Art is a celebration of the eye, and this picture book is a meaty feast for both the eye and ear in a glorious blend of art and poetry, that’s appeared just in time for National Poetry Month this April.

It’s called “World Make Way” and is an idea of commissioning, especially for children, poems that poets were asked to compose from being inspired by a particular piece of art from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Listen to this quote from Leonardo da Vinci who perfectly captures the relationship of painting and poetry when he intuits, “Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.’

I don’t know whether I completely agree with the first part of his quote, for there are pieces of art that have moved me emotionally, as well as lines of poetry that can effortlessly paint a picture, with the right combination of words, and evoke an enormous range of emotions and they might include a sense of joy, sadness, expectation, awe or even the ability to recall or revisit emotions we have pondered before.

But suddenly, a poem can set the framework of an emotion in a new and fresh way that excites the reader and says to them, either, “I’ve felt like that before.”or “I wonder what that feels like?”

It fell to Lee Bennett Hopkins, award-winning author and poet, to guide and shape the selection of poets. There could be no better guide for editing “World Make Way” than Lee Bennett Hopkins who, himself, is the published author of 100 books of poetry. And, he knows the heart of a child quite well and has not forgotten the way back to that magical realm. He’s the perfect Pied Piper of Poetry and Art for this expedition!

And, this book with its rich art will be not exactly be a page turner in the sense of a one and done picture book read. You may find your child reading and lingering over it, and returning to it, as their experiences in life grow and change, which brings them to fresh insights to poetry and art.

But initially, you and your young reader will spend  a delightful time together perusing the poetry of the 18 acclaimed children’s poets in World Make Way. Poets such as Marilyn Singer, Alma Flor Ada and Carole Boston Weatherford paint word pictures  that are perfectly complemented by some of the most famous works from The Metropolitan Museum of Art, a museum that is the largest in the Western Hemisphere, and is privileged to show its collection, composed of 5,000 years of art, from every corner of the world.

Paired with the poets mentioned are art works by such notable artists as Mary Cassatt, Fernando Botero, Winslow Homer and Utagawa Hiroshige.

Here is my favorite of the 18. It’s called Early Evening by poet Charles Ghigna and is paired with Winslow Homer’s painting, Boys in a Dory, 1873 that depicts four young boys in a skiff, dressed in yellow straw hats, idling, lazily oaring and peering into the rest of the day.

You can fairly sense the easy passage of time in a seemingly dreamlike state that flies, like the seasons of the year, all too quickly:

Early Evening by Charles Ghigna

We are rowing our way

across a small, stretched

canvas of time.

Into the shadows

of a water colored world

where we float as in a dream.

soft and serene,

beyond the touch of our master’s hand

into the stroke of everlasting light.

 

Additionally, this children’s treasury provides an introduction, biographies of each poet and artist, and an index to each.

My suggestion, after reading this savory and sensory delight of word and art,  might be, if possible, to take your young reader, book in hand, and follow the poet/art trail to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, to see and sense with the eye and heart these paintings, coupled with the poems that speak to the child in all of us.

Also, a great idea, after reading the book, would be to ask your child to describe what is going on in the picture, and then, why not ask them to try and make a rhyming poem themselves from their take on the painting!

Congratulations to all involved, from concept to realization. And, I particularly salute Abrams Books, who, since its founding in 1949, has produced quality books for its children’s audience. And here, in “World Make Way,” it should be applauded for its beautiful execution of a book that also belongs in every public library’s children’s room!

Well done, and let the seeing and savoring of the senses begin!!!