by Mary E. Cronin | Jul 12, 2021 | Cape Cod, Poetry
When you get to combine teaching with a topic you’re passionate about– that’s the sweet spot! I just finished teaching one of my favorite courses at the community college, “Poetry in the Early Childhood Classroom.” In this class, we dove deep into poetry: how to...
by Mary E. Cronin | Apr 23, 2021 | Poetry
This beautiful book of poems by Nikki Grimes is a revelation and inspiration. First, it allows us to discover the poems of lesser-known black women poets of the Harlem Renaissance–poets like Jessie Redmon Fauset, Gwendolyn Bennett, Effie Lee Newsome, and...
by Mary E. Cronin | Apr 16, 2021 | Poetry
Every poem is a blow against silence. ~ Carlos Fuentes *** “This is for the unforgettable… the ones who survived America by any means necessary. And the ones who didn’t.” Kwame Alexander’s book THE UNDEFEATED is an ode to the African American experience, a...
by Mary E. Cronin | Apr 9, 2021 | Poetry, Uncategorized
I love reading a poetry collection in many voices, and Walter Dean Myers’ HERE IN HARLEM is a masterful example of this. In his introduction, Myers writes that he was inspired by Yeats, Synge, and Spoon River Anthology to write about his beloved neighborhood in...
by Mary E. Cronin | Apr 2, 2021 | Poetry
I love reading biographies, and when an author succeeds in telling the story of a person’s life in poetry– that’s magic. In honor of National Poetry Month, here are three favorites I have come across lately. RUNAWAY: THE DARING ESCAPE OF ONA JUDGE by Ray...