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Hay! [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. Before today’s challenge, I want to share some lovely news from Elaine Magliaro (author of the glorious picture book Things to Do) shared on Facebook recently that two
Spurious Sayings [Poetry Friday]
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) Here’s my final poem I wrote for the Madness Poetry competition created by Ed DeCaria–this is the one that kicked me from the tourney in the Final Four, where it was beaten by a fabulous Cinderella poem by Amelia Shearer. Our word was “spurious.”
Camel [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. While in Cyprus, we went to a camel park–and rode camels! I loved this handsome fellow. This image makes me think of several things:
Together. Three. [Poetry Friday]
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) This week has been a rough week. I went to a celebration of life for the husband of a friend, and I’ve had a lot of stress both personally (moving in a couple of weeks!) and professionally. As I reread this week’s poem, I remembered
Mosaic Sky [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 really have a thing for airport art. Here’s a close-up of a piece of a mosaic: This image makes me think of several things:
Things I Will Miss When We Move — an Aphra Behn Poem [Poetry Friday]
Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) You know what happens when you collaborate? You stretch. You grow. You learn. Even if it’s not always a comfortable process, it’s well worth it! This month, our Poetry Princess challenge was an Aphra Behn poem. Nope, never heard of it. Turns out
Refugee Camp Mural [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 in the United States, we celebrated our independence and freedom yesterday. (Hope you had a fun holiday!) I thought this might be a good week to share
A Thousand Nicknames for Snow [Poetry Friday]
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) This might be an odd choice for the end of June(!), but I’m continuing along with sharing the poems I wrote for the Madness Poetry competition created by Ed DeCaria. This was for Round 3, and my assigned word was “parlance.”
Tower Bridge [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 boats and water and bridges. I took this pic while we were on our Thames Rocket boat tour, as the guide explained to us that when
Poems of Empathy — #PoetryFriday
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I’m taking a break from sharing my Madness Poetry poems to ask you to go back and look at 1 or 2 student poems I shared earlier this week. I shared photos of 12 or so pairs of very brief poems related to asylum-seekers. I’m
Swan [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. In the flat we stayed in in London (Canary Wharf area) for a few days, we could feed the ducks and birds right off our balcony or from
A Compassionate Point of View in Poetry — World Refugee Day
Wednesday, June 20, is World Refugee Day, and I wanted to share a poetry-writing activity I did with 3rd-8th graders in case you’re looking for a writing activity with one of your summer programs (or in years to come). Almost every year, I teach at Success Beyond the Classroom’s Young Authors Conference at Bethel University
Right Now [Poetry Friday]
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) Here’s the second of the poems I wrote for the Madness Poetry competition created by Ed DeCaria. My assigned word was “doling.” The background image is of two people I love on a rock by the Mediterranean Sea. Despite all the horrors of the news,
London Eye [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 a picture of the London Eye Ferris Wheel. I took it from my seat on a Thames Rocket Boat–what a ride! This image (the London Eye, not
What We All Need [Poetry Friday]
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I thought that this month, I’d share the poems I wrote for the Madness Poetry competition created by Ed DeCaria. Here was my first-round poem, written with the assigned word “coordinates.” I wanted to play a bit with repetition and refrains during the competition, so
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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