Poetry Box new features

Posted: Tuesday Aug 29, 2023

Share the word that Poetry Box aims to be a Poetry Hub for poems for and by children

Poetry Box new features | Poetry Box (wordpress.com)

I have been musing on the way poetry for children is one of the most difficult things to get published yet it is such a superb tool for getting children reading and writing. Poetry is a word playground for children - it a place to play - to skim words along the surface of water - to sky dive with them through imagination - it is a way of taking pictures and sound bites of what you know and love.

Poems can take a thousand shapes and create a thousand songs. Poems are music and they are art. They involve ears and mouth, heart and mind. They can be feeling and they can be thinking, looking, listening, recording, describing, mystery making, nonsense creating, storytelling.

Over the coming months, as I manage my 1/2 cup of daily energy, I want to shine a light on poetry for and by children. I am not yet up to rebooting my monthly challenges but there are other things I can do.

• I can give poem challenges to individual librarians and teachers (email me if you are keen paulajoygreen@gmail.com).
• I will post previously unpublished poems by children's authors at Poetry Box Tuesday Poems. At this stage it is invitation only as I manage my energy.
• I will invite children's authors to read a cluster of their own poems and give a few tips if they choose at the Poetry Box Listening Corner.
• I will invite school librarians to record some of their favourite poems for Poetry Box Library Corner. Get in touch if you are interested.
• and I have a few more ideas swirling in my head like exciting little seeds.
• I will keep posting reviews of children's books of all genres, especially from Aotearoa at Poetry Box Reviews.

Do share the word that Poetry Box aims to be a Poetry Hub for poems for and by children.