Author Marilyn Singer and her dog, Oggi, at home in Brooklyn FIREFLIES AT MIDNIGHT by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Ken Robbins, Atheneum 2003 THE COMPANY OF CROWS by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Linda Saport, Clarion 2002 FOOTPRINTS ON THE ROOF by Marilyn Singer, illustrated by Meilo So, Knopf 2002

TEN TIPS FROM A TOP NOTCH POET
by Marilyn Singer

Marilyn Singer is an instinctual poet; an artist who gently layers her thoughts onto the page, like Monet dabs paint from a pallet. So pleasing are her poetic pictures, she’s seen fourteen volumns published, not to mention many individual verses in collections and anthologies. 

Working with editors like the legendary Janet Schulmann (who also edited Dr. Seuss), Singer has come to fully understand what makes a children’s poem float, and what’s likely to send it crashing hard and flat. In these ten tips, she’ll attempt to guide your poetic journey – and better your odds of taking literary flight.

THE TIPS

1 Observe, observe, observe.  Use ALL of your senses.  Look at the big picture.  Look at the little picture.  Focus like a still camera.  Pan like a movie camera.  Then select the details you want.

2. Listen, listen, listen.  Develop an ear for musicality.   Play with different rhythms in your head, on your tongue.

3. Ask yourself if the poem has to be in rhyme.  Try it in free verse.  If it still screams rhyme, then maybe it should be in rhyme.

4. Have a thesaurus and a rhyming dictionary handy.  Use them.  Think about synonyms.  If one word doesn't work (especially in a rhyming poem), try another.

5. Keep sentence structure natural.  Don't use convoluted syntax to make your poem rhyme.

6. Strip away excess.  Read haikus to learn conciseness and strength.  Don't pad.  Watch out for weak words--"and," "very," etc.   Be a ruthless editor.

7. Humor, surprise, a twist at the end of the poem are often welcome--though not easy to write.  Be clever.

8. Clever is not always better than simple.  Simple is not the same as simplistic.

9. Know where you're going, what you want your poem ultimately to say.

10.  If you end up going someplace entirely different, that's okay, too

A Bibliography of Singer’s Poetic Works

Fireflies at Midnight (Atheneum, 2003).  Illustrated by Ken Robbins.
The Company of Crows (Clarion, 2002).  Illustrated by Linda Saport.
Footprints on the Roof: Poems About the Earth (Random House, 2002).  Illustrated by Meilo So.
Monster Museum (Hyperion, 2001).  Illustrated by Gris Grimly.
On the Same Day in March (HarperCollins, 2000).  Illustrated by Frane Lessac.
All We Needed to Say (Atheneum, 1996).  Photographs by Lorna Clark.
The Morgans Dream (Holt, 1995).  Illustrated by Gary Drake.
Please Don't Squeeze Your Boa, Noah! (Holt, 1995).  Illustrated by Clement Oubrerie.
Family Reunion (S&S/Macmillan, 1994).  Illustrated by R.W. Alley.
Sky Words (S&S/Macmillan, 1994).  Illustrated by Deborah Kogan Ray.
It's Hard to Read a Map With a Beagle on Your Lap (Holt, 1993).  Illustrated by Clement Oubrerie.
In My Tent (S&S/Macmillan, 1992).  Illustrated by Emily Arnold McCully.
Nine O'Clock Lullaby (HarperCollins, 1991).  Illustrated by Frane Lessac.
Turtle in July (S&S/Macmillan, 1989).  Illustrated by Jerry Pinkney.

For more information about author/poet Marilyn Singer, see her website at http://marilynsinger.net.