Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Poets on Poetry: RALPH FLETCHER



In celebration of National Poetry Month, I will be sharing in each post during April a favorite quote from a favorite poet on poetry. Enjoy!

"If you want to write poetry, you must have poems that deeply move you. Poems you cannot live without. I think of a poem as the blood in a blood transfusion given from the heart of the poet to the heart of the reader. Seek after poems that live inside you, poems that move through your veins." - Ralph Fletcher

Quote found in POETRY FROM A to Z by Paul B. Janeczko.

4 comments:

  1. I've missed a few, but couldn't resist Ralph Fletcher, Irene. His books have been a mainstay for me to savor and to share with students! Thanks for the treasured words!

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  2. I love how poetry can take so many forms and ideas and themes etc. I read Ralph's book "Poetry Matters" many years after I found success using my own way of teaching poetry, though I do know all my past reading and listening to Don Graves and Nancie Atwell and Lucy Calkins and Georgia Heard had to have gotten into my core. And I found that Ralph was focusing on things I used and believed in. So happy and validated. While I enjoy humorous poems, I also love haiku, cinquain and thoughtful poems, poems that grab your heart. I love artful poem,s rhyming, free verse and more. I love word play and list poems. I am glad to know that you use his ideas in your teaching, too.

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  3. Enjoying your series, Irene - and I'm another fan of Ralph Fletcher's books. Thanks!

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