Customer Reviews

Poetry Speaks Who I Am with CD: Poems of Discovery, Inspiration, Independence, and Everything Else

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In spite of having a poet for a mother (or perhaps because of it) I have never come to terms with poetry. Which is not to say that I didn't try. As a kid I would pluck up a collection of the stuff and try to read through it. I was handed poems in elementary, middle, and high school with regularity, but I didn't quite understand why snowy woods were any more important in stanzas than in paragraphs. Poetry seemed like something I should like, but I never found the right way to get a taste ...more In spite of having a poet for a mother (or perhaps because of it) I have never come to terms with poetry. Which is not to say that I didn't try. As a kid I would pluck up a collection of the stuff and try to read through it. I was handed poems in elementary, middle, and high school with regularity, but I didn't quite understand why snowy woods were any more important in stanzas than in paragraphs. Poetry seemed like something I should like, but I never found the right way to get a taste for it. Kids today may have it easier. There are verse novels and books like Love That Dog and Locomotion to help them get a better grip on poetry. There are collections like A Kick in the Head or A Poke in the I to teach them various forms. But why should they care? What does poetry really say firsthand to them? Poetry Speaks Who I Am aims to make them care. It's a collection of 108 poems by poets alive, dead, and otherwise has been carefully selected and crafted collection to mirror the hopes and fears of kids and teens today. It says that it is for tween and young teens, and yea verily I agree. If I had read this book as a young 'un, maybe I would have a great love of poetry now. Of course after reading this I have to think that maybe it's never too late to learn.

108 poems. A range of different poets. In this book big themes are tackled headlong aside smaller concerns. "I Am Black" by Gwendolyn Books on one page. "The Germ" by Ogden Nash on another. These poems discuss love, parents, death, animals, and more. They try to make sense of our world. You will find Shakespeare on one page and Billy Collins on the other. Poets of every race and ethnicity have their say until by the end you've the feeling that every person reading this book could find at least one poem in here that speaks to them. One poem in here that will help them figure out who they are, and what they can be. Includes a CD of many poets reading their own works.

The editing job on this book is pretty fabulous. Selecting the right poems in the first place couldn't have been a picnic. Let's say you want to include one work of Shakespeare. How do you decide which poem is the most accessible? I happen to agree with the editors that Sonnet 130 was the right way to go, but I'm sure there are folks out there who'd disagree. Still, each poem in this book feels especially chosen. This is borne out by the particular thematic pairings you run across as you read. Wendy Cope's "Valentine" alongside Myra Cohn Livingston's "An Angry Valentine" is particularly fun since the two play off of one another. There's the strange math at work in both Rita Dove's "Flash Cards" and Carl Sandburg's "Arithmetic". And the angry siblings of "A Boy in a Bed in the Dark" by Brad Sachs and "The Talk" by Sharon Olds. Wonderful pairings all.

Then I had to consider the age of this book when I read it. It says it's for tweens as well as kids in their early teens. True? Well, there are poems like "Still I Rise" by Maya Angelou that ask, "Does my sexiness upset you? / Does it come as a surprise / That I dance like I've got diamonds / At the meeting of my thighs?" And sure "The Skokie Theatre" by Edward Hirsch mentions briefly a girl touching a boy below his belt, but they are fleeting allusions. Older kids won't be shocked. Their parents might, but those parents probably won't be handing this book to their ten-year-olds anyway. So there's that. And many of the poems in this book are about kids themselves. Do poems about kids necessarily mean that they are for kids? Not always (not originally either) but a lot of the time it works just the same.

Part of the allure of any book of poetry is that you can pick and choose where to begin and where to end. Kids may read and reread their favorites and eschew the others in the book, only to stumble across them later and find, to their surprise, that they love them. Reading the book cover to cover has its advantages, though. The editors begin with poems about poetry. "Eternity" by Jason Shinder and "Perhaps the World Ends Here" by Joy Harjo have that feel. Halfway through the book you run into "From For a Girl Becoming" by Joy Harjo (again), which offers advice on how to live. And at the end is Richard Wilbur's "The Writer", about a kid writing on a typewriter. Typewriters are gone now, but you can tell that the book hopes that kids will find inspiration here to write their own poems next.

