Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Marilyn Singer - In the Museum

In the Museum
by
Marilyn Singer

See those big bones?
Once, dinosaurs went walking
through dust, mud, and stones.
See those big bones?
Long, long ago, no computers, no phones,
no people, no talking.
See those big bones?
Once, dinosaurs went walking.


©2009 Marilyn Singer. All rights reserved.


Marilyn Singer's In the Museum, a triolet, makes me so happy. I love good dinosaur poems to start with, and I also love seeing different forms used well. And on top of that, I love the use of the title here to give this poem a setting and a context besides just being about dinos. I'm there in that museum looking at the skeleton, I tell ya, listening in to someone I can learn from. All that with one title, eight lines... with many of them repeated! It's not a surprise, of course, since Marilyn Singer is a gifted and accomplished poet who does things like this alllll the time. But still... it makes me happy.

By the way, Marilyn (along with Barbara Genco) has gathered up an amazing crew for the upcoming ALSC Poetry Blast 6: Carmen T. Bernier-Grand, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, David Harrison, Bobbi Katz, Laura Purdie Salas, Jon Scieszka, Joyce Sidman, Marilyn Singer, Hope Anita Smith, Susan Marie Swanson, Joyce Carol Thomas. Yowza. How can that not be a blast?

Rock n Roll Dad by Jaime Adoff set the beat yesterday. Tomorrow brings Adam Rex and The Flight Before Christmas.

9 comments:

tanita✿davis said...

This is lovely.

Anonymous said...

I love Marilyn's work. The ALSC thing DOES sound like a blast!

Kelly Polark said...

Love the dino triolet! I just attempted to compose a triolet a few weeks ago.

David LaRochelle said...

I sure am enjoying all the great poems, Greg. And I had never heard of a "triolet" before. Thank you and Marilyn for the introduction.

joyce said...

I, too, love this form. And Marilyn has done it so well.

Anonymous said...

My kids loved this. A total "wow!"

Anonymous said...

I also didn't know the triolet form, and also love the sense of place. I'd love to see a book of her dino poems, since this wasn't that same old familiar way of looking at the subject!

Tarie Sabido said...

This makes me happy too. :o) And I don't even like or care about dinosaurs!

Pat Kahn's Childsplay said...

Wow! She's amazing. But then, so are you. And your
presentation at the conference yesterday was terrific.
Many thanks,
Pat