how i discovered poetry by marilyn nelson

The darkest eyes in the room brim: The next day Purdy and I wandered lonely as clouds borneīy a breeze off Mount Parnassus. Purdy read from her desk.Īll the other kids zoned an hour ahead to 3:15,īut Mrs. It was like soul-kissing, the way the wordsįilled my mouth as Mrs. Nelson is a professor emerita of English at the University of Connecticut was founder/director and host of Soul Mountain Retreat, a small non-profit writers' colony (2004-2010) and held the office of Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut from 2001-2006. Contemplative Practices Fellowship, the Department of the Army's Commander's Award for Public Service, and a fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. Her honors include two NEA creative writing fellowships, the 1990 Connecticut Arts Award, an A.C.L.S. Printz Honor Book, and a 2006 Lee Bennett Hopkins Poetry Award Honor Book. Her young adult book, A Wreath For Emmett Till, also won the 2005 Boston Globe–Horn Book Award and was also designated a 2006 Coretta Scott King Honor Book, a 2006 Michael L. It was also a National Book Award finalist, and was designated as both a Newbery Honor Book and a Coretta Scott King Honor Book. Her numerous children's books include, Carver: A Life in Poems (2001 ) which received the Flora Stieglitz Straus Award and the Boston Globe/Horn Book Award. She is the author or translator of fourteen books, including The Homeplace(1990) and The Fields of Praise: New and Selected Poems (1997), both of which were finalists for the National Book Award. Marilyn Nelson was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on April, 26, 1946. (Jan.The Poetry Society of America is honored to announce that Marilyn Nelson is the 2012 recipient of the organization's highest award, the Frost Medal, presented annually for 'distinguished lifetime achievement in poetry.' Previous winners of this award include Wallace Stevens, Gwendolyn Brooks, Allen Ginsberg, Marianne Moore, and Charles Simic, who was the 2011 recipient.

Purdy and I wandered lonely as clouds borne/ by a breeze off Mount Parnassus.” An intimate perspective on a tumultuous era and an homage to the power of language. Purdy read from her desk./ All the other kids zoned an hour ahead to 3:15,/ but Mrs. Nelson’s introduction to poetry reads like falling in love: “It was like soul-kissing, the way the words/ filled my mouth as Mrs. The political and social climate of the 1950s infuses the poems through references to bomb drills at school (“Everybody’s motto is Be Prepared,/ so we practice tragic catastrophes”), the Red Scare, the death of Emmett Till, and the stirrings of the civil rights movement.

Complemented by muted screen print–like illustrations, Nelson’s 50 poems are composed of raw reflections on formative events, including her development as a reader and writer.

Nelson crafts a stirring autobiography in verse, focusing on her childhood in the 1950s, when her family frequently moved between military bases.

How i discovered poetry by marilyn nelson