Ted Scheu - That Poetry Guy - Air and Space Museum My private Air and Space Museum's opening next week. If you would like, I'll let you in to have a little peek. Just step inside this empty room- please, go ahead and stare, as you enjoy the lovely space and breathe the awesome air! Ted, first things first. You museum sounds fun in an airy sort of way, but I have to ask you, do you always go around with such a gleefully goofy smile on your face? Yes, Roger, I do. Even in my sleep, I've been told I look like I just sat in something soft and surprising. Actually, I'm looking thrilled in the photo because I'm honored to be interviewed by you for THE POETRY ZONE - joining all these poetry legends. I can understand that. Okay, second things second - how can Scheu possibly rhyme with 'guy,' as in 'that Poetry Guy'? Better check with my German-American relatives on that one. Actually I find it fairly handy these days. I know instantly whether a telephone call is some bothersome solicitation for new and improved, super-sheer panty hose. Or a friend. As for the 'Poetry Guy' part, some brilliant six-year old urchin in a school I was visiting a few years back made the following keen observation, when I mentioned that I was burdened with a name that is always mispronounced. 'That's easy,' he announced, 'we'll just call you Ted Scheu, that Poetry Guy.' And that was that. After 45 years of pain and struggle to get teachers, and, well, everybody, to say 'shy' instead of 'shoe,' I was free! Well, not really. But it's an easy rhyme. So that's me--Edward Grosvenor 'Ted' Scheu. I'm a teacher and writer for kids, who lives with my wife Robin and two amazing teenage kids, in the lovely cow-cluttered university town of Middlebury, Vermont, in the good old, clown-led USA. If any of your readers have a name, like mine, that's always, always, always butchered by teachers and others, maybe they can relate to this poem: Help Me, Please! Help me, please, my knees are jiggling, all the girls around are giggling. Everywhere my skin is sweating, and I think my pants are wetting. Need to keep my hands from shaking, not to mention stomach quaking. Eyes are glazey, heart is pounding, lips are very funny sounding. Throat is drying, brain is spinning, I am trying-- but not winning. This shouldn¹t be so hard, and yet, it always feels the same. I hate correcting teachers when they mispronounce my name. When did you start writing? I never thought of myself as a writer as a kid, even though my mom (mum, to you) said I wrote great stuff (what do moms know anyway?). But I did love the music of words - especially the words in music. I'd endlessly listen to rock 'n' roll and show tunes--rewriting lyrics in my head and playing around with the rhymes. So I guess I was writing, even though I wasn't. Not much got written down until 5-6 years ago, when, as a teacher reading poems to my class, the 'kid voice' in me finally began to find the courage it lacked 40 years ago! Then the dam broke and I haven't been able to turn off the flood of feelings, memories and poems ever since. It's like I grew down and backwards, instead of up and older. Why do you write poetry? That's easy. Because I have to. If someone said, I'm dreadfully sorry, but that's quite enough poetry from your twisted brain, thank you... I'm pretty sure I'd run and jump off the nearest precipice. As there are plenty of big drops nearby here in rugged Vermont, don't say anything! Why poems? Very simply, I swoon at the sounds of words as they giggle or cry together in poems. That miraculous meeting of rhythm and rhyme, surprising ideas and feelings, sends me soaring. Did you write poems at school? No way! My teachers were far too boring to think of something so enlightened. Besides, I didn't think I liked poetry as a young kid (even though I loved the rhyme and rhythms of A.A. Milne, Dr. Seuss. and others) so I steered clear of trying to write it. In fact, here's a poem, recently written, about how I felt about poetry in school as a kid: I Hate Writing Poems I hate writing poems, I honestly do; So don't even think about asking me to. Poems are dumber than rocks in a bed. (To write one, you've gotta have rocks in your head.) I¹d rather eat moldy old mushrooms, or worse, than chase down, and waste all my thoughts in a verse. Poems remind me of pain in my past, when people were mean or when I wasn't fast. Poems are dangerous - often they seem like dynamite blasting a comfortable dream. I growl when they rhyme, and feel ill when they bounce, so, once again, loudly, I'll proudly announce I hate writing poems with all of my heart; So rather than do it, I won't even start! Do you write anything other than poetry? I've started a bunch of picture book stories and short novels for kids (and even finished some) but the characters in them always gently and politely scream at me to 'give it up' and return to poems. That's where I'm happiest. Have you any poems coming out in the near future? Yes, thanks so very much for asking. I have tons coming out soon - but editors and I are, er, just not quite sure where yet. Actually, I've got a poem in an anthology coming out next spring here in the US, I Invited a Dragon to Dinner (Philomel/Penguin Putnam) My poem is called, 'Maximillian's Mouth,' about a kid I knew - everyone knows one - who never shut off his freight train voice. Because poems, like songs, need to be performed aloud to be fully enjoyed, I