KidLit Love: Are You An Echo?: The Lost Poetry of Misuzu Kaneko

A children’s book about Japanese poetry that isn’t haiku? Yes, please!

(I have nothing against haiku, but for Western audiences that is usually all one thinks of when hearing the words ‘Japanese poetry,’ so it’s nice to see something different.)

This book is part biography, part anthology of poetry.

The first half of the book answers the question “Who was Misuzu Kaneko?” We are introduced to Setsuo Yazaki, the man who rediscovered her work before it was lost to the public forever. He meets Misuzu’s younger brother who tells him the story of her short life, from childhood to marriage to motherhood and death, and the way poetry affected her throughout. A few of her poems are scattered throughout her biography, to highlight certain parts of her story.

Warning: Misuzu passed away at the age of 26 from suicide. Though this is a children’s book, it does not shy away from the fact she took her own life and this is part of the story. It is handled well and addresses the situation without embellishing or glorifying, but as a parent you may want to read it first to see if your child is ready for it and/or to be prepared for questions they may have.

The second half of this book is a selection of her poetry. Misuzu wrote 512 poems in her short life and this is a small sampling, but the poems chosen for this book are varied in subject and wonderful. The poems are presented in English and Japanese both, with furigana printed next to kanji in the Japanese printing. (If you’re a student of the Japanese language, this might be great reading practice!)

This is one of my favorites from the selection in the book (click for full size):

The art for this book is awesome. It looks a little like the artist is still working on a sketch rather than presenting something perfectly painted/shaded, and I think it adds a lot of charm to the book as a whole. Toshikado Hajiri did an incredible job and I’d love to see more of his work in more books. It’s the sort of art that makes me feel warm and cozy with the book I’m holding. I spent a lot of time just enjoying the details of the illustrations after enjoying the story and poetry.

I can’t recommend this book enough. It’s a wonderful piece of history that most Western people, children and adults alike, will not have learned, and includes beautiful poetry that demonstrates the sort of Japanese mindset in regards to life and nature that I so dearly love.

*Is there a children’s book about poetry, books, or creativity that you want me to check out? Make sure to leave the suggestion in the comments!

Life Update

Mar15

How are we nearly 1/4 of the way through 2018 already? *shakes head*

You know, it’s a simple, no-frills photo, but I feel like it fits right now. So far this year I haven’t focused that much on writing or creating. Instead I’ve spent a lot more time on knocking over those ‘tacks’ in life one by one. Those tacks have been health issues, financial problems, house repair problems, etc. Some of those tacks I have to face that I can’t knock over without the tack doing some of the work too and others I can’t knock over jussssst yet, but I’m working toward being strong enough to do so. For now I’m taking out all the little ones that I can. Gotta start somewhere, right?

Little tacks I’ve managed recently: Continue reading →

KidLit Love: What Do You Do with an Idea?

Feb8

How we learn to handle ideas as children will shape the way we handle ideas for the rest of our lives.

I was a bit skeptical when I first picked up “What Do You Do with an Idea?” by Kobi Yamada. I’m not sure what I expected, but I wasn’t sure whether or not I’d be happy with the result. As someone who’d like to one day make a living from the ideas in her head… it can be a touchy subject.

This book is now one of my favorites.

Mae Besom’s illustrations are an absolutely perfect accompaniment to this simple story of a child who, one day, has an idea. He’s not quite sure where it came from, why it’s there, or why he’s the one that it’s following around, but he does know that he can’t get this idea to leave him alone.

My favorite part of this little story is one specific point it makes: Ideas need attention.

You may not be certain you have the time to give to your idea. You may not be certain what your idea wants. But if you make friends with your idea instead of fighting its very existence, unexpected and wonderful things can happen.

Some people will laugh at you or shun you for hauling around that idea. Others will be kind, but simply not understand. In the end, the only relationship that matters is the one between you and your idea.

“I couldn’t imagine my life without it.”
– from “What Do Your Do with an Idea”

*Is there a children’s book about poetry, books, or creativity that you want me to check out? Make sure to leave the suggestion in the comments!

scared to submit yer poems?

Jan30

Coming off of several of my own posts about the process of submitting your work (and then thankfully being accepted!) I feel like this is an awesome post to share today. You don’t know how many times I’ve heard that advice to put that one odd poem in your submission. I have to remember to keep trying that.

