Friday, October 30, 2009

Poetry Friday: Houdini

Happy early Halloween!  I wanted something other than pumpkins or vampires to feature today, and was lucky enough to have my book club friend, children's author Jacqueline Jules, offer me the chance to feature her poem about Harry Houdini.

Houdini, if you don't know, DIED on Halloween. (Cue the spooky music.) More than that, in this poem, Jackie manages to illuminate a little-known side of the great escape artist:  he loved books. Yup. Carted hundreds of them around with him everywhere, in a special traveling bookcase.

You can visit Jackie's web site to find out more about Houdini and her process in writing this poem, including pictures and links to original Houdini letters at the Library of Congress.

And, now, the main event!


ENCHANTED BY BOOKS
by Jacqueline Jules

A teenager nicknamed “Ehrie,”
raised by a scholar skilled at Torah,
but not English or earning a living,
and a mother, who more often
than not, had only love
to serve her son at the table,
opened a book one day
and pulled a new persona
from its pages.

He became “Harry Houdini,”
borrowing his idol’s name
the way a ravenous child
swipes an apple,
and taught himself to
escape handcuffs, hunger,
and homelessness,
with books collected by the hundreds
and kept as close as the buttons on his shirt
through years of traveling from stage to stage.

The Great Houdini,
who freed himself from locked trunks,
milk cans, straitjackets, and jails,
never tried to escape
the charm of a book.

(© Jacqueline Jules, 2009, all rights reserved

Poetry Friday is hosted today by Jennie at BiblioFile

13 comments:

  1. What a fun topic for Poetry Friday, and how much do I love knowing that Houdini found the ultimate escape in books. :)

    An OC aside: The Magic Shop at Disneyland just debuted their new Houdini theme. From what I understand, they're doing an entire post on this new feature on the day after Halloween. Watch this space:
    http://vintagedisneylandtickets.blogspot.com/2009/10/its-magic-nite-at-disneyland-october-26.html

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  2. Oh, LOVELY! *applause*
    I always thought his life was a little tragic, but when looked at from this point of view -- yes. No matter how it ENDED, his life truly began when he opened up a book.

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  3. Wow!! Who knew???
    Consider me charmed and enlightened... thanks Sara and Jackie!

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  4. Wonderful! Love the ending of the poem -- "never tried to escape the charm of a book." Perfect. Thanks, Sara and Jackie!

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  5. Oh nice! Houdini is from my home town (Appleton, WI) so we studied him A LOT in school and at the local museums. But this adds some freshness to the topic that I really enjoyed.

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  6. Also, as far as hometown heroes go, Houdini is MUCH BETTER than our other one (Joe McCarthy)

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  7. What a great poem. Thnak you for sharing it with us. I went to her website to read more and ended up pointing my niece to it as there are books she might be interested in.

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  8. Jackie, thanks for sharing; Sara, thanks for posting.

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  9. I never realized that Houdini died on Halloween. How eerie.

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  10. Woot! Seven cheers. I like that. Perfect choice for today.

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  11. I SOOOOoooo want a traveling bookshelf!

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  12. Fantastic poem. I especially love:

    borrowing his idol’s name
    the way a ravenous child
    swipes an apple,
    and taught himself to
    escape handcuffs, hunger,
    and homelessness,

    Wow. Top hats off to Jacqueline, and thank you, Sara!

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  13. Nice thoughts expressed in this verses

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