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Quotation Motivation: I Never Thought of It Like That
“Reading poetry to strangers is a very intimate act. It’s kind of like a poetic lap dance.” –Billeh Nickerson OK, I’ve gotten a little bit better at reading my poetry aloud in a teaching context. At young authors conferences or school visits, I share my poems and talk about the process, and that’s all good.
Poetry Friday: Bling (The Killers)
We went to a Killers concert a couple of weeks ago, and I thought I’d share some lyrics for Poetry Friday. This is the opening of “Bling,” (lyrics, I assume, by Brandon Flowers, but I can’t find proper credit on their site). “Bling (Confession Of A King)” When I offer you survival, You say it’s
Quotation Motivation: Open to the Sky
“A poem is a cup of words open to the sky and wind in a bucket.” –Naomi Shihab Nye, The Poetry Paper, no. 3, 2006 I love this definition of a poem. And today, Inauguration Day, something about it fills me with hope. I went looking for a quotation about hope this morning, actually, but
Do Nothing in 2009
OK, I finally have a theme. I’ve had 2009 goal lists done for a while now, but no theme. Drum roll, please. Ba-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-dum…My 2009 theme is DO NOTHINGI am not a do-nothing kind of person. I’m always multi-tasking, and while this makes me efficient, I think I’m missing out on some important parts of life.
Poetry Friday: Acrostics
I love to write acrostics–they’re fun and they often come fairly easily. But not always. Stop by Kid Magazine Writers to see my Meter Readers column, Acrostics: Poetry, Top to Bottom. In it, I share my process and also some of my struggles And here’s one of my acrostics from the article, which I was
Poetry Friday: Cinquains Everywhere!
Cinquains are everywhere lately! They’re a fun, simple form that can pack a big punch. Check out Kelly Fineman’s Kid Magazine Writers — Meter Readers column on cinquains! I learned some new things reading her column. Here’s a cinquain from my book, Fuzzy-Fast Blur: Poems About Pets (Capstone 2008), which I blogged about here. Perfect
Poetry Friday: Written in the Stars (original poem)
I’ve been thinking about a variation on acrostics this week. They’re called phrase acrostics, and I hadn’t really heard of them until an instructor mentioned them in a poetry class I was taking last year at the Loft Literary Center. When she explained that you take a phrase or quotation and write a poem
Weaving: an autumn cinquain
It’s time for Pensieve’s monthly poetry challenge, Poetic License! The challenge this time? An autumn cinquain. I love cinquain, and I love autumn. This is one I actually wrote to a different image, and this is the closest I could find to share. Weaving???? Sunlight threads through stiff trees weaving a gold brown cloth The
Summer Souvenirs (an original poem)
Miss Rumphius’ Poetry Stretch this week was to come up with a summer poem. I confess I don’t like summer, which is heresy here in Minnesota. But on one of my many chauffeuring trips yesterday, I came up with part of this, so here goes: Summer Souvenirs sunshinevinyl seatsback of legssticking swimming poolcurly slidespopsiclelicking state parkcamping
What I Did at the Young Authors Conference
I’m sharing this not because it’s some stellar presentation, but because it’s always so helpful to me when people share the activities they do at school visits. I wouldn’t copy anything exactly, but it gives me good ideas and let’s me know what’s realistic. At the Young Authors Conference, I taught 3 sessions per day,
Twisted
This week’s Friday’s 40 at Pensieve is a great image! I love pictures of branches and trees. I’m not feeling great, but I want to participate. So, here goes…a little poem skeleton: Before School perched on a stoolencircled by Mom’s kneesas she pulledtuggedturned braiding orderinto my hairinto my life –by Laura Purdie Salas It’s not
Young Authors Conference: Individual Poems from May 21
I presented at a Young Authors Conference yesterday and worked with 4th and 5th graders all day at Anoka Ramsey Community College in Minnesota. What a great group! After some brainstorming and group writing, the kids wrote individual poems (cinquains) from the point of view of either a castle or the Loch Ness Monster. The
Young Authors Conference: Group Poems from May 21
Hi! Thank you for your attention and participation and enthusiasm yesterday. You guys rocked! I had so much fun writing poetry with you, and I hope you did, too. Here are the three group poems we wrote yesterday. For anybody reading this who wasn’t there, we worked on cinquains that were first-person from the point
Poetry Friday: A Sale!
I’m extremely excited to be able to share, finally, that I just signed and returned a contract to Clarion for a second picture book poetry collection! This collection of poems about books has kind of an interesting genesis, as I wrote 13 of the poems to submit for an anthology. Not one of them
Poetry Friday: A Crown Sonnet
I am so proud to be part of the crown sonnet project called Cutting a Swath, which a group of us are publishing on our blogs today! You can read all about the project at Liz in Ink, where Liz Garton Scanlon has the entire crown sonnet posted as well as links to each poet’s post
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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