Mertz, a sixth grade teacher, asks her students to write poems of apology modeled after the famous poem about the cold, delicious plums written by William Carlos Williams. I think my favorite poem is 'The River of Forgiveness,' which is such a hard river to cross, and yet so important to our growth as human beings and our ability to truly love one another. In fact, I'm still not sure which 'Anonymous' student stole the lizard. This book came pouring out of me in a way that other books haven't the characters seemed to come alive and talk to me. 'Sparkling Deer' is straight from my life (see jacketflap)-as are a few other poems which I won't claim! They apologize for all sorts of things-things that we adults can't imagine they'd worry about! It started me thinking about the guilt we carry around-what things we regret, and why. The 'sorry' poem is a lesson I do with kids, using W. It is the only one so far to have come out of my work as a writer-in-residence at schools. Yes, THIS IS JUST TO SAY is very different from my other books. Within an hour, Joyce emailed me her response! (How great is that?)

I also asked her if there was anything she would like to tell readers of the Blue Rose Girls blog about her new book of poems.

I told her I thought her most recent book was quite a departure from her other poetry collections. On Wednesday morning, I wrote to Joyce Sidman. I just picked up my copy of THIS IS JUST TO SAY on Tuesday-and couldn’t wait to write a review of the book. Most of you may know that Sidman is the winner of the first Cybils Award for Poetry for her outstanding book BUTTERFLY EYES AND OTHER SECRETS OF THE MEADOW. THIS IS JUST TO SAY, Joyce Sidman’s new poetry collection, is now available.

This Is Just to Say by Joyce Sidman