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Poetry Friday: Get Smart With the Periodic Table (by me)
Happy Poetry Friday! I thought I’d share my light verse poem that recently appeared in KNOW Magazine, which is a Canadian science magazine for kids. The theme for the issue was the elements, and I had fun poring over the periodic table for the first time mumble, mumble years. Get Smart with the Periodic TableI know
Write After Reading: Living the Life Poetic (Chapter 71)
It’s Wednesday again, time for Write After Reading!Write After Reading: Living the Life Poetic is a weekly online book club with poetry participation. It alternates between my blog and Susan Taylor Brown’s blog. Last week, we did Chapter 63: Taking Shape, Experimenting with Poetic Forms at Susan’s blog. Zip over there and take a read if you missed it. This week,
Revising a Poetry Collection, Day 3
Yay! It’s day 3 of the 4 days I set aside for revising my current poetry collection. I did day 2 last week at Barnes & Noble, and it was a tough one. I was trying to work in setting and sensory words, without making my poems any longer (I spent revision day 1 trying
March Your Dots, or Guide to Another Writer?
In color guard, there are two conflicting techniques for how to know where you should be on the field at any given beat of music: March Your Dots — Know exactly what your position should be for every step–for instance, 3 steps outside the 45-yard line and 8 steps behind the front hash mark. Guide
An Actual Writing Day!
Between freelance work and family obligations (especially over the summer, when I practically wear a chauffeur uniform), I don’t get much time to work on the writing I love. That’s why I am so excited to have carved out several chunks of days to work on a poetry project. I’ve finished draft 2 of this
Even-ing Out the Scales, Staying Sane, and Finding Balance
I’ve said how hard my color guard experience has been. (Here’s how my color guard adventure started out…) It’s tough on everything–my body, my schedule, my brain…My body’s taking the most beating, though. I’ve had two black eyes, too many big bruises to count, swollen fingers, and a knee that now seems to be permanently
Write After Reading: Living the Life Poetic (Chapter 58)
Write After Reading: Living the Life Poetic is a weekly online book club with poetry participation. It alternates between my blog and Susan Taylor Brown’s blog. Susan led last week’s episode, and we did a very cool exercise of writing poems to given titles. Terrific results! This week, we’re doing Chapter 58: Writing the Zeitgeist. Here’s where I
Wait. There’s More? Seriously?
I’ve gotten a few emails recently asking about my color guard progress, since I haven’t posted about it. (Here’s how my color guard adventure started out…) I haven’t posted because I have no time! This activity is more time-consuming than I ever planned, because I have to practice so much more at home to still
Praising Everything at Young Authors Conferences
Week before last, I spent Tuesday through Friday at Young Authors Conferences here in the Twin Cities. I’ve been doing this for four or five years now, and I always enjoy it. The 4th-8th graders are, in general, very smart, enthusiastic, and excited to be college students for the day. My poetry workshop was on
Write After Reading: Living the Life Poetic (Chapter 43)
Write After Reading: Living the Life Poetic is a weekly online book club with poetry participation. It alternates between my blog and Susan Taylor Brown’s blog. Susan led last week’s discussion, which included a really cool Mad Lib exercise. This week, we’ll be talking about Chapter 43: I’m So Adjective, I Verb Nouns: On Word Choice. I get into
Write After Reading: Living the Life Poetic (Chapter 29)
Write After Reading: Living the Life Poetic is a weekly online book club with poetry participation. It alternates between my blog and Susan Taylor Brown’s blog. Susan hosted about Small Stones in this week’s post, and here we’re talking this week about Chapter 29: Making Music: Rhyme, Rhythm, and Repetition. Song lyrics are some of my favorite poems,
Risking Failure Is Fun. Failure Stinks.
This year, I’ve been really stretching out of my comfort zone in both my writing and in my free time. (Here’s how my color guard adventure started out…) Recently, I’ve taken a couple of hard knocks in both arenas. In writing, I’ve needed to branch out beyond my usual age range/form to try to earn
Write After Reading: Living the Life Poetic (Chapter 27)
Write After Reading: Living the Life Poetic is a weekly online book club with poetry participation. It alternates between my blog and Susan Taylor Brown’s blog. Last week, we worked on line breaks at Susan’s blog. And the week before, we worked on sound diagrams right here, and I’ve been putting that tactic to work
Acting Out “After the Storm”: Teacher Tips
Friday, I posted my poem “After the Storm” from PoetryTagTime, the fun, inexpensive (99 cents!), teacher-friendly e‑anthology of the 30 poems from Sylvia Vardell’s Poetry Tag feature for National Poetry Month. Yesterday, at the PoetryTagTime Tips blog, Sylvia posted some great teaching tips for teachers to use with my acrostic poem, including a Poetry Performance idea. I love this! When
Poetry Friday: After the Storm (by me)
Roger Sutton recently posted about Poetry Tag Time, the e‑anthology brilliantly created by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong to try to make poetry more accessible and get it into more classrooms. 30 fun and fantastic kids’ poems for only 99 cents! So I thought I’d share my poem from it here and encourage you all to
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Are You Looking For?
Go to my Poetry page for:
- National Poetry Month projects through the years
- Small Reads Roundups (poems grouped by topic)
- Introductions to several favorite poetry forms