Fare Thee Well, April

Well, National Poetry Month is drawing to a close. For our final poetry offering, we present a poem with local, as well as national, significance.

Kansas

by Nicholas Vachel Lindsey

O, I have walked in Kansas
Through many a harvest field
And piled the sheaves of glory there
And down the wild rows reeled;

Each sheaf a little yellow sun,
A heap of hot-rayed gold;
Each binder like Creation's hand
To mold suns, as of old.

Straight overhead the orb of noon
Beat down with brimstone breath;
The desert wind from south and west
Was blistering flame and death.

Yet it was gay in Kansas,
A-fighting that strong sun;
And I and many a fellow-tramp
Defied that wind and won.

And we felt free in Kansas
From any sort of fear,
For thirty thousand tramps like us
There harvest every year.

She stretches arms for them to come,
She roars for helpers then,
And so it is in Kansas
That tramps, one month, are men.

We sang in burning Kansas
The songs of Sabbath-school,
The "Day-Star" flashing in the East,
The "Vale of Eden" cool.

We sang in splendid Kansas
"The flag that set us free" --
That march of fifty thousand men
With Sherman to the sea.

We feasted high in Kansas
And had much milk and meat.
The tables groaned to give us power
Wherewith to save the wheat.

Our beds were sweet alfalfa hay
Within the barn-loft wide.
The loft doors opened out upon
The endless wheat-field tide.

I loved to watch the windmills spin
And watch that big moon rise.
I dreamed and dreamed with lids half-shut,
The moonlight in my eyes.

For all men dream in Kansas,
By noonday and by night,
By sunrise yellow, red and wild,
And moonrise wild and white.

The wind would drive the glittering clouds,
The cottonwoods would croon,
And past the sheaves and through the leaves
Came whispers from the moon.

Building a Better Mousetrap

This past Friday, the Gardner Library offered a fun program for homeschoolers based on the inventions of Rube Goldberg.

Who's Rube Goldberg? Oh, I'm glad you asked!

Rube Goldberg was a prolific and wildly inventive cartoonist in the earlier part of the 20th century. Although he produced a number of comic strips and political cartoons, he's most remembered for his brilliantly convoluted mechanisms, designed to make the simplest of tasks extremely complicated. (For example, check out his "Simplified Pencil Sharpener.")

For Friday's program, Gardner's Melissa and Cassie read Lights Out by Arthur Geisert and talked about simple machines with the children in attendance. Then they led the children in working together as a team to create a Rube Goldbergesque machine that would turn the pages of a book. Each participant got to leave with a hand-drawn picture of the invention and a description of what would happen at each step.

The Post-Party Wrap-Up

Last night's elementia reception was a smashing success! The Carmack Community Room was beautifully decorated with Asian art and crafts (in keeping with the theme of The Big Read), good food was served, and the teens showed off their art and read their written works. The new JoCoTeenScene Web site has received great response, too. A good time was had by all, as can be seen in the pictures:

It's a Whole New Scene

We’ve waited a long time for April 26 to get here. We’ve had meetings about it, created fliers, told all our friends, family members and perfect strangers about it, and I’m sure some of us at the Library have even dreamed about it. At 7 p.m. at the Central Resource Library, two major events will happen: the reception for the release of the fourth volume of elementia will commence, and the new Web site just for teens, www.jocoteenscene.org, will have its official launch.

The new Web site is very interactive. Teens can submit their poetry and book reviews online as well as comment on everyone else’s online postings. They can even choose a “skin” for the Web site that best represents their mood. The skin themes include a splashy orange theme, a groovy 1960s theme, a sports theme, a gothic theme and a jungle theme (with monkeys!). In addition, all the booklists created by Youth Services staff are in the process of being updated. New booklists will be added to the Web site each week, and yes, teens can post comments on those, too. Finally, an instant message window is available on all of the JoCoTeen Scene pages so that those using the Web site can ask a librarian questions during library hours without leaving their computer.

We're very proud of the new site, so please take a moment to check it out. If you have questions, a feedback form is available at the bottom of the JoCoTeenScene Web site.

Teen Literature Day

I have a confession to make: I think a lot of teen/young adult books are some of the best reading out there these days. There have been great books for teens for a long time, but lately, it seems like the pickings have gotten particularly good. There's a tremendous variety of topics, styles, reading levels, genres--there really is something for everyone (even us cranky grown-ups).

So I'm pleased as punch to announce that today, as part of National Library Week, is the first ever Support Teen Literature Day! You can check out the official Web page for ideas on how to help support teen lit. If you teach or work with teens, if you have teen children or grandchildren (or nieces and nephews), or if you just want to help support teen literature in some way, today's a good day to really get involved in teens and their literature! And if you haven't read any teen/young adult books lately, why not check one out today?

"Nothing can be said to be certain, except..."

If you're rushing to get your taxes done before the deadline, you can relax a little bit, because the federal and state deadlines have been extended until tomorrow, April 17. (That's for Kansas and Missouri, at least. If you're filing in another state, you'll want to check this Web page to see the filing deadlines for all fifty states.)

Now that we've covered the "taxes" portion of this post, let's move along to...a poem about death:

"Because I could not stop for Death"

by Emily Dickinson

Because I could not stop for Death,
He kindly stopped for me;
The carriage held but just ourselves
And Immortality.

