Announcing the 2012 Edition of 30 Poets/30 Days!

I'm so excited to announce the 2012 edition of 30 Poets/30 Days, an annual celebration of children's poetry that takes place here at GottaBook throughout April (National Poetry Month here in the U.S.).

(EDITED TO ADD: April's started! You can almost always see the day's poem by clicking here and going to the top of the blog. If you don't see a poem, by chance, just scroll down a little and you will!)

Every day of the month, I'll post a previously unpublished poem by a different poet. As before, I'm totally loving the poetry coming in, so I cannot wait to start sharing it with you. Here's an alphabetical list of who's going to be here in April, 2012:

Alma Flor Ada, Susan Taylor Brown,Liz Brownlee, Leslie Bulion, Kate Coombs, Bruce Coville, Kalli Dakos, Ed DeCaria, Margarita Engle, Robert L. Forbes, Helen Frost, Sara Holbrook, Ellen Hopkins, Ron Koertge, Thanhha Lai, JonArno Lawson, Kimberly Marcus, Lorraine Marwood, Marilyn Nelson, Eric Ode, Mary Quattlebaum, Bob Raczka, Michael J. Rosen, Michael Salinger, Hope Anita Smith, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Lee Wardlaw, Robert Weinstock, Steven Withrow, Allan Wolf

Yeah. I'm excited. Like, really excited. I'm so grateful to the poets for joining in to share with you all, and I know we're gonna have a great month of poetry fun.

There are a few easy ways to follow along and not miss out. You can visit here every day. Sweet! You can subscribe to GottaBook via email or your blog reader.

You can join my poetry list, and get all the poems emailed out the day they hit my blog. Enter your email address below and click subscribe:

That list runs year round, by the way, so whenever I post a poem here, whether it's my own or a poem from a visiting guest poet, you'll see it.

Plus you can join the fun on Twitter - follow me for links to the poems every day (and much more), or follow @30poets30days for purely poetry tweeting.

There are always folks to thank with a big event like this, so let me start by thanking the incredibly talented Debbie Ridpath Ohi for this year's logo. I'm amazed by the talent of this year's poets, yes, but I am in awe of Debbie's skills - a logo here, a picture book there, hilarious cartoons, prose, songs, social media how-tos. I mean, it's kinda unfair... except that she's a part of 30/30 now, so I'm just plain grateful.  I also want to thank all the poets who've joined in prior years of this event, thus making this year possible. And, of course, I have to thank all of you who read along and share the poems and the event with others.

April is going to be a blast. I do hope you'll stick around!

A Message from Saturday the 14th - a non-holiday poem

A Message from Saturday the 14th
by
Greg Pincus

You see? You’re still here.
There was nothing to fear.
The 13th is a terrible tease.

And me? I’ve been waiting,
Anticipating...
Relaxed as a bird on the breeze.

I know I could mention
I get no attention,
Yet truly, it doesn’t annoy me.

And so I just say,
“I’m a fabulous day.
Don’t waste me, my friends. Enjoy me!”


I was gonna dazzle y'all with a fancy word for the fear of the number 14 instead of the standard triskaidekaphobia comment... but it turns out there isn't a real term. Man, the 13th really does get all the attention. So unfair....

If you want to get all my poems emailed to you for freeee as they hit the blog, enter your email address in the box below then click subscribe!

Tracie Vaughn Zimmer - Fantasy

Fantasy
by
Tracie Vaughn Zimmer

(Tracie says: Inspired to show my students how playful and fun personification could be, I wrote a collection where each of the genres are personified. In fact, the genres aren’t just people but people at the same picnic! I cannot tell you how much fun I’ve had with this project. There’s romance and even an untimely demise. But here’s a bit of romance....)

Fantasy,
the hip nephew
of Imagination,
breezes into the picnic
in a black sleeveless tank top
(revealing the cut of his biceps nicely,
ifyoumustknow)
eyes trail
his striking good looks-
that tousled hair
first scruff of beard
those lips
intended for
lingering late-night kisses. Sigh.

Fantasy pretends
not to notice—
but when Non-fiction nerds
debate in tedious detail
the merit of various sources,
Fantasy excuses himself
to the buffet.
Simultaneously he devours
an obscene number
of appetizers in single bites
and charms the elusive and lovely
Poetry
who throws back her red hair
and giggles at all his remarks
(even the scandalously lame ones).
Poetry and Fantasy
slip out the side gate of the garden
hand in hand
with jealous whispers
rippling in their wake.

©2011 Tracie Vaughn Zimmer. All rights reserved.

---

I want you to join with me and prod Tracie Vaughn Zimmer to get this collection out into the world. I must see it! I want to know what Poetry and Fantasy do at the lake. I want to know if Poetry can change forms (and if she always has red hair).  Is Fantasy a meter reader? And does Romance rides a white stallion? It's unfair to be left without answers. Publishers, take note!

One of the fun things about this project for me is that many of the poems that appear here either already are from or end up appearing in upcoming books. Tracie's prior poem here, Cousins of Clouds, was the title poem from a book of elephant poems that just debuted less than two months ago. Yay! Now I look forward to Fantasy following in its path... and I'm once again incredibly happy to have Tracie Vaughn Zimmer here (for real - no fantasy!) as part of 30 Poets/30 Days.

Yesterday, Avis Harley gave us a bunch of Clerihews. Tomorrow... Jaime Adoff with Soul Food! For more information on 30 Poets/30 Days and how to follow along, please click here.

