Perry
Nodelman claims in The Pleasures of
Children that "Many children first experience the pleasures of
literature in the form of poems: rhyming songs or nursery rhymes like [Humpty
Dumpty], recited to them long before they themselves can speak or even
understand much language (193). Nodelman goes on to say that what poems like
"Humpty Dumpty" means is less important "than how it says what
it means" (194). JonArno Lawson, a Canadian/American citizen living in Toronto
with his family, writes poetry for both children and adults. “Lawson is a
four-time winner of the Lion and Unicorn Award for Excellence in North American
Children’s Poetry” (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poets/jonarno-lawson).
He’s the author of more ten collections of poetry including, Black Stars in a White Night Sky (2008),
A Voweller’s Bestiary (2008), and Down in the Bottom of the Bottom of the Box
(2012). So many of us enjoy JonArno Lawson's work because he is a master of
word play. Lawson confesses in "A Talk from the Bottom of the Box:
Reflections of an Award-winning Poet for Youth" that his "father sang
songs a lot of folk songs and songs that had word play in them"
(https://youtu.be/F-PyU8HymAk 1:57-2:04). This reinforces Nodelman's point that
wordplay not meaning is what makes " ... poems originally intended for
adults that editors of collections of poetry thought might interest young
readers" so enjoyable (193). Whether the words are read or sang, word play
encourages playful thinking.
While we
can easily point to the didactic nature of "Daniel in the Lions'
Den," the pleasure derived from laughing at a mother lion chastising her
cub and encouraging it to wait for a less "scrawny kid" to eat is way
more fun to talk about for his audience regardless of age (9). The playful
reimagining of the Biblical parable may make die hard Christians shiver at the
notion of rewriting such a closely regarded story, but it is harmless fun for
everyone else. What’s more fun is the "People Through the Peephole"
poem (I absolutely just typed People Through the People and had to correct it)
with its playful rearranging of the pieces of compound words (9). The rhythm
along with the ē and ō rhyme makes the poem fun to say or sing if you are
feeling kind of folksy.
Similarly,
there is a catchy musicality that comes with the experience Lawson's poetry whether the
audience reads it to themselves or aloud. In "Convincing Contradictions,"
the additional echo produced by highlighting the musical nature of the work is lightheartedly fascinating. There
is the resounding -tions: “Unpredictable predictions./ Hospitable evictions. .
. .” and the invasive -osity: “Tight-fisted generosity./ Indifferent curiosity.
. . .” (23). On top of all that cleverness there is a neat little line drawn
between the antonyms on every line from beginning to end.
Another piece in the collection, "Greenblatt,
Goldblatt, Grenby, Grinch" may sound like the name of a cliquish law firm
with a not so fun partner, but it too is a poem that recycles syllables for the
sake of a poem that a child could easily jump rope to: "Obadiah would you
try a little bitta jumbalaya?" (27).
The 'blatt' is repeated in the first two words of the first line of the
poem while the 'Gre' in the first word is not repeated until the last two words
of the line. And if your tongue isn't already tied up, then the second line
won't hurt you much with the 'sc' and 'yard' from the first word being repeated
in the second word and the 'inch' from the third word being carried over to the
fourth. The catchy tune in the entire poem made me want to break out the jump
rope for a trip down memory lane.
All in
all, Jon Arno Lawson did it again.
JonArno
Lawson’s work can be found at the following presses:
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