How kids make this collection their own stands to be considered. Certainly the book bends over backwards to be accessible. There are blank pages in the back for writing one's own poems. The size of the book is comfortable, not too big, and not too small. The layout looks part notebook, part zine, with scribbled and scrawled drawings in the margins. And then there is the CD. The accompanying CD of poets reading their poems piqued my curiosity. It is possible that it will primarily be used by teachers wishing to make a daily lesson in poetry a little more interesting. But will kids listen to this CD at all? Do kids even listen to CDs these days, I wonder. Many do. And there may be some that take the CD and place selections from it onto mix CDs or put it on their mp3 players for easy listening. We can't predict how a kid will deal with something like this, but I'm fairly certain that it will find a use. Not everywhere. Not with everyone. But for a couple kids, they'll make it their own.

It is true that you will find many races represented on these pages. It irked me a little that the same could not be said of sexualities. Admittedly, this is a book for tweens and teens and coming-of-age sexuality is the stuff of older fare. Still and all, it felt like a gap. I don't know what the solution would have been, but there are enough love poems in here discussing folks of opposite genders to include just one by folks of the same, don't you think? I had high hopes for Edward Hirsch's "The Skokie Theatre" until the Chris in the story turned out to be a girl. Doggone it. So maybe not all kids will find themselves represented here after all.

I run a bookgroup for kids between the ages of 9 and 14. They're good kids, but such a strange range of ages that sometimes it's hard to find materials for all of them. They tend to want to read fantasy or realistic fiction titles. I look at Poetry Speaks Who I Am, though, and I think of how great it would be to do this book with them. Even kids who don't like poetry could find one or two in here to enjoy (my favorite turned out to be Paul Muldoon's "Sideman"). It's been created for the purpose of getting kids to actually enjoy and identify with poems. It doesn't pressure them to "get" anything. It doesn't quiz them or force them to like or not like something. It's just a fun book built to be enjoyed. All we can hope for is for it to get into the right hands. And that's where the adults come in.

Ages 10 and up.

I got this book for my 10 yr old stepdaughter, who struggles with focus in school and has been in counseling for years due to issues with her mother. I heard about it on NPR last year, and felt it would be very good for her to hear poems by/about other children her age and the issues that bother them. She has read the entire thing, some of it several times, and listened to the cd. I can't say with certainty, but she seems to have bonded with some of the poems that speak directly to her about things that she deals with. I think this is an excellent book for a tween/young teen who struggles with identity - my greatest wish for her is that she learn who she is independent of all the pressures from peers and family and this book I hope will help her achieve that.

Poetry Speaks comes with a CD that includes poets reading their own works. The table of contents lets you know which poems are on the CD, since only about half of them are included. The ARC also included a little 1/2 sheet with the selections listed on it. That was really helpful since I didn't have to turn back to the beginning to check on a poem, I could just consult the sheet I was using as bookmark. The poems looked like I might have typed them out on recycled paper and then added a design. Spare but creative and encouraging. Not a normal standoffish type of poetry book at all. There are even lines in the back to write your own poems.

I am not a huge poetry fan but this book spoke to me. I loved the mix of contemporary and classic poets, the mix of ethnicities, the well-known with the not-so well known. We had works from Langston Hughes, Edgar Allen Poe, Maya Angelou, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Sherman Alexie and Billy Collins. Some of my favorites were SEDNA by kimiko hahn, WHAT YOUR MOTHER TELLS YOU NOW by mitsuye yamada, and

MEDIATION
kim stafford

At the dinner table, before the thrown
plate, but after the bitter claim,
in the one beat of silence
before the parents declare war

their child, who had been temporarily
invisible, but who had from school
a catechism, speaks: "Would you like me
to help solve the conflict?" Silence.

They can't look at each other. A glance
would sear the soul. A wall of fire seethes,
Maginot line through the butter plate,
split salt from pepper, him from her. Silence.

So the child speaks: "Three rules, then:
One--you have to let each other finish.
Two--you have to tell the truth. Three--
you have to want to solve the conflict.

If you say yes, we will solve it.
I love you. What do you say?"

Another one I enjoyed

POETRY SLALOM
mary jo salter

Much less
the slam
than the slalom
gives me a thrill:
that solemn, no-fuss
Olympian skill
in skirting flag after flag
of the bloody obvious;
the fractional
lag,
while speeding downhill,
at the key
moment,
in a sort of whole-
body trill:
the note repeated,
but elaborated,
more touching and more
elevated
for seeming the thing
to be evaded.

You can read these for fun as well as teach them. So many terms you can define: metaphor, simile, enjambment, litote, rhythm, rhyme scheme, free verse, etc. I think both teachers and students will love this. I already bought some for our school library! I give this 5 stars because it's not one to be read in a normal lit circle but to put in your pocket and carry around with you. My only issue is they printed it in hardcover. This needs to be paperback for portability and usability.

