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Fossil [15 words or less poems]
OK, I think I have the Comment settings figured out so that it’s easier to Comment now. I just thought nobody was coming by! And, today’s the last day of the 99-cent sale of the Kindle edition of Riddle-ku: Haiku for Very Close Reading. Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines

Pencil Riddle-ku
Hi, you guys! Since the Kindle edition (you don’t have to have a Kindle to read it, though) of Riddle-ku: Haiku for Very Close Reading, part of my 30 Painless Classroom Poems series, is on sale for 99 cents

Photopoem Summer Splashings Gallery
Have you guys seen what ELA consultant Carol Varsalona does each season at Beyond LiteracyLink? She puts out a call for photopoems, gathers them all up, and then creates a gallery online of everyone’s photopoems! I know she puts a ton of time into each one of these. Her Summer Splashings gallery went live last

A Forest Riddle-ku
Hiya, everyone. If you are a subscriber to the blog, you should have received an email notification about this post. My awesome web designer worked with WordPress Support yesterday and got everything straightened out. Thanks! And if you’re not a subscriber but you’d like to be, you can do that in the sidebar to the

The Giant Spider [15 words or less poems]
Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines are here)! Well, I think I’ve used this photo before, but I honestly can’t recall…and if I did, it was several years ago. So, I’m going to use it! This sculpture called Maman, by Louise Bourgeois, makes me think:

Found Poems with the Poetry Sisters [Poetry Friday]
Happy Poetry Friday! Last month, we Poetry Sisters wrote classified haiku. This month…found poems! This past month has been chaos for me, as our younger daughter Maddie prepared to move to Scotland

The Arch [15 words or less poems]
Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines are here)!

Bull vs. Bear [15 words or less poems]
Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines are here)!

poetryaction and bookalikes for Lost and Found
Happy Poetry Friday! (Wondering what Poetry Friday is? Click here.) I love the whimsy of Oliver Jeffers’ books and the beauty and simplicity of his art. Sigh.

Big Fish [15 words or less poems]
Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)!

poetryaction for Totally Secret Secret
Who could not love Bob Shea’s Ballet Cat and Sparkles the Pony? In The Totally Secret Secret, you will recognize real kid behavior and the negotiations of friendship. I can’t wait for the next one coming out in 2016. Anyway, I thought about the secrets we keep that we shouldn’t, the ones that reveal our

poetryaction and bookalikes for Popcorn Astronauts
Popcorn Astronauts is full of zany and delightful poems about food, and it put me in mind of one of my favorite desserts, bomboloni from Biaggi’s. My sister Patty and I always go get it when she comes up to visit from Florida. And we each get our own order. (We don’t even order a

Eros [15 words or less poems]
Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! Continuing my reliving of this past Father’s Day, we admired the big Eros sculpture outside of the Minneapolis Institute of Art. I could swear I featured a photo of this sculpture years ago, with someone looking out of one of the eyes. But

poetryaction for Wherever You Go
For Wherever You Go,?I wondered how I would describe my own perfect path. And I wanted to use rhyme, which this book by Pat Zietlow Miller (beautifully illustrated by Eliza Wheeler) does in such a lovely way. I think it would be fun to have students write (but not necessarily in rhyme!) about the qualities

poetryaction and bookalikes for Yard Sale
In Yard Sale, a lovely book by Eve Bunting and illustrated by Lauren Castillo, those cheery balloons at the yard sale,
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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