Accepted!!

Jan26

How I feel right now:
Now where’s my ocean and pretty sunset?

While also being the name of one of my favorite comedy films, today I can announce that after three years of submitting my work I have been accepted in a journal! I want to say a MASSIVE thank you to Chantwood Magazine for accepting my poem “To Inari” for their 12th issue, just published today. You can go here to find this issue (and past issues) on their website.

I received the acceptance offer from the magazine just before the year rolled over to 2018. That was an awesome way to tie up an otherwise rather stressful year.

It also feels really special for this to be the poem accepted out of everything I sent out last year. It’s one of the ones dearest to my heart and has a whole lot of me mixed into the batter. In fact it’s the first poem I wrote when I sat down to begin the collection I have in mind. It’s a poem in which I definitely tried to sound like no one else but myself. So it feels really, really good to see someone else believe in it too.

I first started submitting my work toward the end of college (2009-10), but it was rather sparsely done and kind of half-heartedly. I still had my mind on being a great fantasy novelist so poetry was just a side thing I did only when the urge really gripped me. I tried submitting again in 2012-13, but again only a few things here and there. I still wasn’t very focused on writing poetry just yet.

I didn’t really start submitting my work until 2015, and only got truly serious about it in 2017, when I finally gave in with my whole brain and said to myself, “Okay, you’re a poet, let’s do this.”

My only real goal for 2018 is to write more, submit more, and dedicate myself to poetry more; that includes my own, reading the work of others, and trying to be a bit more a part of the ‘community’, either online or otherwise. I’m not entirely sure where poetry is taking me, that’s what this blog is around to document, but I think I’ve committed myself to the ride.

I’m starting 2018 with a publication. I’m thrilled and ever so grateful. My hopeful goal is to see at least one more publication credit happen this year, but that is out of my hands, so instead I’m going to do my best to write, write some more, and submit, submit, submit…

*Photo by user jill111 at Pixabay, creative commons usage

All the Things I’m Not

Jan10

This post has sat in my drafts for over a year while I’ve thought about whether or not to post it. It’s been rewritten and tweaked multiple times, but I think it is time.

Let’s have a discussion. (Long post ahead.)

I am not a teacher. I don’t work for education. I don’t edit a literary journal. I have no writing degree, graduate or otherwise. And yet I am a poet.

I write this because it seems like nearly all of the poet blogs, poet bios, and poet anything I see about poets mentions at least one of those things. Teaching, editing, and fancy degrees. And these are all noble things. I am thankful to teachers and editors. We need them. Degrees of higher learning can be very beneficial. But they do not define the making of a poet.

Poetry is a notoriously low (or nearly no) paying job. There is no harm or shame in keeping a day job when you are a writer of any kind. Only the lucky few get to have “making up words” as their only job. Having a day job that has nothing to do with the written word does not discredit the writer. Having a degree in something other than language or writing, or even no degree at all, does not discredit the writer. And yet, it is easy to feel like it does. Continue reading →

2017 in Review

Jan1

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Before charging into the next year (which better be awesome for the world in general or I might cry), I want to take a quick look back…

Books Read: 78 (goal was 87)
— for reference: I read 40 books in 2016

I read some really awesome books this year. I read poetry, picture books, fiction, and memoir mostly. I’ve especially been enjoying reading fiction novels and non-fiction comics about or set in Japan, both written by Japanese authors and authors who have visited the country. I’ve been working my way through reading fairy and folk tales from various countries as well.

I would LOVE to hear some recommendations from my readers for picture books or poetry books especially!! (My stack of to-read fiction is massive and takes longer to get through.) I am mostly restricted by what I can get through my local library for now, but please, recommend away!

Some of my favorites I read this year: Continue reading →

KidLit Love: Little Red Gliding Hood

Dec15

While not exactly a retelling, this book is an absolutely adorable story about not judging a person by their image or reputation and it’s filled with favorite fairy tale and nursery rhyme characters.

I’m going to admit that I picked this book up because I love figure skating. I love it now, and I especially loved it as a kid. You can keep your baseball and basketball and football… give me figure skating!

