Love the concept. I do want to look for the companion book, [b:Water Music|228390|Water Music|Jane Yolen|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1347741748s/228390.jpg|221184], and I do recommend this to art and reading teachers and their students. My personal enjoyment was somehow only a three-star, though.... I think because poems that were insightful & powerful were shuffled in with light verse, and the organization was incoherent so the emotional tension was absent.

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I do appreciate Bill Yake's word-play in:

_*Cold Snap*_

Fall cold
snaps closed
winter springs.

Winter springs
leave fall's
leaves frozen.

Winter spans
frozen falls,
frozen springs.

Falling forward,
spring snaps
winter open.

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Too long to quote in its entirety is _*Ice Sisters*_, about girls skating Spy Pond, by Pamela Powell, but there are some great lines in it, for example:

... the ice
boomed beneath us, cracking in long, sharp,
sudden cracks that startled us out of our
bright, gliding stupor. ( )

- Yolen, Jane. (Ed.) Once Upon Ice: And Other Frozen Poems. Illus. by Jason Stemple. Honesdale, PA; Wordsong/Boyds Mills Press. 1997. 40 pp. Primary.

This anthology stems from various poets reacting to a series of ice photographs from Jason Stemple. The photos evoke various responses and feelings. Various modes of poetry and topics were able to be covered with the muse of ice.

AK Context: I recognized many of the poets as Alaskan authors, which helps connect an Alaskan mindset with the ice, if such a thing exists. I think many Alaskans see different meanings in ice and can read ice (Ann Dixon, Carol Reed-Jones). Not all the poets are from Alaska, or the Northwest, but all Alaskans have some understanding of ice and should be able to enjoy some poetry about it.

Activity: Reading this story during winter would foster a great opportunity for students to explore poetry with the inspiration of ice! Even in another season, the natural landscape could become a muse. Ask students to take a picture of something (decide as a class what should the target be – like leaves in fall, flowers in summer, or anything in spring), create a poem, and share as a class. Notice all the different ways a person can interpret a scene and create something unique from it. It might also be a more inspirational idea to not have everyone creates a poem on the same topic. It depends on if you want to foster creativity or express individuality.

Keywords: Alaska, Ice, poetry, anthology, inspiration, muse, photography, picture book

Reading these poems gave me chills for more reasons than one! First of all, the photographs of the ice formations are breath-taking. In addition, I truly enjoyed the variety of poems written by the different poets who were obviously just as inspired by the photos as I was. I loved this collection and am looking forward to reading more of Jane Yolen's anthologies. ( )

This is a collection of poems that were all inspired by photographs of ice by Jason Stemple. The abstractity of the photos lends to a wide variety of topics and poetry styles, all in some way related to ice. It is quite interesting.

A book that comes from beginner poets and from well known poets. The author notes gives leeway for students and encourages them to be creative and write their own poems. ( )