IMMERSED IN VERSE, An Informative, Slightly Irreverent & Totally Tremendous Guide to Living the Poet’s Life
By Allan Wolf
Illustrated by Tuesday Mourning
Lark Books, 2006
Category: Middle grade nonfiction
IMMERSED IN VERSE was the surprise find of my weeks as a Cybils judge. I never expected to find a book on writing poetry among the MG/YA nominees. And when Allan Wolf’s book appeared on my doorstep, I didn’t expect to love it. It’s about poetry, after all, and poetry scares me. (I’m not sure where this fear comes from, but I suspect my compulsive, neat, rational and literal personality is part of the problem. Poetry is hardly ever all of these things, at least not at the same time.)
Anyway, I’m cured. That is, I am not (so) scared of poetry anymore. And it is all because I read Allan Wolf’s book. With an enthusiasm that is hard to resist, Wolf’s book arms writers-to-be with important ideas (“Don’t write about love. Write about holding hands. Don’t write about hate. Write about the bullies who walk the halls at school.”) and tools (“Metaphors Be with You”) of the poetry trade.
The highest accolade I can give IMMERSED IN VERSE is this: I wrote a poem while reading it. Crazy, but true. The poem is about Monty, our temporary beta fish and no, I will not post it here. But writing it was fun and woke up some long-slumbering cells in my literary brain. I think there might be a few more poems up there. Who knew?