Departments : A Poetry Workshop in Print :
Aileen Fisher
By Lee Bennett Hopkins
Aileen Fisher is the first "Poet of the Month" we'll take a closer look at this year
This year, "A Poetry Workshop in Print" will feature a Poet of the Month and provide information on poets to share with your students. Each column will feature biographical information, quotations from the poet and a selection of his or her books. Your bulletin board can feature biographical facts along with several of the poet's poems printed on oaktag charts. If possible, always try to include a photograph of the poet. A tabletop display can have both original collections of the poet's work as well as anthologies in which his or her work is included. Each day, a selection or two from the books can be read aloud or dramatized by students. Within eight months, your students will learn about more poets than most people will come to know in a lifetime.
Aileen Fisher (1906- 2002)
Fisher was born on September 9, 1906 in Iron River, MI, the second child of a middle-aged businessman and a young kindergarten teacher. Her early years were spent engaging in outdoor activities with her brother – skating, swimming, observing and exploring the wonders of nature.
"Ideas for poems lie all around us…In the city as well as in the country, poems are waiting to be discovered. Who knows…perhaps you are living a poem right now which some day you will put down on paper."
After finishing college in 1927, she worked at a number of odd jobs. Her first poem appeared that same year in Child Life magazine. From 1927-1932, she lived in Chicago, IL. In 1932, she moved to Colorado where she lived the rest of her life.
Her first book of poetry, The Coffee-Pot Face, appeared in 1933. From then on, a steady stream of titles followed. In 1978, she received the National Council of Teachers of English Excellence in Children's Poetry Award, an honor presented to a poet for his or her aggregate body of work. Fisher continued to write until she died at age 96.
Recommended books
I Heard a Bluebird Sing (Boyds Mills Press, 2003). Divided into five sections, this Fisher treasury contains 41 poems selected by children from across the country. Each section is prefaced with comments by the poet. A comprehensive bibliography of "Selected Works" is appended.
Sing of the Earth and Sky: Poems About Our Planets and the Wonders Beyond (Boyds Mills Press, 2001). Thirty-seven poems are divided into four sections – "Earth," "Moon," "Sun" and "Stars."
Lee Bennett Hopkins is a distinguished poet and anthologist. Recent collections include Hanukkah Lights and Christmas Presents (HarperCollins, 2004).
