Visiting William Blake

Saturday is quiet even today, the last day of the week before Showcase week. I guess that just means we're on schedule. My next day with Poets House will be this coming Thursday. Mike and a brawny, reliable helper will be transporting books from Broadway to the library in Mike's car. By the time I get there, they'll have already done their routes and the assistants will be at work setting things up. Mike told us to bring some friends, so I've invited a couple, but I haven't heard a definite from anyone. Thursday's a weekday and thus falls prey to scheduling conflicts.

After a little persistence from Renni, we got the opportunity to join Annie Wright and Mike for the monthly children's event at the Mulberry Street Library. This month our guest is Nancy Willard, a professor of English at Vassar, came to read a few of her poems for the kids. She is most recently, largely a writer of poetry for children, but some of her earlier books are for an older crowd. She came with her husband and a bag full of exciting puppets and props she has received or crafted to use as talk pieces and objects to get the kids' attentions. She read from a great little book starring William Blake.

Only two kids showed up, but after she began, about seven more kids joined in. Many of the kids couldn't sit still and opted instead to play quiet games with the little cylindrical seat cushions they were given to sit on. When Willard started the interactive poem, the kids settled down and got to thinking. Willard's poem was a "what if..." poem: what if you were given a house for free, but the catch was that you had to stay for the night in the house and the house was full of many scary things. Some of the children just went crazy raising their hands at anything they could come up with: the bed walks away when you try to get in, the whole house is pitch black, your teddy bear talks. Willard was so successful at getting them involved; I am truly impressed. Sometime this week I will pick out one of her poems to place here.

Showtime!