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[My Writing Life] Crying During Poetry Readings

Yesterday, I posted about a retreat/conference I was part of recently. As part of that, I was asked to present a Pick 5 booktalk of 5 great recent poetry books. And I only had 5 minutes. Well, the best way to share a poetry book is to read a poem from it, so I chose

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[15 Words or Less Poems] Webs

Photo: Laura Purdie Salas Wake up your poetry brains with 15 Words or Less (guidelines here)! This week’s image makes me think of: 1)?Scuba diving 2) Bat wings 3) Wading in Lake Superior and feeling the sharp rocks right through my water shoes And here’s my poem first draft: My Feet need gentle things: rainy

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Thoughts

[Reading Life] Why I’m Not Reading Good Books Anymore

As my life gets busier, my reading time is eroding. Thus, my new vow: I am not going to read good books. You read that right. I am not going to read good books. Instead, I’m saving my reading time for great books. When I find myself thinking, “This is decent,” but I’m thinking ahead

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[Poetry Friday] Sea Change (Another Rachel Carson poem)

Last Friday, I shared a poem I wrote about Rachel Carson. That poem appeared in Cricket Magazine. Today, I’m sharing the second Rachel Carson poem I wrote (this is when I was working on poems for Dare to Dream). I always knew that a time hook was great for articles, but it helps with poetry,

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[Poetry Friday] Rachel Carson: Reborn at Sea

While working on poems to submit for Dare to Dream, the fantastic new anthology edited by Jill Corcoran, I wrote two poems about environmental pioneer Rachel Carson. Jill chose a different poem, but I’m excited to say that both my Carson poems will be shared publicly. This first one, a triolet, is in the September

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Poetry Friday: Just Like That (my poem from Dare to Dream)

A couple of weeks ago, I shared “Faith of a Mustard Seed,” by Hope Anita Smith, from?Dare to Dream…Change the World, a poetry anthology conceived of and edited by Jill Corcoran (Kane?Miller, 2012). Several of the poems have stuck in my mind since reading them, which is really saying something, given my meory. Hope Anita’s

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Poetry Friday: Petting Zoo and the Poetry Friday Anthology

I have several poems in The Poetry Friday Anthology (Common Core K‑5 edition): Poems for the School Year with Connections to the Common Core, a new?offering from Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong (of PoetryTag Time fame:>) I want to share some other poems, but I like to get permission before sharing someone’s entry from an

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Sketches from Water Can Be…!

A couple of weeks ago, I blogged about receiving Violeta Dabija’s pencil sketches for Water Can Be…, our 2014 follow-up to A Leaf Can Be… I’m so excited that I got permission from both the publisher (Millbrook Press) and Violeta to share a couple of sketches here. So… and Aren’t they beautiful? I love the

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Why I’m Glad Writing Is Not a Performance Sport

1) I’ve been watching some of the Olympics, and it’s so heartbreaking when a supremely skilled athlete has a bad day and watches golden dreams slip away. 2) I’m “driving” a prop car for Minnesota Brass this season in our Bonnie & Clyde show. Due to a perfect storm of drill changes, storms, equipment issues,

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My Writing Life: Sketches!

One of the most exciting (and, let’s be honest, scariest) things when you’re a picture book writer is for your editor to say, “I have sketches!” It’s that moment when you see how’someone you don’t know (usually) has envisioned the words you struggled with into a book. Will the artist have surpassed anything you could

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Thoughts

Pause for a Writing Tip from the Olympics

Watching the men’s gymnastics competition last night, I was struck again by how much I like a good pause. Check out a great one here. In the Olympics, on So You Think You Can Dance, in a drum corps show…sometimes the best moments in the entire show are when a performer (or a whole field

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Finding My Writing GPS

Yesterday I wished for a GPS for my current wip. Afterward, I realized I already had one available: mentor texts. Sometimes when I’m at sea and disoriented, choosing a book as my mentor text, my guide, helps me find a direction and answer the questions in my head. I don’t know why I hadn’t yet

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Bus Writing to Connecticut

I was on a bus trip from Minneapolis to Bridgeport, Connecticut, and back from Thursday afternoon to Sunday night with Minnesota Brass. Here we are in the full retreat portion of the show we were in Saturday night.             To say it was a long bus ride each way is

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Poetry Friday: World (lyrics by John Ondrasik)

I was sharing one of my favorite songs, “100 Years,” by Five for Fighting (John Ondrasik) with a friend this morning. I’ve shared those lyrics here before, so I’m going to share another Ondrasik song instead. World Got a package full of wishes A time machine, a magic wand A globe made out? of gold

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