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Tectonic Rift [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. A favorite site in Iceland was the rift in Thingvellir National Park, where two tectonic plates meet. The earth is oh-so-slowly bubbling up between those plates, molten lava
A Novel in Verse–Still Writing After All These Years
Today, I am revising some poems that are part of a novel in verse. I first started this project 16 years ago as a picture book cycle of poems (a la Ralph Fletcher’s Moving Day). (Freewriting about the project started even 2 years before that!) It swelled to 100 poems with one editor’s input and
OLW update–CLEAR on What I Want [Slice of Life]
[Head over to Two Writing Teachers for links to more Slice of Life posts!] During the past couple of months, I’ve worked on being verbally clear about what I want. I sometimes expect others to be mind readers, which is not fair. When my husband and I went to Iceland recently, I got better at
National Poetry Month Plans: #wonderbreak [Poetry Friday]
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) Holy moley. Where has March gone? I know I have one more Poetry Friday post before National Poetry Month starts, but I thought I’d share my plans here a bit early in case anyone else has not planned ahead and would like to join in:>)
Moonglow [15 Words or Less]
Hello, and welcome! I’m interrupting the normal broadcast to let you know that Tina Cho has an interview with me today, which you can read here. Thanks, Tina! It’s all moon, all week long, since my launch party is tonight for If You Were the Moon. (And that means today is the last day to
Lava Cave [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. For most of spring, I’m guessing, my pics will come from the wonderful trip Randy and I took to Paris and Iceland. I’ll be sharing more about the
Literacy Night at Knapp
Last night, I visited Knapp Elementary School in Knapp, Wisconsin, for a literacy celebration. It was easy to see Principal Kristin Humphrey is a reading specialist by training–books are celebrated everywhere in the school! I especially loved these displays of artwork related to my book A ROCK CAN BE… The kids and I read a
Searching — an Ekphrastic Poem with the Poetry Princesses [Poetry Friday]
Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) This month, we returned to ekphrastic poems, and Tanita chose our image. I filtered it, but you can see the original here. I was looking at it on my phone, and I couldn’t see what was inside that blue round thing. It just
The Bumble Ball [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. Back a couple of weeks ago, game night had a toy theme, and I came across this pic of our daughter, Annabelle, with one of her favorite childhood
Last Leaf [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. Our maple tree has been bare for ages, except for one or two last, lonely leaves. This image makes me think of several things:
Whale Postcard [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 sister Patty has always been the artist in our family. She is crafty and artistic, though she hasn’t had much time for any creative outlets other than
Barely the Moon [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. Last night, as Randy and I were driving home from downtown, there was this cool contrail like a long thin cloud shearing the night sky. It was right
One Day Too Late–Villanelles from the Poetry Princesses [Poetry Friday]
Happy Poetry Friday! Welcome, everyone! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) So, last Saturday, I looked at our Poetry Princess challenge list for this year and discovered we were sharing villanelles this week. On the theme of brevity or shortness. Which was funny, because a villanelle is a long poem to me. And scary,
Party Boar [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. A couple of weeks ago, Randy and I went to an exhibit called Martin Luther and the Reformation at the Minneapolis Institute of Art. It was great, but
Ice Carving [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 often use filters, but this pic of the thin layer of ice on our street (which I was sliding around on while walking Jack), didn’t want one:>)
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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