In school I remember learning about a few dead White male poets. The only one I had any interest in was Edgar Allan Poe. My love of poetry comes in spite of school. Once I discovered what poetry was and its power, I've always loved it. I always got my poetry fix outside of the classroom.


In order to make a person a fan of poetry at any age, they must begin with poems that speak to them. There are 100 poems in Poetry Speaks Who I Am by a very diverse group of poets. Including Edgar Allan Poe, Nikki Grimes, Sherman Alexie, Billy Collins, Naomi Shihab Nye, Marilyn Nelson, Langston Hughes and Emily Dickinson. Take a peak at table of contents, to see all poets in this collection.


A great thing about poetry, liking or getting every poem is not a requirement. This wonderfully diverse collection of poetry gives every young reader the chance to find one poem to connect with. I've always felt, that when a person randomly opens a poetry book, it will land on a poem, they were meant to read at that moment. The odds of that happening with Poetry Speaks Who I AM is very high thanks to the many voices inside. There's even a Vampire poem


Vampire's Serenade by Dana Gioia (first and last verse)

I am the image that darkens your glass
The shadow that falls wherever you pass
I am the dream you cannot forget,
The face you remember without having met.

You've heard me inside you speak in your dreams
Sigh in the ocean, whisper in streams
I am the figure you crave and you fear.
You know what I bring. Now I am here.


It only takes one poem, one verse or sometimes an unforgettable line to have a new poetry fan for life. All of that can be found in Poetry Speaks Who I AM. This collection also comes with a CD with some of the poets reading their own work. I loved and highly recommend Poetry Speaks Who I Am, as well as the other two poetry collections published by Sourcebooks.

Poetry collections directed to teens are not very common; you're much more likely to find collections of poetry for children or adults. This lack of poems for teens to appreciate is exactly what editor Elise Paschen addresses in a new collection that is part of the Poetry Speaks series, Poetry Speaks Who I Am: Stories of Discovery, Inspiration, Independence and Everything Else. The more than 100 poets whose work is represented include classic poets like Emily Dickinson, Edgar Allen Poe and Robert Frost as well as contemporary poets such as Sherman Alexie, Maya Angelou and Portland's Kim Stafford.

Some of the poems are whimsical, such as Death of a Snowman by Vernon Scannell, while others are more contemplative, such as One Art by Elizabeth Bishop, which is about the art of losing things. Girls may cringe when reading Bra Shopping by Parneshia Jones. And of course, there are poems with rich imagery. Here are just a few lines from one of those, Blackberry Picking by Seamus Heaney:

Late August, given heavy rain and sun
For a full week, the blackberries would ripen.
At first just one, a glossy, purple clot
Among others, red, green, hard as a knot.
You ate that first one and its flesh was sweet
Like thickened wine: summer's blood was in it

I recognized poems I memorized in high school, like Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley, marveling that memorizing was much easier for me then than it seems to be now. An added bonus to Poetry Speaks Who I Am is that is comes with a CD of 47 poems being read by their authors or others. There's something hypnotic about listening to poems being read, especially by the author, who knows where she intended emphasis and can add tone.

Blank pages in the back of the book encourage readers to write their own poetry, which could be a great activity for a mother-daughter book club. April is National Poetry Month--reading Poetry Speaks Who I Am would be a great way to celebrate.

Poetry Speaks Who I Am is a collection of classic and contemporary poetry aimed at addressing middle schoolers in their transition from child to young adult. There is a wide range in the collection: classic poetry like Edgar Allan Poe, Langston Hughes, and Emily Dickinson and newer and present poets, some of whom read their work on the accompanying CD.

Poetry Speaks Who I Am has many poems that will apply to every feeling and thought, put words to what we can't find words for, and prove that yes, there are other people out there who feel like you do now, you're not the only one. You're not alone. These poets talk about everything from the awkwardness of changing and showering in the fifth grade locker room to embarrassing bra shopping with mom, to a first kiss. There's poems about segregation and ethnicity, homework and math class, sports, clothes, and even the emotions brought forth from reading poetry itself.

Not only does it have the poetry, there are pages in the back of artistic inspiring blank pieces of paper for the reader's own poetry. The CD contains many of the poems read by the poets the way they were intended to be read.

Poetry Speaks Who I Am is a fantastic collection that every young lit-lover should have on their shelves.

