CELEBRATING SHEL
From an npr radio piece
September 20, 2011

When Shel Silverstein wrote the poem "Years
From Now," he seemed to know that one day he'd
be gone but that his playful words and images
would still be making children happy. "I cannot
see your face," he writes to his young readers, but
in "some far-off place," he assures them, "I hear
you laughing — and I smile."

The beloved children's poet and illustrator died in
1999 at age 68. "Years From Now" is one of the
poems in a new book called Every Thing On It
that has just been released by Silverstein's
family. If you liked Silverstein's other books, such
as Light in the Attic and Where the Sidewalk
Ends, you'll recognize poems like "Frightened"
as vintage Shel:
"There are kids underneath my bed,"
Cried little baby monster Fred.
Momma monster smiled. "Oh, Fred,
There's no such things as kids," she said.
Every Thing On It includes 145 poems in

all. Silverstein eliminated many of them
from his earlier books, not because he didn't like
them, but because they just didn't happen to
fit in the perfect order he was looking for in
a given collection. Toni Markiet, editor of the
new collection, worked on other projects
alongside Silverstein. Markiet says the poet
paid close attention to every last detail.

Think Antholio!
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"He would move a piece of art over an 18th of an
inch ... and look at how it looked on a page," she
tells NPR's David Greene. " ... It's a slight
adjustment, but to him, it mattered. I think one
of the reasons his books are still so immensely
popular after almost 50 years is that every tiny
detail was considered."
To stay true to Silverstein's aesthetic, Markiet
worked closely with the poet's family and used
previous books as a template for the
balance and pacing of the poetry and
illustrations. The right-hand side of every page
had to entice young readers to turn to the next
page. The poetry needed to be arranged
carefully to create a mix of funny, poignant and
naughty.
 "I think he liked to mix it up," Markiet says, "so
that a child or any reader would never be bored.
You could let it open at any page and you
would be entertained."
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"Every Thing On It" was chosen as the book's
titular poem in part because of the lively art that
accompanied it. A boy — who has asked for a hot
dog with "everything on it" — holds a bun piled sky
high with a basketball hoop, a snake, a hat, an
umbrella, you name it.
"If you look at [Silverstein's] other books, the title
was part of the artwork," Markiet explains. "To
him, typography and layout was part of the
whole. The art is wonderful. I mean, you look at it
and you wonder: What is he doing with all that
stuff on a hot dog? It makes you want to turn [the
page.]"
'Poems Need To Be Read Out Loud‘
There were more than 1,500 poems to choose
from, says Mitch Myers, Silverstein's nephew. To
whittle the collection down to just 145, a small
team of Silverstein's family members got together
once a month for about a year to read the
poet's verses aloud. They shared their favorites,
and separated
 the maybes,
 the nos
 and the keepers.


"We believe ... that poems need to be read out
loud," Myers says. "This is one of the joys of the
book, and we really were able to determine if it
really worked when we said it out loud."
The collection was carefully pieced together, as
the family sought to do justice to a poet and
illustrator who was sensitively attuned to pacing,
balance, humor and timing.
 "These are his poems, this is his art," says
Markiet. "We didn't do anything to them. We
simply chose them out of the ones that had not
had a chance to be published yet."

Dirty Clothes
 Some put 'em in a washer,
Some toss 'em in a tub,
Some dump 'em in a laundry truck
For someone else to scrub.
Some stick 'em in a hamper,
Some stuff 'em in a sack.
I never worry 'bout 'em—
I just keep 'em on my back

Italian Food
Oh, how I love Italian food.
I eat it all the time,
Not just 'cause how good it tastes
But 'cause how good it rhymes.
Minestrone, cannelloni,
Macaroni, rigatoni,
Spaghettini, scallopini,
Escarole, braciole,
Insalata, cremolata, manicotti,
Marinara, carbonara,
Shrimp francese, Bolognese,
Ravioli, mostaccioli,
Mozzarella, tagliatelle,
Fried zucchini, rollatini,
Fettuccine, green linguine,
Tortellini, Tetrazzini,
Oops—I think I split my jeani.
You’ve loved him most of your life.
You can learn from his life as well:
Have fun with words.
 Pay attention to detail and layout.
 Read poems aloud.
 Choose and organize carefully
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Make your Antholios AWESOME!