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Roll the Bones [15 Words or Less]

Hello, and welcome! This is 15 Words or Less Poems, a low-pressure way to wake up your poetry brain (guidelines here), and I’m very glad you’re here.  I love board games, and there’s a dice game we play with family (can’t remember the name of the game) that has loads of different kinds of dice.

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Mosquitoes and Mexican Free-Tailed Bats [Poetry Friday]

Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) This week, I’m delighted to share Marilyn Singer’s new poetry collection, Wild in the Streets: 20 Poems of City Animals! (ill. by Gordy Wright, published by Quarto Publishing) I’ve been a fan of Marilyn’s poetry for such a long time. She writes in such a

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Pond Aerator [15 Words or Less]

Hello, and welcome! This is 15 Words or Less Poems, a low-pressure way to wake up your poetry brain (guidelines here), and I’m very glad you’re here.  At the amusement park in August, I took this pic of a bubbler in a pond. This image makes me think of several things:

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Snack, Snooze, Skedaddle: How Animals Get Ready for Winter, by Laura Purdie Salas and Claudine Gévry (Millbrook Press)

Dot Day and Giveaway Winners for Snack, Snooze, Skedaddle!

It’s International Dot Day–a great day to think about how you and your students might make your mark on the world! Read more here. Here are the two dots I’ve made in years past. And it’s the day I’m announcing the 5 winners of signed copies of Snack, Snooze, Skedaddle: How Animals Get Ready for

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Bear spread from Snack, Snooze, Skedaddle

The Opening of Snack, Snooze, Skedaddle + a Giveaway! [Poetry Friday]

Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) Last week, my final picture book of 2019 published (I blogged about it here), and it’s a rhyming nonfiction book. I thought I’d share the opening two quatrains as my poem this week and invite you to enter a giveaway that ends Sunday

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Snakes with the Poetry Princesses [Poetry Friday]

Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) So, this month, our Poetry Princess challenge was, apparently, my choice. Last week, Sara emailed the group to say, “Are we still doing Laura’s challenge? September — Laura — A poem comparing something with a snake — some snake pairing you think has

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ELO Light Show [15 Words or Less]

Hello, and welcome! This is 15 Words or Less Poems, a low-pressure way to wake up your poetry brain (guidelines here), and I’m very glad you’re here.  Summer’s over, folks! What a whirlwind mine was, and you’ll probably learn more about it from the photos I share here on coming Thursdays:>) My husband and I

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Roller Coaster [15 Words or Less]

NOTE: Some readers are commenting and not seeing their own comments show up, even though they are showing up for me and others! I don’t know what’s causing this and am hopeful the WordPress or other platform gods will figure out how to solve the problem sometime soon. Meanwhile, please know that your comments are

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Henna [15 Words or Less]

NOTE: Some readers are commenting and not seeing their own comments show up, even though they are showing up for me and others! I don’t know what’s causing this and am hopeful the WordPress or other platform gods will figure out how to solve the problem sometime soon. Meanwhile, please know that your comments are

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Camping in Fall and Lee Bennett Hopkins #PoetryFriday

NOTE: Some readers are commenting and not seeing their own comments show up, even though they are showing up for me and others! I don’t know what’s causing this and am hopeful the WordPress or other platform gods will figure out how to solve the problem sometime soon. Meanwhile, please know that I AM seeing

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Rearview Mirror [15 Words or Less]

Hello, and welcome! This is 15 Words or Less Poems, a low-pressure way to wake up your poetry brain (guidelines here), and I’m very glad you’re here.  We live near our state capitol building, and the other day as we were driving somewhere, I saw the building neatly framed in my rearview mirror and snapped

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In Memory of Lee Bennett Hopkins [Poetry Friday]

It’s a sad Poetry Friday today. (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) NOTE: Some readers are commenting and not seeing their own comments show up, even though they are showing up for me and others! I don’t know what’s causing this and am hopeful the WordPress or other platform gods will figure out how

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A Pig in the Audience [15 Words or Less]

NOTE: Some readers are commenting and not seeing their own comments show up, even though they are showing up for me and others! I don’t know what’s causing this and am hopeful the WordPress or other platform gods will figure out how to solve the problem sometime soon. Meanwhile, please know that I AM seeing

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Raise Your Gaze — an Ekphrastic Definito [Poetry Friday]

Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) Well, it’s the first Friday of the month, so of course I’m sharing a poem written in concert with my Poetry Sisters. This month, we wrote ekphrastic poems inspired by several pictures Sarah took in Israel. I was running very late and hadn’t even started

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Drumsticks [15 Words or Less]

Hello, and welcome! This is 15 Words or Less Poems, a low-pressure way to wake up your poetry brain (guidelines here), and I’m very glad you’re here.  Hello, poets of all kinds! It’s a rare unfiltered photo this week! But…still a mall one.   This image makes me think of several things:

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