Welcome to Poetry Friday! Our host this week is the friendly and accessible author of the Wondering and Wandering Blog, Christie! Please check out her webpage for her post today as well as links to other poets, authors, and all round supportive people! Thanks, Christie for hosting! My first time hosting will be next week,…
One of my recent writing projects has been gathering and editing some poems for chap books. Chap books are short (20-40) pages of poetry based on a theme. In essence, they are a short book. Historically, English peddlers sold chap books as cheap (chap/cheap) entertainment for the masses. The word, chap, dates back to 1824….
In Writer’s Circle, over four weeks, we have worked on haiku, nonets, clerihews, free verse, and now couplets. Out of all of these types of poems, I found my students stymied at the couplets. In part, I think this is because I spent less time explaining them. The poor couplets were squeezed in at the…
At the cabin I write the old fashioned way with a pad and pencil, I will stay. At the cabin, My computer has failed me, loosing its charge, you see, but the words still come as fast as can be. At the cabin, My inspiration is plain in the nature all around, foggy mornings, calm…
Mary Jemison Her statue stands over the lands she grew to love beyond and above the first few years of living with fears in a New York forest dense with pine, only the best used for longhouses in which they could rest. At first she longed to escape, in hours so late but then, eventually,…
This week I am getting ready for my student writer’s circle to start. We will meet at our local library on July 8th for the first time. I am excited to have this group. Thank you for your suggestions last week if you offered some to me! I am behind in my return comments but…
Some of you know that I’ve had a student writer’s circle in the past. For six years, I ran an enrichment group for third grade students, handpicked by their teachers, to belong to a writer’s circle with me once a week during the school year. It’s been at least four years since I had such…
We’ve been travelling over the last week, visiting places we used to live and conduct our lives in Western New York. It brings to mind something my son said when he was young and in elementary school. Mom, he said, “Math is everywhere!” And, he was right. We started noticing how math was a part…
You move so slowly, Until you see me on the path. Quickly, you scoot away to the edge, Stopping momentarily to listen to More of my approaching footsteps On the gravel. Then, you’re off again, Scuttling into the dry forest Debris where you blend so perfectly. Still, if I bend down to look Under your…
One of my favorite rides at the amusement park has always been the carousel. I think it’s because on the surface, it’s predictable in it’s movement but not in where or when it starts and stops. I like routine and predictability so I am drawn to this ride. I also like the artistry of the…