Blog
Beads [15 words or less]
Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! Here’s a pic from a chandelier in our hotel on our recent drum corps trip to NY. This image makes me think of: 1) Bubbles in the sea 2) a super-fancy necklace (hey, anybody remember the Empress Carlotta (sp?) episode of the Dick
Niagara Falls [15 words or less]
Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! Here’s a pic from our amazing overnight Niagara Falls stop that Randy and I made on our way home from drum corps championships in Rochester, NY. (I shared more pics on my Water board in Pinterest.) Follow Laura’s board Water, Water, All Around
A Can Be… Nonfiction Project for Schools
What did I do this summer? I spent three weeks with K‑5 summer school students in a local school district. It was the most intense visiting author program I’ve ever done. Three weeks, four sites, 1700 students. Whew! It was hard work and incredibly rewarding. I shared this process in my Salas Snippets e‑letter for
Poetry Friday — Until I Saw the Sea, by Lilian Moore
Hi, poetry people! I’m over at Teaching Authors for my Poetry Friday post and my farewell to Teaching Authors. I hope you’ll stop by and read the lovely Lilian Moore poem I’m sharing.
Big Wheels [15 words or less]
Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! I took this picture while riding somewhere in outstate Minnesota, through farm country. I don’t even know exactly what it is, but I’d love to see it in action! This image makes me think of: 1) tinkers that went from town to town
Weeds [15 words or less]
Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! When I was walking Captain Jack the other night, the sun shining on these weeds caught my eye. This image makes me think of: 1) a UFO shining down 2) butterflies in chrysalises, waiting to fly 3) slugs–ugh! And here’s my?first draft: Chrysalis
Lamp [15 words or less]
Photo: Laura Purdie Salas Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! Randy and I went to the American Idol concert last week, and I took this picture of a lamp in the lobby.?It makes me think of: 1)?butterfly wings 2)’sunrise 3) shuffling a deck of cards And here’s my?first draft
Statue [15 words or less]
Photo: Laura Purdie Salas Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! Here’s a pic I snapped in Vegas last spring. It makes me think of: 1)?a’deck of cards 2)?gila monsters and how their bacteria-laden saliva is what kills their prey 3) standup paddleboarding And here’s my?first draft: Conqueror I?rule over
Camp Read-a-Lot in Rochester, Minnesota
Last Tuesday, I presented to Camp Read-a-Lot in Rochester, MN. We had about 30 educators for a day of learning and talking about great nonfiction and poetry books. Here are some highlights (you can click on any thumbnail to view a bigger pic). Thank you, SELCO (Southeastern Libraries Cooperating), for organizing such a wonderful event!
Shooting Star [15 words or less]
Photo: Laura Purdie Salas Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! Here’s a little prop from our?Minnesota Brass show this season, Supernova!?It makes me think of: 1)?a shooting star 2)?a squid 3) New Year’s Eve And here’s my?first draft: Comet I arc above Stars applaud my sparkling wake of dust
Hands [15 words or less]
Photo: Laura Purdie Salas Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! Our drum corps, Minnesota Brass, rehearsed at a middle school over the weekend, and this interesting sculpture was hanging in the corner. It makes me think of: 1)?a dandelion 2)?Freddy Krueger (there’s a scene in particular in reminds me
Fungus [15 words or less]
Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! Here’s a picture I took during my nature-poetry-writing workshop in Bemidji, MN, earlier this summer.?This image makes me think of: 1)?cauliflower 2)?Alice in Wonderland 3) s’mores! And here’s my?first draft: When I Eat S’mores, I Taste…? smoky ghost stories, crisp Superior winds, crunchy,
Go Fly a Kite, by Laura Purdie Salas [Poetry Friday]
Today’s poem comes from the fabulous Poetry Friday Anthology for Science, edited by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong. This latest offering in their Poetry Friday Anthology series is chock-full of poems exploring everything from physics to scientific methods to nature to machines to scientists. There’s a teacher’s edition, and then grade by grade student editions–with
Metal Woman [15 words or less]
Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! Here’s a forgotten photo I found on my phone . This is a sculpture in an art gallery in one of the skyways in downtown Minneapolis.?This image makes me think of: 1)?the Jetsons 2)?how would you shower if you were made of metal?
Hoofing It [15 words or less]
Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! Happy Thursday, and if you’re visiting as a result of Mary Lee Hahn’s kind shoutout at nErDcamp MI, welcome! We love having new people drop by and give this a try–or use it with their students, even if they never post. On the
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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