Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Concrete, Visual or Shape Poetry Books for Young People

In concrete poetry (also known as visual poetry or shape poetry) the words of the poems are laid out on the page to suggest the subject of the poem. Children typically enjoy concrete poetry and take pleasure in the poet’s creative use of the physical shape of the poem to convey meaning. It’s a poetic form they like imitating and experimenting with, too. Here are a few examples of some of the poetry books that contain this fascinating form.

The list begins:

Florian, Douglas. 2003. Bow Wow Meow Meow: it’s Rhyming Cats and Dogs. San Diego: Harcourt.

Franco, Betsy. 2011. A Dazzling Display of Dogs. Ill. by Michael Wertz. San Francisco, CA: Tricycle.

George, Kristine O’Connell. 2001. Toasting Marshmallows: Camping Poems. New York: Clarion.

Graham, Joan Bransfield. 1999. Flicker Flash. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Grandits, John. 2007. Blue Lipstick: Concrete Poems. New York: Clarion.


For more details, get your copy of The Poetry Teacher’s Book of Lists.
And if you already have the book and would like to offer additions, corrections, or other input, please do so in the COMMENTS area. Thanks!

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