UNFAIR - a county fair poem/a life's unfair poem

UNFAIR
by
Greg Pincus

The fluffy candy looked bright pink,
But it was really cotton.
The caramel apples looked delish…
But every one was rotten.

The petting zoo had great big signs,
You Only Look -- Don’t Touch.
The penny candy cost twelve bucks -
I didn’t have that much.

My giant lolli fell apart:
The spiraled rings uncoiled.
I waited for the rides so long
My deep-fried Twinkie spoiled.

I went to watch a sheep get sheared.
Instead, it cut my hair!
I sure can’t wait 'til I go home...
I don’t like this Unfair.

The Poetry Friday roundup is over at Karin Edmisten's Blog with the Shockingly Clever Title. Head on over and see what's poetically what this week in the blogosphere.

And as always, if you want to get all my new poems (and only the poems) emailed to you for freeee as they hit the blog, enter your email address in the box below then click subscribe!

1,000 Posts, and I Want to Celebrate... with YOU

This is my 1,000th post here at GottaBook, a milestone which seems like a fine reason for a celebration. There have been a lot of highlights for me here, and between now and my fourth blogoversary on February 21st, I'll be talking about them, featuring some popular posts and most Googled posts and poems, sharing some news and who knows what else.

That'll be fun for me, and I hope for you all, but that's not the celebration I have in mind today. Nope. Today is about you.

Because the truth is, you're the reason I keep blogging. You're the reason it's fun. I know so many of you now from your comments here, from reading your blogs, from email exchanges, and even from meeting in person. A lot of you know each other, but it's always seemed unfair that so many of you DON'T know each other.

So I want to turn over the comments of this post to introductions. I want you all to say hello, link to your blog or website, and, if you want, give a one sentence "blurb" about you/your blog/whatever.

I'm not talking self-promotional spam, so don't worry about putting that link in. Just something like "Hi, I'm Greg Pincus and I blog about children's books and poetry at GottaBook." Heck, you don't have to say that much if you don't want. I just really want you to tell everyone who you are.

And then, I'd love it if each of you went to visit one, two, three or more new-to-you blogs you find here. I'm telling you, you'll like each other!

I'm serious here - you're a diverse group and you really should get to know each other.

Some of you will lurk, as you've always done. That's fine - this is a no pressure invite (though I'd like to meet ya!). A few of you might think I'm not talking to you - you don't come by all that often or you've never spoken up. Well, I trust your judgment, but personally I'd err on the side of joining in.

Thank you for being such a big part of the first 1,000 posts here. I look forward to hanging around with you going forward, too.

Now, I hope you'll help me celebrate and meet me in the comments. I'll be the guy passing the hors d'oeuvres....

Would you believe...

I was looking for an old query letter of mine that predates this computer and sent me the dreaded "paper files." And looking through there, I found a picture book manuscript I had completely forgotten about.

It's not great or nothing, mind you, but the fact that I completely erased it from memory seemed highly unfair - it had no bad history nor was it deserving of such a fate.

Does this happen to you? Do you run into material that you are surprised to find? And is any of it ever fabulous? Cuz, like, if it is... I'm gonna dig some more!

The Talking Cake Blues -- an excuse poem/an apology poem/a cake poem

THE TALKING CAKE BLUES
by
Gregory K.

I walked in the kitchen and there was your cake.
I know, Mom, it took you the whole day to make.
Its beautiful frosting was something to see.
If you said “it’s perfect!”, I’d have to agree.
But then something happened, though I’m not to blame --
‘Cause Mom, it’s the truth, the cake called me by name!
I said “please stop talking,” but still it called out.
I heard that cake plead. Heard it beg. Heard it shout.
So I did what it wanted. I sure won’t deny it –
I tasted its frosting in hopes of some quiet.
I started out slowly -- one finger, that’s all.
The line that I made in the frosting was small.
Then it begged and it whimpered and asked me for more….
So I pulled out a spoon from the silverware drawer.
I shouted “One mouthful. That’s it! Not another.”
But then the cake said “I’ll just call for your brother.”
Well, you know he’s so young he’d come in on the double.
He’d mess up that cake, and he’d be in such trouble.
That seemed so unfair, and because I respect him,
I kept right on eating. I had to protect him!
I ate and I ate ‘til my mouth was exhausted,
But now that cake’s quiet! (And also unfrosted).
I think you can see how there wasn’t a choice:
I had to do something to silence that voice.
I should stay right here to say “sorry,” I know…
But the TV is calling, so I gotta go!


The (last National Poetry Month) Poetry Friday roundup is here at the always faboo Miss Rumphius Effect. And I'm posting an original poem each day in April in celebration of National Poetry Month. Links to this and other poems here on GottaBook (and I post all year round, because poetry is NOT just for April!) are collected over on the right of the blog under the headline "The Poems".

If you want to get all my new poems (and only the poems) emailed to you for freeee as they hit the blog, enter your email address in the box below then click subscribe!

Totally unfair!

So, I've waited til nearly the end of the day thinking that since I was taken over, I wouldn't have to do any more posting cuz it would be done for me. But nooooooooo. No wonder they call it a hostile takeover!

Since I was planning on sitting back and relaxing today, I'm afraid I have nothing better to offer, other than my annoyance that I don't even get a day off. This new boss is a drag!