Day 5: Toby Speed discusses "Christine"

5-2 alum Toby Speed discusses "Christine" by Aig'ner Wilson on Day 5 of 30 Days of The 5-2.

30 Days of The 5-2 (2014)

In 1996, the Academy of American Poets established National Poetry Month, April. In that spirit, I invite you to spread the word about The 5-2 on our third annual April blog tour.

30 Days of The 5-2 is driven not by guest posts to your blogs, but by your own posts about poetry. Most participants pick a favorite 5-2 poem and blog about it on their scheduled dates, but you can be as creative with your post as you like. For example:

• Interview a 5-2 contributor
• Discuss a favorite poem not from The 5-2
• Post your own poetry or fiction in response to a 5-2 poem
• 5-2 contributors, discuss your poems in greater detail

If you don't have your own blog but would like to participate, email your entry to G_SO at YAHOO dot COM, and I'll post it at The 5-2 itself. I'm fine scheduling multiple tour stops on the same day or about the same poem.

I'm glad to add entries even after April 1. To book a date, email G_SO at YAHOO dot COM or tweet @PoemsOnCrime, and I'll add it below.

Participants are welcome to download the tour badge image above and add it to their posts or follow these instructions to copy-and-paste the image HTML code.

Not up to a blog post? Mention the tour on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, etc.

All April revenue from 5-2 and Lineup books and merchandise is donated to the nonprofit Academy of American Poets, supporting poets at all stages of their careers and fostering the appreciation of contemporary poetry.


04-01-14 - Tuesday - B.V. Lawson at In Reference to Murder
04-01-14 - Tuesday - Wilda Morris's Poetry Challenge
04-02-14 - Wednesday - Kristopher Zgorski at BOLO Books
04-03-14 - Thursday - Bill Cameron at Thinking With My Skin
04-04-14 - Friday - Deborah Lacy at Mystery Playground
04-05-14 - Saturday - Toby Speed
04-06-14 - Sunday - Steven Torres at The Crime Time Cafe
04-07-14 - Monday - 5-2 Poem of the Week: "The Stainless Steel Wallet" by Amy Holman
04-08-14 - Tuesday - Thomas Pluck
04-09-14 - Wednesday - Criminal Element
04-10-14 - Thursday - Kristen Chapman Gibbons at Big Blue Dot, Y'all
04-11-14 - Friday - S.A. Solomon
04-12-14 - Saturday - Ray Daniel
04-13-14 - Sunday - Aja Beech at Process Press
04-14-14 - Monday - 5-2 Poem of the Week: "Fear As Loud As a Mugging" by Linda Lerner
04-14-14 - Monday - Charles Rammelkamp reviews "Stealing Poetry" by Elisa Albo
04-15-14 - Tuesday - John DuMond at Nobody Move!
04-16-14 - Wednesday - Kathleen A. Ryan at Women of Mystery
04-17-14 - Thursday - The 5-2's Best Contributed Videos
04-18-14 - Friday - Michael A. Arnzen at gorelets.com
04-19-14 - Saturday - Bill Crider's Pop Culture Magazine
04-20-14 - Sunday - Jane Hammons
04-21-14 - Monday - 5-2 Poem of the Week: "Marine Barracks First Aid" by David S. Pointer
04-22-14 - Tuesday - Sarah Stockton
04-23-14 - Wednesday - Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme
04-24-14 - Thursday - Clare Toohey at Women of Mystery
04-25-14 - Friday - "Brick City" by Ian Khadan
04-26-14 - Saturday - Announcing Guest Editor Annabelle Edwards
04-27-14 - Sunday - Patti Abbott
04-28-14 - Monday - 5-2 Poem of the Week: "Trickster Time" by Linda Rodriguez
04-29-14 - Tuesday - Kathleen A. Ryan at From Cop to Mom...
04-30-14 - Wednesday - Kevin Thornton at The Old Fort

Toby Speed

MORNING REPORT

She lived in a shoe
so she said
and all those children were not starving.
You could see for yourself.

The pot of broth was there
if you looked
boiling and hissing back in the heel
its ladle angled out like a defiant elbow.

The children were taken away by car
while cameras clicked.
She had lived there a long time
faces coming and going
many fathers.

She was a hard-working woman
so she said
as they carted her away.
Her face was on the news the next day.


Toby reads "Morning Report":



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Toby confesses: "'Morning Report' came to me when I was looking through old nursery rhymes for inspiration for a story. 'The Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe' is such a concise dramatization of a real, present-day problem. I found myself thinking about the mother and how she would defend herself if accused of child neglect."

TOBY SPEED is a poet, children's book author and mystery writer living on Long Island, NY. Her most recent poetry publication was in Four and Twenty. She is the author of seven children's books, including Two Cool Cows, an IRA-CBC Children's Choice Book, and Brave Potatoes, which was on both the Publishers Weekly and The New York Times children's bestseller lists. Death Over Easy, her first murder mystery, will appear in September 2013 from Five Star. She is hard at work on the sequel, Death Under the Radar. Visit tobyspeed.com to learn more.