Children's Book Review: Under the Sun and the Moon

Margaret Wise Brown rarely disappoints, and she was in true, good form with her book of poems entitled Under the Sun and the Moon And Other Poems.  The poems are cute, witty and short, great for toddlers and preschoolers; and the soft, colorful illustrations by Tom Leonard are the perfect complement to each poem.  We checked this book out from the library for "U" week and it was a good kick in the pants to get back into our poetry at lunchtime tradition, which seems to ebb and flow in its successfulness.  If you're looking for some short, nice poems to share with young children, this book does not disappoint. 

For our other "U" week activities, click HERE.

Poetry update

I posted a few months back about reading poetry in our home and I wanted to update.  While we certainly don't read poetry every day or even close to every day at lunch as the "plan" is (I really need to try to be more disciplined about this, maybe blogging about it will help...) we still enjoy it, and lunchtime is definitely the favored time to pull out one of our books of poems.  We currently own Eloise Wilkin's Poems to Read to the Very Young and that has been a great place to start.  My dear friend Debi also gave us a copy of A Child's Garden of Verses which has some great classics.  About a month ago I was browsing for something online at the library (I don't even remember what) and stumbled upon The Bill Martin Jr. Big Book of Poetry.  WOW!  What a treasure.  This is a hugely comprehensive big book, organized by theme with great, colorful illustrations for every poem.  The poems are not by Bill Martin Jr., as the title may imply, but are a compilation of his favorite poems so it is very eclectic.  This book would make a great addition to any home poetry collection, and it is definitely on our wishlist!

Poetry

I recently read Honey for a Child's Heart and really enjoyed it.  It gave me all kinds of wonderful tips and ideas when it comes to the use of the written word in our home.  One of the genres of children's literature of which this book spoke very highly was poetry.  We read a lot around here, but have never read much poetry aside from Nursery Rhymes.  I, for one, have never been a huge poetry fan.  I have very distinct memories of memorizing it in the first and second grade, and I always thought that was fun; and then there was Shakespeare in high school, and I didn't think that was quite as much fun.  ;-D  I do enjoy the poems of Jessica Powers occasionally, but for the most part a book of poems is not going to be the first or second thing I am inclined to pick up.  Even so, I know it's important to instill a love for - or at least an awareness and appreciation of - all types of literature in my children.  So I checked out When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne from the library and have been pleasantly surprised at how well it has gone over.  I decided to pull it out at lunchtime and read a few selections each day.  Gemma really likes this (and I've even caught Kolbe signing "more" when I finish a peom), and she already has certain poems she will request to hear.  I even forgot one day and she went and got the book out of the drawer and brought it to me.  It's been a good tool to use as well...Gemma isn't always the best eater, and I've found myself saying, "take another bite and then we'll read another poem," and she happily acquiesces.  (YAY!)  I also purchased Eloise Wilkin's Poems to Read to the Very Young from Thriftbooks (THANKS DEBI!!!!!!) and this is just a lovely little book.  It is a board-book, so very sturdy, but much larger than most of the board books we own.  The illustrations are (of course) Wilkin at her very best...each one more pleasant to look at than the last.  Definitely a good buy for $3.95 shipped!  So all in all, the incorporation of poetry into our day has been an easy and positive one!!  I love it when things work out the way I picture they might in my head, because heaven knows for every one idea that works out splendidly, there were a dozen or so that fell flat on their face.  ;-D  What are some of your favorite poetry collections for children?

To Live with the Spirit

I'd like to share another poem by Jessica Powers (Sr. Miriam of the Holy Spirit) and also some of my own reflections on the Feast of Pentecost.

To Live with the Spirit
To live with the Spirit of God is to be a listener.
It is to keep the vigil of mystery,
earthless and still.
One leans to catch the stirring of the Spirit,
strange as the wind's will.

The soul that walks where the wind of the Spirit blows
turns like a wandering weather-vane toward love.
It may lament like Job or Jeremiah.
echo the wounded hart, the mateless dove.
It may rejoice in spaciousness of meadow
that emulates the freedom of the sky.
Always it walks in waylessness, unknowing;
it has cast down forever from its hand
the compass of the whither and the why.

To live with the Spirit of God is to be a lover.
It is becoming love, and like to Him
toward Whom we strain with metaphors of creatures;
fire-sweep and water-rush and the wind's whim.
The soul is all activity, all silence;
and though it surges Godward to its goal,
it holds, as moving earth holds sleeping noonday,
the peace that is the listening of the soul.

