Blog

Equationpoems from Young Authors Conference #PoetryFriday
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) [My husband had shoulder surgery yesterday, and in the confusion, I posted this Poetry Friday post Wednesday night instead of Thursday night. Oops!] The week of Memorial Day, I taught at Success Beyond the Classroom’s Young Authors Conference–something I look forward to each year! This

Skinny Poems 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 a skinny. I was excited because I saw some of these at Margaret Simon’s blog a while back and wanted to try them. A Skinny has 11 lines, and lines 1 and 11 can be

Fruity Bath? [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 have missed you guys a lot on all these various weeks I haven’t been home to comment! Can you tell what this is? This image makes me

Formerly Known As… [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. Prince’s death was a HUGE deal here in Minneapolis, and while walking around the mall before my WW meeting last week, I saw this large artwork (filtered here)

Three Days of Poetry at Isanti Intermediate School [Poetry Friday]
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) Last week, I was honored to spend three days with 4th and 5th graders playing with poetry. We wrote 15 Words or Less Poems, Paint Chip Poems, Things To Do If You Are… Poems, I Am Poems, Found Poems (using pages from National Geographic that

Who Will You Be Today? [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. Thank you all for your poems and kind words last week. Though I was teaching (more about my poetry residency tomorrow) and couldn’t respond, I did read them

Ladybug, Ladybug [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 am on the third and final day of a poetry residency with 4th- and 5th-graders today, so I won’t be able to comment on poems. This spring

My Poems at the TLA Poetry Round Up #PoetryFriday
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend the Texas Library Association conference in Austin to take part in Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong’s awesome Poetry Round Up. What a great event! I’m sharing the clip of the poems I read here: And

Mask [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. Here’s another piece from the art crawl at the mall:>) This image makes me think of several things:

Floor Bunny [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. When I went to my WW meeting a couple of weeks ago, there was an art display throughout the mall. I love this bunny version of hopscotch! This

Korean War Veterans Memorial [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. The Korean War Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC is so haunting. This image makes me think of several things:

DC Trees [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. My regulars, I’ve missed you the past two weeks! I was on a weeklong school visit one week, a mini writing retreat last week, and now I’ve just

Introducing Lion of the Sky #PoetryFriday
lie down in whiteness kick and SWISH and wave your arms give me winter wings –Laura Purdie Salas, from Lion of the Sky I’m so excited about this book, my third and final poetry collection of the spring! If you’d like to learn

Lighted Moose [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 actually don’t know where I took this photo, but it was in January, and it made me smile. This image makes me think of several things:

Poetry-Palooza Book Launch Photos
On Saturday, I celebrated my three spring releases with a launch at Red Balloon Bookshop! It was so great to share SNOWMAN-COLD=PUDDLE (Charlesbridge), IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT (Wordsong), and LION OF THE SKY (Millbrook) with readers! Click for more images, but here’s my favorite!
Subscribe to Blog via Email
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