Bob Raczka - What Is Poetry?

What Is Poetry?
by
Bob Raczka

poetry is about taking away the words that you don’t need
poetry is taking away words you don’t need
poetry is words you need
poetry is words
try

© Bob Raczka. All rights reserved.

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One of my absolutely favorite things about putting together 30 Poets/30 Days is when the poets involved send me multiple poems to let me chose what works best. I'm like a kid in a candy shop! The downside comes because I have to pick one, and that is REALLY hard when someone like Bob Raczka sends four pieces of brilliance. I truly could have run any one of them and gushed about how he must not only sees the world differently in order to come up with what he comes up with but how he also has the ability to help us see the world his way. That's a remarkable talent.

I first got to know Bob Raczka's work through his Art Adventure series of books. Those books are a kind of visual poetry, as far as I'm concerned, but they don't give insight into what he's capable of with words alone. Guyku (with Peter H. Reynolds supplying the art) was the book for me that made me stand up and take notice of his gift with poetry. And then last year's Lemonade and Other Poems Squeezed from a Single Word simply blew me away in much the same way as Marilyn Singer's Mirror Mirror did - fantastic execution of an idea that seems impossible in concept yet, when you're reading the book, you no longer are even thinking of the constraints involved. Impressive stuff, indeed, and just one of the reasons I'm so happy to have Bob Raczka here today as part of 30 Poets/30 Days.

It's the first Poetry Friday roundup of National Poetry Month! Head on over to Robyn Hood Black's blog to see all the good stuff going on in the Kidlitosphere today, poetry-wise. 

Yesterday, Mary Quattlebaum brought us Earthworms. Tomorrow... Sea Star by Liz Brownlee! For more on 30 Poets/30 Days and ways to follow along, please click here.