recently produced a CD of me reading my poems called, 'Warning! Don't Eat More Than Three!' You can't get it through amazon.com or in stores yet, but you can find it on my web site at www.poetryguy.com Sorry, I haven't yet figured out how folks outside of the US can easily buy it. But I'm working on that. Not surprisingly, what poetry we have here in the US is devoured by kids but, for some bizarre reason, is not touched by many teachers nor, most importantly, by many children's book editors, who are afraid they won't make enough money at it. You guys in the UK, and other parts of the universe, are much luckier to have so much great poetry to choose from. I may be moving soon! How long does it take you to write a poem? Sometimes an hour, or a day (I try to write one poem a day... Ha! Sure!), but most times it takes several weeks and several drafts. I like to put a poem away for a week or more, then see if it tickles me when I pick it up again. If not, I'll either toss it aside, or gingerly yank a favorite line or word out of it, and try to rewrite it from there. That usually works. What is the most unusual event that has inspired you to write a poem? Wow, many weird, wonderful, and sad kid-memories seem to fuel my writing, but one comes to mind right now. When I was six, I walked a mile or so to school with my classmate and neighbor - a girl named Nancy Cristman. One day, my life was changed forever when... wait... I'll let the poem tell you what happened: Nancy Cristman Kissed Me Nancy Cristman kissed me as we walked to school today! It happened fast, and I was lost with what to do or say. I quickly looked around to check if anyone had seen it. If they did, and tease me, they¹ll be sorry, and I mean it! Why did Nancy Cristman put that smack upon my cheek? I¹m so confused, and probably will stay this way all week. I¹ll guess I¹ll have to marry her, and share my lemonade. A lot can happen to a kid who's walking to first grade! Do you have a special time to write? Mornings are usually the most productive for me, but when I'm excited about an idea for a poem, I¹ll write anywhere, anytime - especially before the idea scurries away, as they tend to do at my advanced age - 46. I've risked my neck much too often by writing drafts of poems while driving in my car - pretty stupid, I know. So watch out. Do you visit schools? Yes! I love them, and in fact, couldn't live without them - sort of like air. I no longer have my own classroom (I quit to write), so I love to visit schools to share my own poems and then stay and do writing workshops in classes, encouraging kids to find their own poet's voices. Whether I've been there for a morning, or for a two-week residency, I always leave a school totally inspired by the kids. And I nearly always have several great ideas for poems. School visits also help to keep food on our table and the lights lit. That's a good thing. How many schools have you visited? Around 100 over the past three years. Ooo, do I ever LOVE to travel. What's for breakfast at your house next week, by the way? How could schools improve the teaching of poetry? Don't get me started... I can speak only for schools in the US on this one. They need to put poetry in the curriculum! Most schools don't teach it at all, especially for younger kids. I find if you give kids good models, and then give them permission to write in their own voices and from their own hearts, magic happens! Of all the poems you've written, which is your favourite? That's a tough question to answer... I like the ones I'm wrestling with at any moment, and I also like the ones that boldly get right to the heart of my feelings to reveal things sad and painful, or hilarious. I also enjoy those with two voices, like 'Daddy, It's Only a Game.' I'm sure you know this type of dad - not-so-quietly watching from the sidelines... Daddy, It's Only a Game "Deck that kid! Make him hurt! Push him down! Grab his shirt! Bash the bum! Make him cry! Put an elbow in his eye! Kick his knee! Whack his head! Turn his hair all bloody red!" Daddy, please, stop shouting, those words are not okay! They may have worked when you were young, but I don¹t play that way! You make me feel embarrassed, and lots and lots of stress! And Daddy, please remember... I¹m only playing chess! What football team do you support? Dangerous territory for a Yank. I've played soccer (I know, 'football') all my life, and I even coach it with 10 and 11 year-olds in my town. But I can't say I follow the UK or European leagues very much, unless it's at World Cup time, mostly because the dumb TV executives here in the US don't think it's very important to put on the air. Hard to believe, I know. OK, I've always liked Man U. Well, never mind! Have you any plans for the future? To end this interview quickly, so I don't put you all to sleep. Maybe I already have? Well, if anyone's still with me, I'll say thanks! Have your readers come visit me at my web page at www.poetryguy.com, and send me a poem or just an e-mail. I'd love to chat. Okay. But before you go - what advice would you give to young poets? Write, write, write! Our mostly-boring, mostly-globalized world needs you to be you! Be as carefully outrageous in seeing and thinking about things as you can be - looking at normal stuff in totally new ways. Open up your heart and boldly share it where no man (or woman) has gone before! Good luck! From the top, one more time!