Poetry Friday: Steven Withrow

Steven Withrow...and Company

 It's Poetry Friday and I'd like to point you in the direction of a very special, energetic, exciting young poet (and film producer - Library of the Early Mind!)  Steven Withrow.  In my opinion, he's going to make a big impact on the world of poetry for children. He's the electric impulse (in fact, you might call him the turbine!) behind the new organization called Poetry Advocates for Children and Young Adults (of which I am a member of the Advisory Board, I'm proud to say)  and he writes the Poetry at Play blog for that organization. The best way to find out a bit about Steven today is to head over to Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast where Julie Danielson has posted the full interview she conducted with him for her weekly online column in Kirkus.Here's a snippet:

"Poetry, for me, is a highly physical art form not unlike composing and performing music, stage drama, dance, sculpture, gymnastics. The joy of poetry, for me, is the joy of arranging and vocalizing and surrendering to pleasurable and/or challenging patterns."

For The Drift Record today, I'll just go with one of his delightful poems, which he posted last spring on his own blog, Crackles of Speech (that's also the title of his eBook volume of poetry.) I love the attention Steven pays to the music of the words, along with his ability to both control language and play with it.  Pair those qualities with intelligence, a sense of purpose and a generous spirit, and you've got quite a poet. Definitely head over to Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast to read the interview.

NOMENCLATURE
By Steven Withrow

Night clouds hold no proper names.
Each and all, in their operatic crossings,
Altostratocirrocumulonimbus.
Also bear cubs, pearl beads, nesting dolls,
Arias of open vowels, steam engines,
Strange fish scaled with flashes of camphor,
Nacreous, anonymous, noctilucent
Under the yellow music of the moon.

Chris Guy, Photographer

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 You'll also want to head over to laurasalas: writing the world for kids for the round-up today - see what other people have posted for Poetry Friday.