Nonfiction Poetry

Heidi E.Y. Stemple

Jane and Heidi

When I sat down to write this blog post, I heard a crash. I mean a huge crash. I jumped up and ran towards the noise. My mom had tripped over the tea cart in her pantry and took an epic tumble. There was much excitement after that, too many details to name here, including an ambulance, x-rays, then CT scan, MRI, a diagnosis of a broken hip and surgery.

Also, amazing nurses, doctors, and physical therapists (and one anesthesiologist who was a real jerk). Needless to say, I was late to write this.

But, you know what is amazing about writing? Most of us do it in the small spaces—the coffee shop while our child is at dance class or soccer practice, the wee hours of morning while our family is asleep, and even in the room next to where a parent is recovering from hip surgery. This got me thinking, story consumption can be like that. We may not have time to read a novel, or even a short book, but poetry can be enjoyed in those small spaces—in the interstices.

A Nonfiction Poem Explaining My Week

My mom lost a battle  

of foot vs. cart.

It busted the top of her

hip bone apart.

Images showed,

and doctors confirmed,

this would be keeping her

(for a while) infirmed.

Three pins now attach

Her long bone and ball.

It’s much stronger now

than before the fall.

She’s home now and healing,

I’m hovering nearby.

I’m not a great nursemaid.

(I can’t tell a lie.)

But, I’m here within earshot,

computer on lap,

writing this blog

while she takes a nap.

OK—that is a (not particularly good) first draft. It needs a ton of revision, but, sometimes writing a poem can help me focus on what I am preparing to write—in this case, this blog post.  So, here goes.

Nonfiction poetry can be a fun or poignant or thought-provoking way to tell a story or impart information. It’s a language puzzle—what to put in, what to leave out, how can you say a lot in the fewest lines or words or syllables. What words can you use that are most evocative or have several meanings? How can you play with that language while keeping the facts intact? I love nonfiction poetry—both writing it and reading it.

These days, more nonfiction poetry is being published. Conventional wisdom is often “poetry doesn’t sell.” But, I don’t believe that. It’s obviously not the biggest part of the market, but it does, in fact, sell.  So, if you are looking into a nonfiction project, why not give it a try?

There are two ways to write your nonfiction project in poetry: either as a collection of poems, or as one long poem. Let’s look quickly at the latter, first. Much of nonfiction is written in straightforward text. But, there are some really special books that move away from that and tell the same story with more rhythm and lyrical meters. One of my favorites is Before John Was a Jazz Giant by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Sean Qualls. In reality, this entire post could just say “read anything by Weatherford, since she is masterful in lyrical nonfiction.”

But, let’s jump into this text in particular. It makes the most of sound words—each page is packed with them--evoking the world as young John Coltrain experienced it. If you read this text without page turns, you can see that it is a poem. Look, though, at how much information is there, in those 164 words. Yes—164 words. Here are some of the verbs: crooning, whistling, giggling, strumming, cranking, warbling. So much information in those words—so much emotion, and movement, and sensation.

One thing I do when I’m preparing to write a nonfiction poem is to brainstorm words. As I research the subject, I jot down any interesting word or phrase I find. Recently, while writing a poem about a stingray, my word/phrase list included: prey, shark’s cousin, teeth underneath, mollusk, x-ray. Sometimes a word or phrase will send me off in a direction I hadn’t intended. Not all words on my list make it into the poem, but they often inform how a poem takes shape.

Let’s move on to collections. Poetry collections (both fiction and nonfiction) are all about the subject/theme, and balance/organization. Are you writing a science collection? Or one about a single moment in history, or one subject across different locations or times? A person? A group of people? How will you organize the poems and the page? Many nonfiction poetry collections include supplemental information either in back matter or marginalia. Will your poems all be silly, rhymed, lyrical, or cover many different classical types of poems?

Here are some anthologies and some collections—the difference being a collection is by a single author, an anthology is chosen from various authors--that I think are shining examples of nonfiction poetry:

Ubiquitous: Celebrating Nature’s Survivors by Joyce Sidman, illustrated by Beckie Prange

Opening with a diamante, this science-based collection has supplemental information right on the page with the poem. The poems are as varied as the subjects (scarab, lichen, grass, coyote) and are filled with information.

Traveling the Blue Road: Poems of the Sea collected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, illustrated by Bob Hansman & Jovan Hansman

This anthology (many poets) takes on the subject of sea travel throughout the ages. Look at the way it is grouped around one subject but looks from different angles and perspectives throughout history.

Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer: Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement by Carole Boston Weatherford, illustrated by Ekua Homes

This collection moves through time as the reader follows Fannie Lou Hamer’s life. The poems are powerful and, though lyrical, more of a straight line, arc-wise.

Comets, Stars, the Moon, and Mars by Douglas Florian

This collection is all about those things floating around in space (including us, in our own “space”). I love the fun word play that makes this collection a perfect introduction to astronomy as opposed to deeper information poems like many others on this list.

Bravo! Poems About Amazing Hispanics by Margarita Engle, illustrated by Rafael López 

This collection about ordinary (and amazing) Hispanic people shows the diversity of experience across their culture. The language is open, accessible, and focused.

Shaking Things Up: 14 Young Women Who Changed the World by Susan Hood, illustrated by 13 Extraordinary Women

I desperately wish I wrote this book. I love the poetry, each about a woman, some famous, others forgotten, who did amazing things. The poems, the art, the language, and the subjects are diverse and wonderful. Read it with an eye to the different forms and structures of the poems themselves.

Finally, I offer up Eek You Reek: Poems About Animals That Stink, Stank, Stunk by Jane Yolen and Heidi E.Y. Stemple (that’s me!), illustrated by Eugenia Nobati. We tried to make sure this book was balanced in terms of animals as well as the reasons they stink. From birds, to insects, to mammals and marsupials, they use odors for protection, attraction, and digestion. The language, from opening poem to the back matter, is tongue in cheek. So we had our subject/theme: stinky animals and humor/rhyme and we were careful to have a good balance and organization throughout.

Start there! Once you’ve read through some of these mentor texts, find a subject and start researching. Can your story be told in poetry? What will you gain and how will you work to not lose any important information? Can you be silly or lyrical? Or break your lines for the read aloud but still keep in the full story? Make a list of words and follow threads that you might have missed if you were writing straight prose. Play. I’m excited to see what you come up with.

OK. You go write. I’ve got to go check on my mom.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Heidi didn’t want to be a writer when she grew up. In fact, after she graduated from college, she became a probation officer in Florida. It wasn’t until she was 28 years old that she gave in and joined the family business, publishing her first short story in a book called Famous Writers and Their Kids Write Spooky Stories. The famous writer was her mom, author Jane Yolen. She writes mostly for children and her books include Counting Birds, Fly With Me, Bad Girls, You Nest Here With Me, and Eek, You Reek! She has just sold her 29th book.

Heidi lives and writes on a big old farm in Massachusetts that she shares with a couple of cats who live inside, and a dozen deer, a family of bears, three coyotes, two bobcats, a gray fox, tons of birds, and some very fat groundhogs who live outside.

In case you are worried, her mother is recovering quite well.

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