When I had to box my room last year,
and I was moved to a smaller room,
and two bookshelves were "re-directed" by a staff member with key,
I think,
maybe not,
Ok,
fair enough,
but two shelves were gone,
which seemed so awful,
unpacking books that then had no place to go anymore
but back in their brown buried boxes,
and I got mad about it,
and I kept reminding myself it was kind of a test of my inner reserves,
and I still felt hurt,
the poetry helped.

I read a book for cure (from home) edited by Garrison Keillor called Good Poetry for Hard Times.
Good Poems for Hard Times by Garrison Keillor

Get it today. Well it got to me.

So I sent a lot of my classroom books to storage to survive the move, as I said, including most of my poetry. It's been rough not having in my hands all my poetry books. For some reason I like to know they are there.
But as I sit home with tummy issues related to a narrowed intestine, adhesions from a prior cancer surgery I was thinking of many books that helped me bring poetry to children, and then also to myself.
Just considering how to highlight the books and poems......for this slipping away month of poetry.
I have of course got my poetry site, A Random Act of Poetry but it's a little angsty middle aged space. We used to, school wide, memorize a poem and present it with our classes. It seems that disappeared in the "age of accountability and standard" as did many things like author visits, math nights, lots of active kinds of events in part because you get so busy proving they know something with tests and data records, you forget or can't manage the something that they know into a form the kids might like and learn from, or actually see that doing as a product, better than say, a workbook or print out or test. Great minds.....

Oh well. I'll start it.....with a poem
I'll go first and you write or link.....on "poetry"

I like poetry.

I try to find it in daily life.
It might be sitting on our shoulder peeking into the quiet morning,
Or laughing at us as we take up our passions
Poetry seems to sneak around the barriers
Look into the dark heart.
Angsting teen, it gets them,
Poetry scraps off the scabs on an old wound
Administering a new medication
Cleansing a soul
Innervating an aging mind
Till you find once more the memory of a greasy fry
You spilled somewhere, when you could digest them,
Or a time your tracks stopped.

Poetry tickles the toes
Curls up into crystal caverns
Maybe in your nose like a whiff of somewhere
Who knows?
It's allowed to go anywhere
Fight for or against
Or lean up on the rock wall and bask in your
Sun filled walk through the canyons.

I like poetry that is
Spare, bones, leftovers that taste better than last night
But is can be fertile and fecund
Spongy with diaphanous roots
Like lettuce on the plate.
It depends
Poetry is like that.
It skips away, dreamlike
Pulling out a bit of sanity in an insane
Cacophony
Poetry just tunes the ear to
Listen
For something before you know it

Like a kitten's cry, a poem
It's a mellow meow you catch
In the howl of the tumultuous
It's a pretty thing sitting up on that tuffet
Shouting out to the fiddlers
Bringing on the next act
The one in which we bow.

I like poetry, and how.



So that's my attempt.
There are books of course I like, ones I've tried this last year, things that seem worth the effort to have around.
I'd like to site a few from last year, ones in piles here:

Pizza, Pigs, and Poetry: How to Write a Poem by Jack Prelutsky

Well I like him and found this darling.

Seven Ages: An Anthology of Poetry With Music by Naxos Audiobooks
Only here because I have my Michael Caine fantasy.
I will not let that go.

A Family of Poems: My Favorite Poetry for Children by Caroline Kennedy and Jon J Muth

I've really enjoyed this one. I'm trying not to just put the same books I always recommend, this was newer , this was lovely. Traditional really.

An Introduction to Poetry by X. J. Kennedy and Dana Gioia
Yes I used an earlier version in a class, yes I learned things.
Not evidenced in my writing, but hey, I listened.

The Bill Martin Jr Big Book of Poetry by Bill Martin Jr., Michael Sampson, and Eric Carle

I loved it...

Hip Hop Speaks to Children with CD: A Celebration of Poetry with a Beat (A Poetry Speaks Experience) by Nikki Giovanni (Hardcover - Oct 1, 2008)

Ditto

The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry by Alan Kaufman and S.A. Griffin

I , myself, enjoy this

The Love Poems of Rumi by Deepak Chopra

It was a GIFT.

