Poetry, "Pieces"

        

            Pieces, by Anna Grossnickle Hines, is an interesting collection of poems.  It contains many poems “piecing” together the seasons of the year and the seasons of life.  The poems themselves are excellent to both read and listen to, but like all great poems one learns a great deal from also looking at the page and not just hearing the words.  The words are laid out in unique patterns making great use of enjambment.  The layout of the poems often relates to the picture of the quilt with the poem.  Pieces, is a collection of poems relating to quilts.  However, this collection is not reserved for the young at heart quilters, the poems have great messages that can be related to quilts, but also use the imagery of quilts to extend the meaning of the poems.  While a quilter may find greater pleasure and meaning from the collection, all will benefit from reading it.

                The images on each page are of different types of quilts that correspond the meaning of the poem.  Along with different types of poems, there are also different types of quilts showcased on each page that may be of great interest to those involved in quilting.  But once again, while knowing the type of quilt would be interesting and beneficial, just seeing the differences between the images on each page gives greater meaning to the poems.  The images are excellent and are so clear that it seems as if you are reading literally from a quilt.  One of the greatest things about this collection is how it combines writing, quilting, and seasons to create poetry that makes use of all the senses.  The images of the quilts “pieced” together give great imagery to the seasons piecing together to make the year, or the seasons of life “piecing” together to make a person’s lifetime.  The illustrations would not add this element to the text if they were not so realistic.  Reading this collection feels as if you are reading text over a quilt in your lap.  The illustrations greatly extend the text and give more imagery and meaning to the text itself.

                One of my favorite poems from Hines collection is “To Each His Own” which uses the image of different leaves to connect to diversity.  Not only does this poem have great meaning, the word choice is excellent and is just fun to both read and listen to, “Some [leaves] flutter, skuttering, whuttering, audibly uttering whispers of sound.”  While these poems are great to expose elementary students to imagery, similes, metaphors, and other poetry tools, they are also very fun to study.