We slowly drove, he knew no haste,
And I had put away
My labor, and my leisure too,
For his civility.

We passed the school where children played
At wrestling in a ring;
We passed the fields of gazing grain,
We passed the setting sun.

We paused before a house that seemed
A swelling of the ground;
The roof was scarcely visible,
The cornice but a mound.

Since then ’t is centuries; but each
Feels shorter than the day
I first surmised the horses’ heads
Were toward eternity.

It's All About the Love

National Library Week begins today!

I'm sure everyone reading this blog celebrates their library throughout the year, even if it's just by taking advantage of and appreciating all the resources your library offers. National Library Week, however, gives you the opportunity to make a show of how much you love your library, and it give us the opportunity to make a show of how much we appreciate our patrons. It's like a week-long group hug.

One way to show your library love is to make a bookmark for your library. All through April, the Johnson County Library and the Friends of the Library are having a bookmark contest. You can design your own bookmark, and the winners will have their entries made into real library bookmarks! Want more information? Check out the official bookmark contest page.

Another way to show your library love is to make a comment here on this blog. Tell everyone what it is about the Johnson County Library that you love so much.

Here's one of the many things I love about JCL: free books for kids. Yes, that's pretty obvious, but I think it still deserves recognition. My daughter is a voracious reader of all kinds of books, and it's so great that I can bring her to the library to check out books about dinosaurs, science experiments, magic tricks and dragons (to name just a few of the things she loves to read about).

What do you love about your library?

The Power of Poetry: Johnson County “Library Ladies” in the News

National Poetry Month isn’t just an academic exercise or something only English majors can appreciate. Poetry is real people, real emotions, and real power.

For almost ten years Johnson County Librarians Kathy McLellan and Tricia Suellentrop have visited young adults at the Johnson County Juvenile Detention Center, delivering books, discussing stories, and encouraging teens to wield their power and explore their feelings through writing. Kathy and Tricia have been dubbed the “Library Ladies” by the youths at JDC.

Check out today’s KC Star article about Kathy, Tricia, and the young adults they care about, in “Poetry blooms in detention.”

Through the Looking-Glass

Your poetry offering for today is one of the greatest "nonsense" poems in the English language, guaranteed to baffle your computer's spell checker. Without further ado, here is...

Jabberwocky

by Lewis Carroll

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

'Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!'

He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought--
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.

And as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!

One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.

'And hast thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.

'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.

A Not-So-Quiet Night With the Big Read

Last night, the Library, along with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, kicked off The Big Read with a reception that was quite the success. Around 140 people showed up for Asian food, music and ancient costumes. Even if you couldn't make it for the reception, you can still come to the Central Resource Library and see the beautiful floral arrangement that was put on display for the program. (If you can't make it to Central, that's a picture of the arrangement up above, but the picture only begins to capture the beauty.) There will also be programs for The Big Read throughout April and May, which we're all very excited about. You can find out more on our Web page for The Big Read.

Because we'll be exploring and celebrating Asian culture, literature, art and history with The Big Read, today's National Poetry Month offering is from the legendary T'ang Dynasty poet Li Bai (also known as Li Po, Li Bo and Li T'ai-po).

In the Quiet Night

by Li Bai

So bright a gleam on the foot of my bed—
Could there have been a frost already?
Lifting myself to look, I found that it was moonlight.
Sinking back again, I thought suddenly of home.

April Is the Coolest Month

Hi! My name is Josh, I'm the new Johnson County Library blogger, and I love April Fools' Day! It's a day to celebrate bad jokes, sneaky tricks, and clever pranks. How great is that?

If there's a problem with April Fools' Day, though, it's this: everyone is already expecting to be pranked. If the Johnson County Library were to announce today that all JCL branches except for the Central Resource Library were being permanently closed, nobody would believe it. If it were announced today that a new JCL branch was being built, named after Paul Rudd, star of Clueless and Anchorman (and graduate of Shawnee Mission West), nobody would believe it. Rightly so, because both of those announcements would be false. I can't lie to you, not even on a day like today. (I will, however, recommend you check out Google's new TiSP service. It looks like a good deal for high-speed Internet access.)

April is also National Poetry Month, so I'll be posting poems on this blog throughout the month. If you like one of the poems posted, leave a comment and let everyone know.

To kick off National Poetry Month, with a nod towards April Fools' Day foolishness, I present to you what may very well be the worst poem ever written in the English language:

A Tragedy

by Theophile Marzials

Death!
Plop.
The barges down in the river flop.
Flop, plop,
Above, beneath.
From the slimy branches the grey drips drop...
To the oozy waters, that lounge and flop...
And my head shrieks--"Stop"
And my heart shrieks--"Die."...

Ugh! yet I knew--I knew
If a woman is false can a friend by true?
It was only a lie from beginning to end--
My Devil--My "friend."...

So what do I care,
And my head is empty as air--
I can do,
I can dare
(Plop, plop
The barges flop
Drip, drop.)
I can dare, I can dare!
And let myself all run away with my head
And stop.
Drop
Dead.
Plop, flop,

* * *

Pretty bad, eh? Well, I promise the poems posted after today will be much better. I'm not fooling you.*

* Did you really think I was going to say, "I'm not joshing you"? There are some places I just won't go, even on April Fools' Day.