Understanding Poetry by Cleanth Brooks and Robert Penn Warren

Nothing better, really.
It's really the one to get

The Cancer Poetry Project: Poems by Cancer Patients and Those Who Love Them by Karin B. Miller

Getting the Knack: 20 Poetry Writing Exercises 20 by Stephen Dunning and William Stafford

The Knopf National Poetry Month(TM) Collection by Various

Tiger Lilies, Toadstools, and Thunderbolts: Engaging K-8 Students With Poetry by Iris McClellan Tiedt

A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jen Bryant and Melissa Sweet

The Sweet and Sour Animal Book (Opie Library) by Langston Hughes, students from the Harlem School of the Arts, Ben Vereen, and George P. Cunningham

Free to Dream: The Making of a Poet, Langston Hughes by Audrey Osofsky

The Poetry of Black America: Anthology of the 20th Century by Arnold Adoff and Gwendolyn Brooks

Truth and Lies: An Anthology of Poems by Patrice Vecchione

So this goes on and on and I realize that's not especially helpful. I could literally do this all day.
I have a THING for poetry.

I have however really enjoyed these:

The Dream of the Poem: Hebrew Poetry from Muslim and Christian Spain, 950-1492 (Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation) (Lockert Library of Poetry in ... (Lockert Library of Poetry in Translation) by Peter Cole

A Season Like This (Paperback - 2004)
This is by Michael Salcman and it is beautiful.

Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair: Dual Language Edition (Penguin Classics) by Pablo Neruda, W.S. Merwin, and Cristina Garcia

New Selected Poems by Mark Strand

The Border Kingdom by D. Nurkse

The Clock Made of Confetti by Michael Salcman

A good book.

I'm sitting around cooking a chicken, browning it actually, wondering how it yielded three thighs in a package marked "Whole Chicken Cut Up" and thinking about consciousness. Or the unconscious. The recipe I'm always cooking when I decide to get one of these packages of whole cut up chickens is a Coq Au Sarah where I add in a lot of garlic and some potatoes. It's a cheat but my kids like garlic. It's not especially fun because you cut up a lot, carrots, onions, pearl onions, mushrooms, things I'm forgetting.

Today I started to look for a good book so I could understand the

Here is my latest:
Something to cheer me up.

Great title.
Actually I'm so non-traditional all I've really done is use the wax and dyes.More batik than psyanky. But I'm pleased I got a shipment of goose eggs today. I've never gotten to decorate a goose egg but I have always wanted to. And this was my first one:

.
I have three kittens and no mom.
We think she's eiher gone on holiday or been a coyote dinner.

They are big chunky kittens for three weeks but now I am on rotating bottle feeding.
They are darling, but it's kind of heart breaking that they have no momma. I hope she returns but it's two days so....you just don't know.
I think the dad was the Siamese around the corner.
Momma is a pretty calico.
Come home Uglyface (she has a rather awful name from my mom)

Every Easter since I met Jack Puglisi in 1982 I have heard the story of the cookie that he got to eat as a child at his Easter. He called it a Godura, baskets made by his Nonnie, a kind of sweet cookie that was wrapped around a real hard boiled egg and eaten at this time of the year.
Startlingly this year via the internet, cookbooks, searching, we figured out they are actually called cuddura or coddura, of course they are from Sicily ( we knew that) and made in various forms. One link we found took us here. Jack's memory is of a decidedly more height related form than we found on-line, basket like, and of a "good to eat" cookie.
With that egg in there.

So we tried cuddura today. This is the recipe we found to try:

( I suggest using some vanilla, maybe some lemon or orange zest)

2 cups flour
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
4 oz ( 1 stick) sweet butter, cut in pieces
2 large eggs
Hard boiled eggs, colored if desired
1 egg beaten

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Make a well in the center, add butter and eggs and work everything together with your hands until a dough comes together. On a lightly floured surface, knead gently for a few minutes until smooth and pliable.

Wrap in plastic, refrig an hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Divide the dough in 2 portions and roll out one half on a floured surface. Cut out desired shapes and place on a cookie sheet lined with baking parchment. Top each with a boiled egg, cross with two strips of dough, and brush with beaten egg. Repeat with the remaining half. Bake cookies until golden brown about 15 minutes.


To get an idea of the impossibility of running this down read here.

And I have found it called Cannateddi or Cannatunni.


I found this here:

  Easter Egg Bread Basket 

INGREDIENTS (Makes about 4 Baskets)
5 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 cup sugar
Colored sprinkles
13/4 cup corn oil
1 teaspoon of Vanilla
6 eggs
Milk & Egg White for brushing
1-2 Packets of Dye for the eggs

This is a very familiar sight to many people, especially those who
grew up Italian.  This tradition has occurred in many Italian families
both here after immigration, and those from the old country of Italy
and Sicily.  Very often, you can see these in Italian bakeries around
Palm Sunday and Easter time.  It is one of the many symbols and traditions
of our ancestors and being Italian.
---------------------------------------------
Easter Egg Bread Basket

This Sicilian tradition occurred in many Italian families both here after
immigration and before in the old country.  In fact, you can see them in
Italian bakeries just before Easter. They symbolize tradition and culture of
our ancestors.