Tara Lazar wrote a very sweet story about our favorite Red. This time she’s a skating fanatic, but her skates are old and she needs new ones to keep her feet comfy and keep her safe when dancing across the ice. A competition is announced with the prize of new skates, making this the perfect opportunity for her! The problem is she needs a partner and everyone is already taken. Or are they?

While I loved the story (it didn’t feel like the author was talking down to her reader just because it was a children’s book and Red’s repeated exclamation of “Oh, slippery slush!” made me giggle more than once), I have to give a shout-out to Troy Cummings, the illustrator. All of the artwork was lovely, but the wolf! Oh my. Do you see this dapper wolf? Do you see his skating clothes? I’m in love. He reminds me of my favorite Russian skaters in the Olympics of my childhood. I can’t help it!

I recommend this one wholeheartedly. And if you speed through it the first time like I did, give it a second read and pay special note to all of the side characters, no matter how briefly mentioned. It really helps make the book.

*Is there a children’s book about poetry, books, or creativity that you want me to check out? Maybe a favorite fairy tale retelling? Make sure to leave the suggestion in the comments!

Taking a Break

Dec4

This year has really beat me up. Various difficulties in my health, the health of family and friends, emotional strife with a few people, occasional real job work overload, financial headaches, and more have been rough this year. It happens and that’s called life, but man, my creative streak has suffered for it. I guess that’s also called life.

So I’m taking this month off. From everything. From trying to blog or write or submit my work. I’m going to enjoy holiday crafts, maybe write a few letters, and take it easy. It’s possible I’ll do the same with January, but I’ll reevaluate then.

This year I sent out 44 submissions, 1 application to a fellowship, 1 application to a residency, and a small handful of contest entries.

So far nothing has come back with that magical stamp ‘accept’, but I still have a few things out that I’m waiting to hear on. Worst case scenario I still tried harder this year than I have in years past. And that means next year I’ll try even harder. And more importantly, I’ll keep writing.

I’ve been suffering from some pretty thick writer’s block for the last 3 or 4 months too. But for the first time ever it’s not from distraction or lack of inspiration. It’s actually from overload. I have so much I need to say and get out that when I sit down to the page it all tries to come out at once and just clogs up the flow and gives me a panicky headache instead. Any ideas on how to get past this? I’ve done a little timed freewriting but even that can be hard to get out. Morning pages never seem to work out for me either.

I hope everyone has an amazing holiday season, whatever you celebrate. Enjoy the lights, spread some joy, and be kind to yourself and others. I do have one KidLit post scheduled for later this month, so keep an eye out for that. Otherwise I will see you all in the new year!

Here Comes NaNoWriMo…

Oct31

… and all the panic that comes with it.

Don’t get me wrong, I love NaNo-season, but this year it feels even more out-of-control. I’m still looking forward to giving it a try though!

I’m hoping for 50 hours of butt-in-chair time, just like last year. I fell woefully short of that last year (but was still happy with the progress I made) so hopefully I can do better!

I had a list of all the things I was going to finish before NaNo this year: my Christmas cards were going to be ready for mailing on December 1st, my house was going to be relatively cleaned/picked up, the photobook (a Christmas gift) I’m working on was going to be done and ready for printing, and hubby and I were going to have finished watching Stranger Things 2… at the minimum. (He hooked me on Stranger Things about a week before the second season released.)

I was also hoping to be caught up on letters to all of my pen pals, some of whom have been waiting for months now because, you know, life exploded. And I was hoping to have a few other side projects caught up too.

I finished absolutely none of those things as October turned in to a rough patch with me feeling frequently run down and then right about the time I started to feel better, I began nursing my best friend at the hospital. At least she is out of ICU now! Autoimmune disorders are a bitch, ya’ll. Then again if you have one or know someone who has one… you already know that.

So I’m going into this NaNoWriMo season with the goal I’d already set for myself, plus a long list of other goals to juggle in addition to a full-time day job and my own likes-to-run-down-this-time-of-year health. But is that going to stop me? NEVERRRR!!! So nothing should stop you from trying your best either.

Want to see what the rest of my writing group is up to for this November? 5 of the 6 of us are being rebels! Check us out at this post.

*Photo by user TesaPhotography at Pixabay, creative commons usage