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Shirley McPhillips
Shirley McPhillips combines a lifetime of teaching experience with an equal amount of love for poetry. Former Co-Director of the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project, Columbia University, NY, she currently works as a literacy staff developer, workshop and institute teacher, and educational consultant.
Shirley's work has appeared in such publications as Language Arts, Instructor, and the New Jersey Reading Association Journal. She is the co-author (with Nick Flynn) of
A Note Slipped Under the Door: Teaching from Poems We Love, available through Stenhouse Publishers. Shirley is Choice Literacy's Online Poet Laureate. Her writing is based on her on-going work in elementary schools helping teachers use their students' poetry as mentor texts in the classroom community.
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What Happens Next
Shirley McPhillips
I found my notes for "What Happens Next" in the notebook I took in January to Poetry Week in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. There, I escaped the deepening light of winter back home to rise each day at Hotel Posada de las Monjas, settle my chair in a rooftop niche in this former convent to write and study. . . . more
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Ode to a Sweet Snowy Day for Two
Shirley McPhillips
One evening W. D. Snodgrass, now in his eighties and living in San Miguel, took the stage at the Bellas Artes, a governmental cultural center. At one point he invited his wife Kathy to join him in a reading for two voices. She bounced up the stairs and took her place beside him. They smiled at each other and corrected their stances so that their feet were firm, their bodies tilted slightly toward one another, their heads just near enough to catch each other's energy, not to invade. They adjusted their books to the light and placed their hands gently to support the page. He nodded. Ready. . . . more
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The Rolling Pin: Looking into Things
Shirley McPhillips
Julian looks long at the slipper shell, one he has brought to school from his collection. When I kneel next to him at writing time he is turning it over in his hands. He remembers the time he and his friend Peter, walking a Cape Cod beach, found it. It was the last summer they had together. He wishes Peter hadn't had to move, he says, that he might see him again, hear him laugh. I ask Julian to write a few word sketches in his writers notebook, keeping to the present tense, as if what he sees in his mind's eye is happening right now. . . . more
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Messengers
Shirley McPhillips
I believe Ezra Pound when he said that "Literature is news that stays news," but we don't often get to hear our poets bring the news. When we do, we're apt to be informed in surprising ways. . . . more
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Let's Get Some Attitude
Shirley McPhillips
When Edna Mae Pruitt got her back up in eighth grade everybody listened. She didn't get riled easily, but when she did everybody sat back for the gusher. One day in English Composition class Carlyle Keely within her hearing, poor boy, made the mistake of telling Franklin Colley that Geraldine would never get a boyfriend because she was too smart. Boys didn't like girls who were known to be smart. They were scary. Whoosh! Old Faithful... . . . more
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