Recommendation: Boys and Girls ages 8+

My freshman year of High school I fell in love with poetry after doing a unit of it in English class. I wrote for years and years after that and even got a few published. But since becoming obsessed with books I haven't done much writing. But when I was offered to review this book, I grabbed at the chance.

Poetry Speaks Who I Am is a wonderful book, this is type of tool I wish I had back when I was learning about poetry. In this book there are some of the greatest poets and some of my favorites. Some of the poets included are Maya Angelou, Edgar Allen Poe, Langston Hughes, John Keats, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost and William Shakespeare. Not only does it hold all these great poets but it also comes with a CD with some of the featured authors reading their work. Plus in the back of the book there is space to write your own words. While this is aimed for young adults., I believe readers of all ages will enjoy this book.

Poetry Speaks Who I Am is a unique take on helping to introduce readers to modern as well as classical poetry. The novel include works from some of my all-time favorite poets, so it was really nice to be able to sit down with one novel and have them all together. Poetry Speaks Who I Am is a very nice sized book. Not too much, but not too little either. Of course, I am comparing this to my college English anthologies which range in the thousands of pages.

The authors of this novel definitely had teens in mind when putting this collection together. The pages all have a grungy look to them, and is filled with cute little doodles which looks like something I would have done to my writing notebook. In addition, the themes of the poems are full range. You have poems that deal with love... social issues... you name it and it is probably in there.

This collection stands out for me because... 1.) It comes with a CD which has many of the living poets reading their own works. And 2.) There is a nice area in the back of the book where readers and (inspiring) poets can jot down their own thoughts or poems. This makes the novel really reader friendly on many levels. While I must admit that I am not a poet, inspiring or otherwise, this novel almost made me wish I was. It is a wonderful collection which that will either ease you nicely into poetry or help introduce you to some poets that you may not have seen before.

I'm not too big into poetry but with compilations like these, I tend to grab onto them. In this case, the editors did an amazing job of compiling old and new work into a compendium of poignant and touching poetry for teenagers (and really, anyone that's still a teenager on the inside).

You have Langston Hughes, Edgar Allen Poe, Maya Angelou and Percy Bysshe Shelley mixed in with more current writers like Sherman Alexie and Nikki Giovanni. The editors chose perfect poems from the past that, despite their age, young adults of today can still relate to and they can still be touched by them.

Some of my favorites were Caroline by Allison Joseph (about teasing and protecting), In the Fifth-Grade Locker Room by Rebecca Lauren (about chicks and puberty), Bra Shopping by Parneshia Jones (I don't think I even need to explain), Dream Variations and Dreams, both by Langston Hughes (because Hughes is a poetry god and can do no wrong), Oatmeal by Galway Kinnell (about going it alone, or not), If I Can Stop One Heart From Breaking by Emily Dickinson (yet another slightly reclusive and batty poetry goddess), Ozymandia by Percy Bysshe Shelley (one of the best poems I've ever read about the fading of popularity, basically), The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost (a classic about standing up on your own), and the first prose by Rainer Maria Rilke (on writing).

Personally I don't think it's fair to review the individual poems because poetry is something so intensely subjective (moreso than novels, I think) that it just wouldn't do them justice. I didn't think any of them bad at all but I loved some more than others. I didn't listen to the CD as I'm not a fan of actually listening to poetry but I'm sure it would only heighten the effect of reading the work on its own.

As I said, the editors did an awesome job of compiling such great works and I would highly recommend this book to anyone that has even a slight interest in poetry. Even if you don't, it's a quick read and you never know; you might just get something out of it.

Poetry books have to be read differently than the way other things are read. First, you can't just plunge through the whole thing, going from page to page until it's finished. Rather, poems should be read singly, and slowly. Like sipping fine wine rather than guzzling a water bottle. You have to let a poem sit for a day or so and thing about it and come back to it. Also, some poems are just better read aloud, either by you or someone else. A poem sounds completely different hovering in the air rather than just floating inside your skull.

Fortunately, this book has both those things covered. This book is a compilation of poems by some of the greatest poets ever, both living and dead. I has some old favorites like Robert Frost and Langdon Hugher and newer poets I've never heard of but enjoyed nonetheless. The topics range the full gamut of emotions and circumstances. It is targeted as a book for young adults but there is really enough meat in here for the savviest adult. What makes this book so much more enjoyable was the CD that came with it. There are several of the authors reading their own work. It was amazing to me how much different the poems sounded when the authors read it than when I heard it in my head.

If you're not a poetry lover or never really found a book you could really sink your teeth into, I suggest giving this one a try. While not every poem will resonate with you, you are sure to find at least one you love.