Ann Arbor Open School will be featured performers at LITERAMA, a dynamic poetry event sponsored by the Ann Arbor Book Festival. Seven fifth- and sixth-grade students from Ann Arbor Open will open a show that also includes nationally renowned, award-winning poets Aracelis Girmay and Rachel McKibbens.

I am excited about this show for many reasons, but mostly for the young poets who will be kicking things off. Their poems are imaginative and intense. They are deeper and more inventive than people often expect from elementary school students, and I can't wait to see them wow the crowd.

They say things like: "Why is a dove released from its cart, Only to be captured again? And why does a heart feel the same way?"

They say things like: "I know it's a dream because I'm eating a monkey."

They say things like: "so sad, so empty, if you screamed in me it would echo."

I mean, I can't do them any justice with soundbites, and the poems they're reading tonight are a lot better and fuller than this. Trust me when I tell that it's worth your time to come out at 7pm tonight and see them. And then stick around for the rest of the show, which promises to be outstanding as well.

Here are the full details of the event from the press release:

Do kids make you happy? Does talking about kids make you happy?

Imaginary gardens with real toads in them: Zoe's April poems

drip drop.

plunk, plank, plop.

It is raining,

the moon is waning,

it is night,

there is no light,

it is slippery,

the fish are flippery.

--Zoe K-B, April 16, 2010

National Poetry Month is over -- and with it, the challenge undertaken by poets across the country to write a poem per day for the month of April. Many poets I know fell short of the goal, ending up with a mere 27 poems, or 10, or three.

However, one up-and-coming poet who came through with 30 poems in 30 days is my 9-year-old daughter, Zoe. In honor of her accomplishment, below are a few poetic highlights from Zoe's prolific April. I enjoy the quirky rhyming humor she brought to most days' entries, and the little moments of surprise or truth or wonder that pop out of them. Marianne Moore famously described poetry's task as providing "imaginary gardens with real toads in them," and I like to think of these poems as Zoe's imaginary gardens.