East Coast Ink

Images courtesy Erin Stead

This week Mark Twain has a new book out.

Yes, we know. He’s been dead for more than a century, but that hasn’t stopped him — or more accurately, his collaborators — from publishing a children’s book, called The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine. It’s based on 16 pages of notes, handwritten by Twain and discovered in an archive, in Berkeley, Calif.

Philip and Erin Stead took it from there; the Caldecott Award-winning author-illustrator duo picked up Twain’s trail and finished the story.

“It was never entirely clear to us if there was never an ending, or if Twain just never got around to writing it down,” Philip Stead says. “That said, we had to make a book, so we had to provide an ending to the story.”

So the Steads left their own mark on the story, changing some of the original’s magical animals — and making the young hero, Johnny, black.

See their conversation with NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly here.

I came upon an April midnight dreary puzzling around about a query: what can I do to celebrate a month of something so very great? After thinking so many thoughts that I felt swamped, I decided to create a poetry prompt! My friends also though it would be swell, so you’re more than welcome to use it as well: 

1. A poem about how you start your day

2. A poem about living the #millennial way

3. A poem about adulting hardcore 

4. A poem about a caffeinated drink you adore

5. A poem about feeling a little plump

6. A poem about being in an overall slump

7. A poem about the procrastination monster of panic

8. The same poem written as a haiku, a sonnet, and a Limerick

9. A poem that has a visual component

10. A poem that is about whatever you want

11. A poem intended to be rapped or spoken out

12. A poem about the months or the seasons 

13. A poem about believing or not in bad luck

14. A poem with 14 lines (it doesn’t have to be a sonnet, so don’t feel stuck!)

15. A poem with words from another time

16. A poem that does not utilize rhyme

17. A poem about a new frontier 

18.  A poem about being an animal (like a fox or a deer)

19. A poem about death, and moving on

20. A poem from a different perspective than your own

21. A poem about obsession, dependency, or addiction

22. A poem whose passages apply the power of alliteration

23. A poem about doing something you don’t want to do

24. A poem about a year and what one goes through

25. A poem about life on another planet (like Martians)

26. A chuckle-worthy poem for all the harsh ‘uns

27. A poem about the world and what makes it ail

28. An epic poem ( not as in “That’s epic, bro;” as in it tells a tale)

29. A poem about whatever is on your mind

30. A poem about endings, and with them, what you find

With that, we hit every day in April. And now that it’s out there, do with it what you will! Just use this as a creative way to unwind. For this effort, I wish you luck of the best kind!