SOCCERVERSE: A Perfect Title for Perfect Poems

Wordsong, 2019

Anchoring this post in time:
We're well into the third week of SAFE-AT-HOME self-quarantine behaviors related to the Covid19 pandemic. In this part of the world (upper Midwest, USA) we have experienced warmer than usual April weather. That leads to both positive and negative effects on maintaining safe social distance. 
Of course, fair weather means many of us are able to spend time outdoors: gardening, walking, home repairs, birdwatching, and many other fresh air options to combat cabin fever. 
Unfortunately, sunny days also make it harder to honor health concerns that prevent us (all ages) from engaging in team sports. 
Whether you are a soccer-loving person or not, Imagine every opportunity to exercise, explore, practice or create (safely) during this time of enforced isolation as steps into the future, in which individual skills and talents can be shared with others. 

SOCCERVERSE: POEMS ABOUT SOCCER is written by the very talented poet  Elizabeth Steinglass and illustrated by Edson Ike. Interested in learning more about the author? Check out this wonderful interview from last year when the book released, HERE.
This collection of twenty-plus individual poems incorporates various poetic forms, each of which adopts distinct voices and points of view. It offers a gateway to poetry even for those who may resist reading or writing this genre. April IS poetry month, after all. 
This can be especially helpful during current home-based learning.
The interconnected emotional and active lives of the characters portrayed, all engaging in various ways through soccer, depict a multiverse of individuals. It could in some ways substitute for an enforced lack of team engagement. In place of peers, siblings and parents may even become more desirable teammates that is typically the case.
In SOCCERVERSE: POEMS ABOUT SOCCER, the backmatter supplement describes forms for each poem, with a challenge to match the poems to its form, complete with an answer key for independent readers. Teachers (parents) who wish to use this collection as mentor text should enjoy the challenge, too.
Soccer is a sport that requires team effort while expecting individuals to improve skills, well, individually. The same is true for writing, reading, math, and all of those other safe-at-home academic efforts. Spending some time outdoors, being active and curious, can help each of us find joy and growth in this unprecedented time. Take a look at this example from the collection:

Poem from SOCCERVERSE, Wordson, 2019

While you're at it, Check out this interview with Baptiste Paul, author of THE FIELD, from an earlier post.  
This book is not a poetry collection, but pairs perfectly with the poem above. It also reminds readers that THE FIELD that calls to us all- our greening grass and empty playgrounds, may not always be available. Even so, we can hold hope that our pent up energy will eventually bring us all back together in joy. 

Don't forget, you can support independent booksellers by placing pick-up or mailable orders, inviting friends into your home in the form of new books!