(Book cover compliments of Titlewave)
Bibliography
Raczka, Bob. Lemonade, and other poems squeezed from a single word. Ill. by Nancy Doniger. New York: Roaring Books Press. 2011. ISBN 978-1-59643-541-4
Review
Raczka’s crazy poems are as much a puzzle to solve as poetry to enjoy. Each of the 22 poems begins as a single word title from kid life…lemonade, vacation, playground, earthworms. Each short poem is then constructed using only the mixed-up letters from the title word. Challenging to read (and certainly even more challenging write) the jumbled letters cascade down the page in an order that forms the words of the poem. For the reader who wants to see if they “solved” the poem correctly, the backside of the page reveals the poem in a more traditional one word per line format. Some are silly “vacation”: “action/in/a/van” while others are more profound “constellation”: a/silent/lion/tells/an/ancient/tale.” Framed by a red, yellow, black color scheme, the sparse poems are complimented by Doniger’s unobtrusive black and red watercolor illustrations. Sometimes Raczka’s poems even take on a concrete poem shape as in “Treehouse” where the words spill down the page complimenting the ladder illustration beside it that leads up to the treehouse. Drawing on the fun of riddles and anagrams, Raczka’s book squeezes poems from the most unsuspecting words that will inspire readers to attempt their own one word poems.
