Dandelions and Dreams

Alice Kidd is an editor with The New Catalyst editorial collective in
Lillooet, B.C.

Dandelions and Dreams combines the wonderful illustrations of Brenda
Shelley Clark with a variety of verse. For part of the volume Gorman
deals with subject matter aimed at young people in traditional forms. He
has also included a variety of more experimental pieces to suggest the
playfulness of writing poetry and to encourage us to try out visual or
shape poems.

Recently I was privileged to be in a classroom during a session on
writing poetry that “breaks the rules.” It was exciting to see the
children encouraged to stretch their own limits and those of the
language in their writing. Gorman’s section on shape poems would be
useful in such a classroom. Dandelions and Dreams is a great sample book
for young writers and their teachers who want to explore language
together.