Marcie Flinchum Atkins is hosting Poetry Friday today. In celebration of her new picture book, When Twilight Comes, Marcie asked bloggers to post a twilight photo with a twilight poem. The book’s birthday is this Tuesday, and I’m eager to read it (and wow–it’s earned three starred reviews!) I often take our kayak out for […]

It’s been an anxious time at my house, and I’m happy that it’s in the rearview mirror. In January I got an unexpected melanoma diagnosis and had surgery three weeks ago. Last week I received the wonderful news that the pathology exam found no metastasis. Other than frequent check-ups for the next few years, I […]

Welcome to Poetry Friday! I’m happy to host the post-Thanksgiving parade. I hope you enjoyed a delicious meal with family and/or friends if you celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday. And speaking of family, I am thrilled to host my cousin Suzy Levinson today! I first “met” Suzy many years ago during Ed Decaria’s March Madness poetry competition. […]

Happy meteorological summer! I am happy to host today’s Poetry Friday. Please leave your link with Mr. Linky at the end of this post. I am trying to get back on the proverbial horse and commit to a more regular writing schedule. There are a few practices that usually help me be more productive. First […]

Happy National Poetry Month! I have been fortunate to attend a couple of poetry workshops this month as part of the Jax Poetry Fest (peruse here–you can still sign up for these free lunchtime workshops.) I especially enjoyed my friend Shutta Crum’s workshop on writing narrative poetry. Shutta offered some great examples of narrative poetry–poems […]

Welcome to the progressive poem!  Each year during the month of April, the kidlit poetry community comes together to create a poem, with each blogger contributing one line before handing it off to the next intrepid poet. The progressive poem was originally the brain-child of Irene Latham, and now Margaret Simon organizes this effort. Thanks to both […]

Today was a good mail day–I found a copy of Matt Forrest Esenwine’s new treasure, A UNIVERSE OF RAINBOWS, on my doorstep (thank you Eerdmans Books for offering a review copy!) The book features a wide variety of rainbows, including those made by light and water, those found on animals and plants, rainbows in rocks, […]

If you are a frequenter of Poetry Friday, you likely know that the Poetry Sisters share poems on a theme once a month, and invite others to join them. This month’s challenge was to write a poem inspired by Wallace Steven’s “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.” I confess that I did not write […]

We had out-of-town friends visiting on Sunday, and took them to the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary (only a few miles from our house as the goose flies.) A pair of trumpeter swans had three almost-full-grown cygnets at the back pond, away from the honking geese, the ever-present mallards, and other water fowl. Our friends sprung for […]

Welcome to Poetry Friday. I am happy to host the poetry party today. Please leave your links with Mr. Linky at the end of this post. I’m excited about my new book, coming out next Tuesday, September 10. STARLIGHT SYMPHONY has gotten some wonderful early press, including starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist!! I’m going […]