The Mistakes that Made Us: Confessions from Twenty Poets

Poetry Friday People,

A tremendous benefit of attending a Highlights Foundation Workshop is meeting with rich learning and teaching of a cohort of poets and faculty.

I'm fortunate to have had time to spend with Tracy Kiff-Judson, Marcie Flinchum Atkins and many poets I didn't know before. The cross-pollination of ideas between us was tremendous and fun and inspirational. Getting one-on-one writing conversations with faculty Irene Latham and Charles Waters? Invaluable! 

Just me hanging out with Charles Waters at Highlights '24

While at Highlights, I saw an early version of The Mistakes That Made Us: Confessions from Twenty Poets. Poems were selected by Irene Latham and Charles Waters (Carolrhoda Books. October 1, 2024).

Poets, this anthology is more than simply beautiful. Rock-star contributors: Latham, Waters, Shihab-Nye, Engle, Wolf, Florian, Park, Yolen  as well as Poetry Friday friends: Tabatha Yeatts, April Wayland, Matt Forest Essenwine made this collection a unique work of art. Illustrations by Merce Lopez brought all the mistake moments together in a bright and whimsical color palette. Her artwork makes the mistakes human and approachable for readers.

I was specifically challenged at Highlights to consider not just the poems I've been writing for years but the structure of how poems might fit into a collection. This is an art form in itself.  The Mistakes that Made Us provides a beautiful example of structure for readers (age 7 to 97). Take a look at this from the table of contents--

Oopsie-Daisy

Stuff Happens

Blessings in Disguise

What Have I Done?

I love the real-talk structure of this anthology's sections. 

As I read the book with my middle school librarian's hat, I am delighted. These poems are perfect to support kid-understanding that they are not alone. There other humans who understand how they must be feeling. This is vital to our work as educators.

Doug Florian's poem, My Favorite Mistake, is already a strong contender for Poetry Pandemonium '25 that I provide annually for my students. 

The Mistakes that Made Us. Carolrhoda Books 2024,

This Mistakes that Made Us debuts on October 1st and is available for pre-order right now. I can't wait for more members of our community get their hands on this book. It's great inspiration for future writing. I look forward to whatever anthology Irene and Charles build. I've got an order for the book in to my public library with instructions to check it out to me first!

Thanks to our Friend Linda Baie at Teacher Dance for hosting our round-up this week. 

I've added another WORLD poem to the padlet. 

a note tucked into my 2024 WORLD journal from 'Poetry & Poetry Anthologies'
Highlights June '24