Color eggs first, set oven for 350F. Line 2 cookie sheets with foil - makes
6 baskets.

Ingredients
6 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
4  teaspoons baking powder
1 cup sugar
colored sprinkles
1 cup corn oil
1 1/3 teaspoons vanilla
7 eggs
milk & egg white, for brushing.

To color the eggs boil a half cup water for each color and add 1 teaspoon
vinegar.  Add 10 drops of the food color, roll the egg in water solution.
Take pan off stove and let eggs dry on a spoon.

Combine sifted four, baking powder and sugar and set aside.  Beat together
the eggs, oil & vanilla. Knead with spoon while adding dry mixture to egg
mixture a little at a time. Knead with hands on a clean surface until evenly
mixed. Be sure not to over knead! On tine lined with foil, carefully shape a
cupful of dough into a basket shape. Place the colored eggs in center and
cover with a small piece of rolled dough, sealing edges to basket. Using
your hands, roll a 1" wide and  6"long piece of dough lengthwise and curve
to resemble basket handles.  Brush the basket with egg white and apply
sprinkles, then brush with milk.

Bake 20 minutes at 350F on foil lined cookie sheet. Let cool before
removing with wide spatula. Serve or give on paper plates with decorated
border. Wrap in plastic, tie with colored ribbon for a traditional and
unique Easter cookie gift! Makes 6 baskets.

Or this from here:

Italian Easter Bread

I have wanted to make this bread for years, but never made enough time to squeeze it into an Easter menu. It is time consuming, but it was worth it. I served it the next day, and I would recommend only serving this the same day you bake it.
EASTER EGG BREAD RING (Italian/ Greek)

5 eggs

1/4 cup white sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast

3 cups all-purpose flour

2/3 cup milk

2 tablespoons butter

2 eggs, room temperature

1/2 cup mixed candied fruit

1/3 cup chopped blanched almonds

1/2 teaspoon anise seed

2 tablespoons melted shortening

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

1 tablespoon whole milk

1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons multicolored sprinkles (jimmies

1. Color the 5 eggs with egg dye. In a large mixing bowl, blend the white sugar, salt, and yeast well with 1 cup of the flour.
2. In a saucepan, combine 2/3 cup milk and butter, heating slowly until liquid is warm and butter is melted. Pour the milk into the dry ingredients and beat 125 strokes with a wooden spoon. Add eggs and 1/2 cup flour or enough to make a thick batter. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes. Stir in enough flour to make a ball of dough that draws away from the sides of the bowl.
3. Turn out onto a floured board and knead for about 10 minutes, working in additional flour to overcome stickiness. Place the dough in a greased bowl, turning to grease the top. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and put in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
4. Meanwhile, combine the fruit, nuts, and anise seed.
5. Punch down the dough and return it to a lightly floured board. Knead in the fruit mixture, keeping the syrupy pieces dusted with flour until they are worked into the dough. Divide the dough in half.
6. Carefully roll each piece into a 24-inch rope–the fruit and nuts will make this slightly difficult. Loosely twist the two ropes together and form a ring on a greased baking sheet. Pinch the ends together well. Brush the dough with melted shortening. Push aside the twist to make a place for each egg. Push eggs down carefully as far as possible. Cover the bread with wax paper and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
7. Bake the bread in a preheated 350 degree F (175 degrees C) oven for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in a twist comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool.
8. Once the bread is cool, drizzle the icing on top between the eggs, and decorate with colored sprinkles. To make icing: mix together confectioners’ sugar, 1 tablespoon whole milk, and vanilla.