The Feast of Pentecost is such a beautiful, and often (in my opinion) over-looked feast. I truly believe that if one were to "rank" feasts of the Church, then Pentecost would fall in line soon after Christmas and Easter. What a blessed, blessed day. The Holy Spirit, the essence of the Trinity, has been breathed upon us, to be our help, our teacher, our guide. To renew us. To renew the face of the earth. (Psalm 104:30) I love the verse in this poem that says, "The soul that walks where the wind of the Spirit blows turns like a wandering weather-vane toward love." So powerful. Reflect, for a moment, upon the soul as a "wandering weather-vane". Are we "lean[ing] to catch the stirring of the spirit", or are we letting other outside influences permeate our souls. To whom are we listening? In this day and age we have media thrown at us from ever which way...television, cell phones, the Internet, Facebook, blogs, twitter, online news sources, the latest polls and the like, celebrities, TV news, magazines, radio commentary, the list goes on and on and on. These tools - which certainly help form our opinions about everything from what brand of mayonaisse one should buy to how one defines him or herself as a person - are merely that. Tools. To whom are we really truly listening? Are we always walking where the Spirit blows, or are we walking the road of public opinion? Whatever the majority says, then okey-dokey. Sign me up. Heaven forbid I think for myself, or listen with the "ears" of my soul. And I'm not trying to come across as preachy, I struggle with these questions, these influences, this search - day in and day out just the same. Life is a journey. Linear it is not. Ever. For every high mountain we ascend, there is promised a valley below. But God gives us those valleys, those areas of green pastures and days free of turmoil, not so we can become complacent, but so we can gather strength for the journey, for heaven knows another mountain is bound to appear on our horizon. Have we done well to gather the strength to climb it, or have we sat comfortably enjoying the time of greener pastures meanwhile letting our convictions and beliefs slowly slip from our grasp? I think complacency and luke-warmness are a huge reason why we are failing as a society, and when I see this same attitude creep into the Church, it saddens me deeply. God didn't send us His Spirit so we could just hang out during life and enjoy the ride. When Jesus promised us the Spirit, He said, "But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, throughout Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth." (Acts 1:8) Are we really living that call? Really?? Each and everyone of us??! Are we living in this Spirit by being His witnesses not only in our homes and our families and our churches, but to the ends of the earth? Are we allowing the Spirit to permeate our very lives? To blow us evermore towards Love? This "witnessing" of which Jesus speaks is the polar opposite of the luke-warmness that plagues our society today. The "anything goes" approach. The moral relativism that is being taught to our children, and propagated by the godless society in which we live. As Catholics, yes, we are called to be in the world, but not of the world. And we can do this, but not without the help of this Spirit who was long prophesied, who was sent to us by a gracious and loving God at Pentecost.

May this spirit of Love, of Peace, of Truth, breathe upon us, and may we all, as wandering weather-vanes, ever surge Godward towards He who is Love.

The Dark Night

Our priest shared this poem today, by St. John of the Cross, and I thought it was very appropriate for this Lenten season, and wanted to share.

THE DARK NIGHT
One dark night,
fired with love's urgent longings
- ah, the sheer grace! -
I went out unseen,
my house being now all stilled.

In darkness, and secure,
by the secret ladder, disguised,
- ah, the sheer grace! -
in darkness and concealment,
my house being now all stilled.

On that glad night,
in secret, for no one saw me,
nor did I look at anything,
with no other light or guide
than the one that burned in my heart.

This guided me
more surely than the light of noon
to where he was awaiting me
- him I knew so well -
there in a place where no one appeared.

O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that has united
the Lover with his beloved,
transforming the beloved in her Lover.

Upon my flowering breast
which I kept wholly for him alone,
there he lay sleeping,
and I caressing him
there in a breeze from the fanning cedars.

When the breeze blew from the turret,
as I parted his hair,
it wounded my neck
with its gentle hand,
suspending all my senses.

I abandoned and forgot myself,
laying my face on my Beloved;
all things ceased;
I went out from myself,
leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.

I think this poem speaks that it is in times of darkness (hardship, sadness, difficulty) that we truly recognize our need for a God, our need for a Savior. It is very easy to get "comfortable" and just kind of roll along with life, especially when things are going well. The Lenten season, I believe, is the Church's gift of "darkness" to us. A time for each of us to renew and re-recognize within ourselves our need for God. The recognition that without Him we have nothing. Without Him we are nothing. Without Him - the eternal Light in our lives of darkness - our existence would be sheer futility. As said by Jessica Powers (Sr. Miriam of the Holy Spirit) in her poem entitled "The Mercy of God", "...I came forth from nothing and ever toward nothingness tend, that the works of my hands are a foolishness wrought in the presence of the worthiest king in a kingdom that never shall end...I have naught but my will seeking God; even love burning in me is a fragment of infinite loving and never my own. And I fear God no more; I go forward to wander forever in a wilderness made of His infinite mercy alone."

I wish you all light.
BLESSINGS!