AWESOME EARTH by Joan Bransfield Graham, Illustrated by Tania Garcia and GREENLAND

Welcome to Poetry Friday, this week hosted by poet Tabatha Yeatts. Here. Thank you Tabatha for hosting. I look forward to what you will be sharing this week.

I received some good news this week I’d like to share. A poem I wrote about the esophagus was just accepted by Little Thoughts Press for the upcoming March issue entitled “Head, Shoulders, Spleen, & Nose.” Poems about body parts don’t easily find a home, so I’m pleased and I’ll share it when it is published.

Now about . . . landforms.

Recently I discovered gorgeous picture book published in 2025 by Clarion Books that has been praised by poets and educators HERE, including Poetry Friday friends. AWESOME EARTH by Joan Bransfield Graham, illustrated by Tania Garcia, is a book full of engaging concrete poems about awe inspiring landforms found on Planet Earth.

I think this book is particularly important because children should be familiar with and might be delighted by landforms. After all, the Earth is full of mind boggling things, like continents, peninsulas, plateaus. The poems and pictures are engaging and so clearly written for 3-4th graders. .

The need to appreciate such wonders is especially so now, as our government is minimizing an unusual and beautiful place called Greenland, calling it just a “piece of ice.” Some say it should– believe it or not– be invaded!

Greenland is of course a glacier that is a home to thousands of human beings. Greenland is also an island. It’s certainly a place worth learning more about and respecting. Respect seems to me to be a critical part of achieving world peace. So I’m writing about this book to help promote respect and world peace. below are two poems and illustrations.

GLACIER

A

mountain,

a river of ice,

I do not race. I

move at a glacial pace,

inching, grinding, picking up

pebbles, rocks along the way.

I do not stay still, I chisel forward,

sometimes leaving in my wake . . .

A GLACIAL LAKE

——————————

Greenland is also an Island:

ISLAND

Water, water, everywhere–

waves lap, leap, encircle me in a river,

lake, ocean, or sea. I might be a continental island,

if you get my drift, or an oceanic island due to lava’s lift, If I’m

small, I can be an islet, moth, or key–that’s a mini-me. Come visit

by plane, bridge, or set sail, discovering dolphins and, maybe –a whale.

—————————————-

I love this book, the poems and illustrations and I think kids will, too. The earth is a fascinating place.

This month I was part of Jone MacCullough’s New Year’s Postcard exchange and sent out this poem. Thank you Jone. I was hoping for good things in 2026 and this resulted.

IF I WERE A MONTH

I would be January.

I would cocoon in my quilt
or even a burlap sack
if that's all I had,

and think for thirty one days,
     wrack my brain,

musing over the possibllities,

and the wonders revealed
      
      perhaps

in February. 

© Janice Scully

Thank you, Tabatha. Thank you for hosting Poetry Friday. Have a great weekend.

Here’s a couple of free photos of Greenland I found on Pixabay.

18 thoughts on “AWESOME EARTH by Joan Bransfield Graham, Illustrated by Tania Garcia and GREENLAND”

  1. Janice, that looks like a book I would like. I’ve always love the land and learning about physical geography. (Any kind of geography, actually.) Thanks for sharing it. The two pages you share with the message of getting to know Greenland is important and inspiring. Thanks!

  2. Congratulations on having your poem accepted for publication, Janice! And also thanks for highlighting Greenland and the need to be respectful. I remember reading the book about landforms and the wonderful words and images.

  3. So much to love here, Janice! Congratulations on one of your body/digestion poems finding a home. YAY! And thanks for the book review. Joan BG is such a talented poet. And now I am thinking about what my poem would be to the “If I were a month” prompt. Thank you!

  4. Congratulations, Janice, on your poem acceptance in Little Thoughts Press! I can’t wait to read it in the next issue! Your “If I Were a Month” poem was so great, too! I especially love the meaning and rhythm of “would think for thirty days”!!! Your picture book recommendation and thoughts about Greenland are also much appreciated and oh so timely!!! Thanks so much!!!

  5. Congrats about your esophagus poem acceptance, Janice! The esophagus is overlooked but so important! I like the image of a quilt-cocoon. Thanks for all xo

  6. There is little more inspiring than to travel over our Rockies to Arches National Park, Janice, pictured on the cover of this book, new to me & I will certainly look for it! Thanks for featuring the two, most appropriate, poems today, & for your poem, love “musing over the possibllities”. I imagine everyone is doing just that now, in the midst of this current storm affecting so many!

  7. Congratulations on the poem – I’m so curious to read what you can up with about the esophagus! 😀 As someone who lives in a country not too far (or dissimilar) to Greenland…it’s been a wild few weeks, let me tell you…It’s also as if the orange someone is trying to distract the American people from the very real problems at home. The economy isn’t great? People are struggling to make ends meet? Prices keep rising? Hey, hey, look over there, a big glacial island! Sigh.

  8. Dear “Doctor Janice” I am estatic about. your esophagus poem upcoming as that body part was last year under much discussion in our family, but fortunately the individuals test of that element proved fine. I hope your background in medicine brings you to much more poem publication goodness.
    Many appreciations for your celebration of Greeland, the people, the island itself & peace. Because of your beautiful review of what looks like to become a classic concrete poems exemplar, it’s added to my BooksToPurchaseAsGiftsin26 list.
    Brava! to Joan & Tania!

    Stay cosy in the upcoming winter weather, too. your fan, JAN

  9. Janice, Congratulations on your esophagus poem! I am so happy for you. Alas, I was not as successful with my submissions to them. I’ll look forward to reading it when it comes out. I love our National Parks and would love the book you featured, I’m sure!

    1. Thank you, Carol. The important thing is to continue submitting. My poem was sitting there waiting for years. 😉

  11. I love Awesome Earth! I used it as part of my “Build Your Stack” presentation at NCTE in 2024. I’m a huge fan of Graham’s concrete poem books. In fact, I’m giving a presentation next week on Poetry in the Library and that book is in my presentation.

  12. What a neat book! I loved the way the illo paired the poem with the illustrations. The two poems you shared were chock full of info for kids, They will love it. . Your poem, IF I WERE A MONTH gave me a giggle. “I would cocoon in my quilt or even a burlap sack”. I will definitely be cocooning here in Boston with this crazy cold weather!

  13. Yes! Landforms! I saw this book recently in our library… sooo clever! And look at this — cultivating respect for our youngest citizens through picture books! We can change the world! Thank you, Janice.

  14. Janice, Thanks for highlighting this amazing book. I love your poem for the New Year’s Exchange. I am definitely cocooning! Congrats on publication!

  16. I remember writing a comment but I don’t see it here! I’ll try again. Some of my favorite parts are “chisel forward” (the glacier), “lava’s lift” (the island), and “cocoon in my quilt” (“If I were a month”). Thanks for spotlighting Greenland this week! Congrats on your esophagus poem acceptance! xo

  17. Congratulations on your poem being accepted by the anthology. What nice news. Awesome Earth looks good. Thanks for the recommendation.

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