Or this one from here:

SICILIAN EASTER BREAD - "Pupo con l'uovo"

Serves 6
7 cups flour
1 cup milk
8 oz shortening
8 oz sugar
5 teaspoons baking powder
6 hard boiled, colored eggs Colored sugar sprinkles

FROSTING
2 egg
14 oz confectioner's sugar
Lemon, a few drops
Mix flour, sugar, shortening and baking soda in a large bowl, then form a well in the center of it.
Add milk to the mixture a little at a time while mixing until you have a firm dough, Knead until smooth and elastic.
Let the dough rest for 1/2 an hour.
Preheat oven to 380 degrees F.
Divide into 6 portions. Take a portion of the dough and roll out in a circle to a between 1/8 and 1/4" thick, about a foot in diameter.
Place a hard-boiled egg in the center of the rolled out dough folding it over itself in such a way that the egg remains in the center of the dough. Do the same with the rest of the dough (all 6 eggs).
Form on a greased pan a circle with the dough-enveloped eggs so that they are touching each other. Shape the edges. Bake for 15 minutes.
FROSTING:
Beat 2 egg whites till they form peaks. Add the sugar, a little at a time continuously beating the egg whites till mixture is creamy. Add a few drops of lemon juice. With a pastry brush spread the egg and sugar mixture onto the cooled bread. Decorate with colored sugar.

Or this from here:

CUDUDUA (ITALIAN EASTER COOKIES)

6 eggs - well beaten
1/2 pound butter or oleo (margarine) (melted, then cooled)
1 1/2 cups of granulated sugar (my grandmother uses 3/4 cup of sugar)
2 TBSP of Baking Powder
2 TSP of Vanilla Extract (Pure)
Shake of Cinnamon
4 1/2 cups of sifted flour (more or less)
Some colored hard-boiled or blown Easter Eggs

Beat eggs until yellow and frothy (very well), then add a shake of Cinnamon. Add Vanilla, Cinnamon, Sugar (a little at a time - make sure it is dissolved before adding flour). Add melted butter after it has cooled. Add Flour and Baking Powder. Add enough flour so that soft but not sticky. Let dough rest for an hour in refrigerator (or table - can be room temp).

Heat oven to 375.

Take piece of dough out (about the size of a apple), roll into cylinder with hands while leaving the center thicker. Press center down with heel of your hand (this is for the egg). Place on cookie sheet, then put Hardboiled egg (or blown egg) in that spot. Place two small strips of dough (like a cross) on top of egg to hold it to the cookie. Prick the top of the dough and slit the tips for decoration.

Bake in 375 for 10 minutes until light Golden (make sure they are not too brown). Be careful taking out of oven because the cookies are delicate.

You can also make any design you want. My grandmother also makes smaller cookies by rolling into a 3/4 inch cylinder and cutting into 1 1/2 pieces. She also sometimes frosts them with a basic powder sugar frosting.

Now they are ready to be enjoyed by dunking in Milk, Tea, Coffee, and some people dunk in wine (yuck!)

Good Luck!

Or from here:

Great-Grandma Mary's Sicilian Easter Cookies
3 lbs. flour (4 cups/lbs.)
5 eggs
1 1/4 cup sugar
1 1/4 tab. vanilla
3 3/4 tab. baking powder
1 1/4 cup shortening (vegetable)
1 1/4 cup milk (more or less depending on cookie dough)
1/4 tsp flavoring (traditional: anise, can use lemon, almond, etc...)
Add eggs, sugar, shortening to mixer and beat well. Add 1/2 flour, mix well by hand. Add vanilla, milk and additional flavoring. Add remaining flour. Shape dough into logs and cut on angles (diamond shaped cookies). Can also make baskets and egg wraps with dough. Egg wraps include one hard boiled egg dyed with color to the middle of the dough and bake. Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes. Glaze with powdered sugar and sprinkle with round multi-colored sprinkles. Makes: A LOT!

So enough , enough......
We tried to do it this afternoon. Jack recalls "that he would go on Easter Sunday and his Nonni made each child one of these twisted braided baskets. He liked them."
That's the nostalgic story there.
Here is our attempt:


Still working on it.

The only one I like really is the peacock.










I cannot use pysanky to do geometric designs because I lack the ability and perhaps just know the symbolism and designing is not my background, but I am enjoying, if that is the word, trying to get something on an egg.

I've been making these as I sit with a leg that is numb, so I cannot walk.
I've yet to varnish them. It's enjoyable to feel a day without papers to organize, plans to make, teacher manuels to haul out, assignments, group, pencil sharpening, managing children, hearing my name called, tugs, reading, using my voice, yard duties, feeling rushed, testing, collating, stapling, shining a lesson on a screen and tons of things like feeding the fish ( I MUST do that today, leg or not). And the hermits.
Ugh...but a break is nice.

My daughter's watercolor. I took a poor picture but it's a nice Sylvia piece.

