Tabs like seeds growing & a poem to make you sing

I’m in cleaning frenzy mode before the NYC trip.  This morning’s task is to clean up all the open tabs. I hope you are feeling in a clickety-linkety mood this morning.

A day this beautiful should begin on a note of poetry perfectly balanced between joy and melancholy. Read "Some Me of Beauty" by Carolyn M. Rodgers.

My favorite lines are:

"I saw a woman. Human and
Black.
I felt a spiritual
Transformation
A root revival of
Love
And I knew that many
Things
Were Over
And some me of
Beauty
Was
About to begin."

That line: "some me of beauty was about to begin" makes my heart race and my palms sweat. THAT, my friends, is the mark of a good poem. What do you think about it?

Sadly, Ms. Rodgers died last week at age 69.

Recently I was privileged to send some love and best wishes to one of my childhood heroes (seen below)  Beverly Cleary on the occasion of her 94th birthday!! Judy Blume sent greetings too, and Lauren Myracle, and other truly splendiferous authors. Read the whole thing and bask in the goodness that is the World Of Cleary.

(photo from the SLJ website, photo credit to Kate Ward)

In preparation of the kick-butt Teen Book Festival near Rochester, NY (5/15/10 – you don’t want to miss it), I participated in a quick "This or That" interview. Other authors who will be at the TBF include Coe Booth, Holly Black, Ellen Hopkins, AND MORE!

<=== That is the United Kingdom paperback version of CHAINS, published by Bloomsbury. I adore this cover. CHAINS has been named nominated for SPELLBINDING, the Cumbrian Primary School Book Award, in England.

And, drum roll please, for in addition to winning the 2010 Milwaukee County Teen Book Award, WINTERGIRLS has been nominated for the YALSA Teens’ Top Ten of 2010!!!!! Voting takes place in August and September. Get ready!!!