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First Date Haiku [Poetry Friday]
Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) Well, in this world of chaos right now, poetry is one of the things keeping me calm and grounded. This month’s Poetry Princess challenge theme was “classic,” any form, any topic. I didn’t really know how to interpret that. But since my personal
Irish Memories — a Fogbow Fibonacci #WaterPoemProject
Here’s today’s imagepoem for Laura Shovan’s #WaterPoemProject. Our challenge was a Fibonacci poem inspired by or about a fogbow. Fogbow is a kind of rainbow, which made me think of Ireland, which made me think about our amazing trip there several years ago. Hope to go back someday!
Found Haiku from Wonderopolis
Laura Shovan has organized an awesome daily poetry prompt (around the theme of water) for students and grown-ups. I don’t know if I’ll be able to play every single day, but I’m going to do it as often as I can! Here’s today’s:
Belief in Birds and Asking Teachers for Poetry Tips #PoetryFriday
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) Before I share my poem, I have a favor to ask of any of you teachers. I will be presenting very soon about writing poetry with students. My audience will be pre-service teachers in a course about literacy for birth through grade 3, and I’d
Author Visit at Rogers Elementary
I had three awesome school visits in February, and each one was a pleasure. But I’m going to share a few pictures from the last one, which was at Rogers Elementary School in Rogers, Minnesota. Holly Dragisich, the media specialist and school librarian, organized my three-day visit. The unusual thing was that this visit was
More Than Two Sides [Poetry Friday]
Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) Before moving on to my poem this week, I have a question for you. Do you know of one or a few kids ages 4–6 who would like to be in the book trailer for my first fiction picture book? The book comes
Fairy Ring [Poetry Friday]
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I wasn’t planning to post this week as I’ve been on school visits, and also because of my commenting debacle last week. Fingers crossed for this week! But the awesome poetry workshop kids at Hassan Elementary reminded me that playing with words is the whole
Sacred Land #PoetryFriday
[NOTE: COMMENTS ARE FIXED NOW–THANK YOU FOR NOTIFYING ME!} Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) Each winter, I get to play games on 6 Friday nights with a spectacular group of creative people (some in the kidlit world, others in entirely different worlds). A couple of weeks ago, David LaRochelle was
Your Song #PoetryFriday
Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I mentioned that I was going to try writing poems in 20 different places this year for #20for20. I don’t know if I shared my list of places here yet, but one of them was the orchestra. That’s where I jotted down the
Haiku to Welcome the New Year
Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) We’re changing things up for 2020 and posting on the last Friday of the month. Or, you know, we kinda failed to get our act together for the First Friday, and…well, never mind. We’re here now, and that’s what’s important. Thank you, Liz
Grateful for…
I wanted to share a few more things I’m grateful for, because the harder or more stressful things are, the more it helps to focus on that. My husband Randy has been going through some painful medical procedures lately, with a scary fever and 3‑night hospital stay. I’m so grateful for all the love, support,
Toilet Gets Bummed Out and Dreamy from In the Middle of the Night [#PoetryFriday]
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) This is Week 3 (Week 1 here and Week 2 here) of my sharing a few bits from my three books on the 2020 NCTE Poetry Notables list! So honored about this! And more big news to be very grateful for: Lion of the
3 Equations from Snowman-Cold=Puddle [#PoetryFriday]
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) This is Week 2 (Week 1 here) of my sharing a few bits from my three books on the 2020 NCTE Poetry Notables list! So honored about this! Before I share tidbits, I have to show you this. You might know how my very
Winter Haiku from Lion of the Sky [Poetry Friday]
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I am gob-smacked to share that I have THREE books on the 2020 NCTE Poetry Notables list! I am so happy! The committee is made up of teacher educators, poets, and poetry lovers, and I know they spent much time and discussion on creating
2020 — What Will It Bring Here on My Blog?
This year, time just feels like a flooded river rushing by. I didn’t do much wrap-up of the end of the year, and I am ill-prepared for the start of the year. Oh, well! I thought I’d just share a few things about my writing life and what I plan to do here on the
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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