(edited in PM same day, I wrote too fast in the AM, I think it reads worse after editing)

In Ventura County there is The Star, it's the local paper and they just gave our family a treat.
Each year The Star presents it's awards to students for outstanding scholarship.
The Star Scholar Awards Banquet.
It is their 26th year doing this for the community, it comes with small scholarships.
They like to tell the story that in their first year it was a barbecue with a ventriloquist with a duck.I bet that had a real charm though.
I'm rather proud of the fact that my TWO daughters managed to be selected by Pacifica High School in their senior years (by academic rank), for their high school rep (one of three children per school). Pacifica runs under the leadership of Mr. Dabbs and we were very lucky to be awarded for both girls and get to go to this event in Simi Valley.( We are very lucky too to have two children able to do so well, you have no idea how lucky I felt.)

The Star recognizes 78 high school seniors

So last night we went to the Reagan Library to watch my daughter Sophia accept her award.
It was pretty amazing because:

1) It was right UNDER Air Force One, a new and impressive exhibit at the Reagan Library that I'd never seen. This airplane served seven administrations.
It made a rather unbelievable and memorable backdrop.


Here I looked up from my table.



I had to lighten these pictures the evening light came in at sunset so intense it rather blew out pictures.
It was so amazing that lovely light through this glass.
I just really did not capture that.



Sophia's father and Sophia, isn't she a beautiful child?


Signing in.



I barely was able to walk, numb leg, but it was a totally impressive view.



( As I hobbled behind)
2) Amazing, Sophia allowed me to take a couple pictures!
Some on the run.

3)They had several speakers, the CA State Superintendent of Schools, Jack O'Connell and the astronaut Buzz Aldrin. Yes, they had the astronaut that walked on the moon!
They received a copy of a book he has written, it was signed. A lovely, lovely child's book.
I have newspapers John Glenn signed for us, so this just improves the collection. Papers that celebrated his trip long ago. So my mom, of course, was thrilled for Sophia.



Dr. O'Connell, acknowledging Air Force One's presence.

4)Sophia was presented her award with a little shout out to her father from Dr. Mantooth the Ventura County Superintendent, who also was a guest speaker. He said, "Are you ready for this John." Just as she got her award. I am adding a movie of that event. The worst ones I ever saw or took. I'm afraid I was just totally off my game. My laugh clapping for her dropping my camera, it's excruciating to view.
And that's pretty nice though to try to grab for this. She specifically said, "Do not blog me."
Oh well, mums.



Coming back after accepting.



5) I could barely walk. And I realized how seriously I'm impaired especially in my right leg. I don't know what's going on, herniated disk, syrinx? But I do know while the back pain is down I have a numb foot and leg, drag my leg and mechanically walk, just walk incorrectly.
That will stay with me about this event I know.

6) She looked beautiful and my pictures turned out poorly. Three children per school are selected. Hers is the largest high school in the county, a huge, huge county, a huge school. Her friends Gabriel and April were also honored, they are such nice kids. She has been very fond of Gabriel knowing him all her high school years.
The Kids with Mr. Dabbs, their really great Principal.

.


7) Buzz Aldrin gave a very different kind of presentation, he is a year from 80!
I felt that as meaningful, as I recall his moon walk very well from the black and white TV in my home long ago that brought it to us. In those days we celebrated globally such an achievement, TV dinners were at the ready I suppose. He had slides but he couldn't see, it got really dark on the dais. It got to be strange light with the sun setting and he said he was used to teleprompters, so that was hard on him, then in the questions portion it became just like a Robert Altman movie. Which was very interesting. ( small dumb clip below)





He actually tried to speak a bit about aliens, lights they saw in the capsule and reasons why, God, religions and division, global money, some having- others not, and a host of things that I will generally recall for awhile. But mostly I was worried about walking to get there and back and the extreme weakness....so then it ended and we came home with her certificates.

Sophia has, I'm sure like all these children, and many more, worked very hard.
I really appreciate the Star for giving them a night like this.

It's not easy times for papers. This paper does a lot reaching out to community.
I know I read of cut backs awhile ago to its staff. It's just been so sad to see our industry, the free press coping, the press falling. Sophia wants to major in journalism, I think, or at the least it's one of her major considerations. She writes for her school paper, Currents. At Pacifica this year she recently won a New Writing Award in a county competition and her paper as her dad says, "Ran away with it." So we are proud that her long after school hours helped her find her place in her school, gave her opportunities to learn, exposed her to quality people. Made her think of ways to present information and how to consider points of view. What is news?
She was very glad for these days at Pacifica.