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Hello, fellow writers and readers.

Do you remember what it was like to be a child? You had an inner life—thoughts, daydreams, things you wondered about, emotions that you didn’t always share with adults.

Register now forFeeling It: Creating emotional depth in your novelwith Karen Krossing & Laura Shovan

One of my favorite poetry collections about the fantastic is Imaginary Menagerie: A Book of Curious Creatures, by Julie Larios with paintings by Julie Paschkis.

I'm counting down to Welcome to Monsterville's launch next Tuesday, April 25, and WOW do I have a poetry story to share with all of you.

Use the space of a poem to describe your vision of a Future House.

I'm putting together a list of read-alikes for teachers. These are books and poems that pair well with the emotional content (or the creature content!) of Welcome to Monsterville.Today, I am sharing two wonderful SEL poems from Things We Feel, edited by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong.

Authors Take Action is organizing a community poetry project for kids.I invite children's poets and authors (YOU!) to create writing prompts on the theme of CLIMATE.

Today, I'm sharing my interview with debut verse novelist Meg Eden. Her middle grade novel, GOOD DIFFERENT, is out from Scholastic in April. The interview is up at the Diverse Verse blog.

My friend Aliza Werner sent me the most wonderful book: What Feelings Do When No One's Looking by Tina Oziewicz, illustrated by Aleksandra Zajac. This sweet book about emotions was translated from Polish to English by Jennifer Croft.

It's clear that this chick is not a loon at all. She is a duckling, who takes to her loon parents' ways like ... a duck to water!

January rain --Lenten roses budding,woodpeckers at work.

Story is an essential part of being human. We are shaped by fairy tales, narrative songs, and cultural histories. Hayao Miyazaki, the legendary animated filmmaker, said, “I believe that stories have an important role to play in the formation of human beings, that they can stimulate, amaze, and inspire their listeners.” Memory is a form of story that lives in our minds until we shape it and share it with others.

I made a special video just for Poetry Friday. You'll get a sneak peek at some of Michael's monsters... and I read a poem from Welcome to Monsterville that I haven't shared before.

"It became clear to me very quickly when I started expanding on the 'waiting for the right resources' parallel between poems and seeds that spring brought many of the things a seed needs to move from dormancy into active growth. "

The miracle we celebrate on Hanukkah has to do with oil. So whether you like your treats sweet or savory, it's time to get out those fryers and put on those aprons.

One of my favorite projects of 2022 was writing a series of poems for Nature Culture's Writing the Land Series. This organization pairs poets with local-to-them land trusts, to highlight our deep and abiding relationship with the soil, the forests, the farms.

My heart is broken. My dear friend and collaborator, the poet Michael Rothenberg, passed away on November 21.