16 Words

William Carlos Williams
& "The Red Wheelbarrow"

Schwartz & Wade
(pub. 9.24.2019) 
 40 pages

A True Tale with

A Cherry On Top   

A uthor: Lisa Roger
      and illustrator:  Chuck Groenink

 
C haracter: William Carlos Williams

O verview: 
     "A wheelbarrow.
      A drizzle of rain.
      Chickens scratching in the damp earth.

Open this oh-so-simple picture book and discover how William Carlos Williams turned the everyday things he saw outside a window into his greatest poem."

T antalizing taste: 
     "Dr. Williams depends on his doctor's bag to carry the tools he needs.
     Along with his stethoscope and syringes, he carries a pen. A pen for writing prescriptions. A pen for crafting poems.
     Writing poems brings Dr. Williams joy, and he fits in his writing around his doctoring...
     He writes about trees, a fire engine, cats, and plums.
     He chooses the words for his poetry as carefully as he examines his patients."

And something more: The Author's Note explains that "as a young man, Williams had wanted to be an athlete, but he collapsed after a high school race  and was found to have a heart condition. He was despondent. 'Like a bolt out of the blue,' his first poem came to him:

     A black, black cloud
     flew over the sun
     driven by fierce flying
     rain.

He felt such happiness that 'from that moment I was a poet.'"