Product Review: I Did It Because…: How a Poem Happens [Paperback] (Age 7+)
Excellent Tips for Writing your Own Poems
As a self-proclaimed songwriter, my life’s timeline is set to my own music in my head. Writing songs to me was much different than any other kind of writing style and my method was more of a sudden flow of words that would spew from my brain to my fingers when ‘that feeling’ would strike. Around high school I really honed my writing craft by producing hundreds of songs in a four year span and performing them with bands all the way. When writing, I would know instantly whether I could set the words to music or whether they would end up as semi-forgotten lyrics scrolled on one of my notebooks or journals probably never to be seen from again. Although I would never really say it, some of these forgotten potential lyrics were more like poetry that didn’t translate well in to song. I would never claim to be a poet and those words always gave me heartburn because they felt almost like wasted words to a musician who liked to perform. Looking back; however, I wish I would have honed the craft of poetry. I regret that I never took or read anything on how to write poetry.
There was one morning at the age of 17 while walking to my Community College class over the bridge (aka the ‘wind tunnel’) that separated the parking lot from the building when the usual big gusts of wind that would swirl hair and papers before class that normally annoyed me gave me inspiration. I distinctly remember racing into my English class to scrawl down a little ‘poem’ (simply titled ‘Wind’) in five seconds flat in my notebook and then just as quickly thinking after reading it back, “Huh. Well, I like it, but I can’t use it”. Unlike most other writings, this one has stuck with me over the years and I think about these lost words from time to time because I just like them. I think of it as part of the sad collection of writings I could never use against guitar chords. This is why I was so interested to review Loris Lesynski’s book, I Did It Because…: How a Poem Happens for the age seven and up crowd. I wanted to learn more about writing poems and want to be able to share my love of writing (particularly songwriting) with my daughter when she gets a little older. You never know, this book may inspire her to be the next Shakespeare (or Loris!) and what a fun book of poetry and instruction for this creative endeavor to explore!
How a Poem Happens is a combination of a lovely collection of Loris’s poetry and a poetry ‘how to’ for the younger passionate poet. The book has noted ‘Join In’ pages as well as ‘How A Poem Happens’ pages for lots of fun interaction. An example of the ‘Join In’ page is tips on how to practice reciting to get better at reading out loud. My example of a “How A Poem Happens’ page also happens to be my favorite page in the book entitled, ‘About me me me me me’ which talks about writing down information about your interesting self right now today. Recording and dating your observations and opinions that you have in the moment are fascinating because we do change in time and it is fun to go back and compare. Lastly, peppered throughout the book are the fun poems of Loris and we love the one called, Go Away, Poem! I am including my favorite section of it below for your reading pleasure. I really love this book and think it is a fun read for the young budding poet in your life.
‘Go away, poem. I’m supposed to be asleep –
Something that’s impossible if you decide to keep
Running all around my head,
Dancing on my brain
Sounding more and more excited
As you make up each refrain’
About Loris Lesynski: Lori was born in Sweden after WWII from a Polish father and Finnish mother and came to Canada when she was young. Lori began drawing, writing and reading from an early age and you must check out her About and FAQ pages on her website for extra cute insight into her life, complete with pictures and drawings! Her website has lots of great FREE info and activities for parents, teachers and children. Currently living in Toronto, Loris also loves to do school visits and conference talks, so please drop her an e-mail if you are interested!
Extra!
Momma’s Bacon, ‘Wind’ (circa 1996)
Softness of dew kisses breaking at the flesh
Warped sense of realization and utter helplessness
Squeezing of the heart and a brighter sense of rapture
Clogged by insightfulness and the feelings of thereafter
Love to be in love but with the power of own mind
To push it all away with kindness of any kind
Wrapped up in the gentleness of wind flow in despair
Of how a sudden impact shocks when nothing is even there
I Did It Because…: How a Poem Happens [Paperback] (Age 7+)
List Price: $9.95
Momma's Bacon 