Poetry Friday friends, do you remember the early days of the pandemic, when toilet paper was scarce? I remember sitting in the bathroom crying (everything made me cry at the beginning of the pandemic) as I counted squares, rationing TP against the potential disaster. I had to laugh when I saw that my friend Pat […]
Original Poem
Thursday, 14 January 2021
Thursday, 10 December 2020
Happy Hanukkah, Poetry Friday friends. Our family’s celebration is bittersweet this year. Although 2020 had its joyful moments, we also experienced several transformative losses during the pandemic. Last week, we had to say goodbye to one of our dogs after an unexpected medical emergency. Many of you knew our beagle, Rudy, through my Poetry Friday […]
Thursday, 12 November 2020
Hey, poets and readers. Quick post this week. I am working on a guest article for the website Reading Rockets. It’s going to be all about books … and dogs. Of course, I have to include a few dog poems. During the pandemic, Sam (the Schnauzer) and Rudy (the Beagle) have been joining me on […]
Thursday, 1 October 2020
It’s October, Poetry Friday friends. Poet Irene Latham is on my mind this week. I hosted a stop on her THIS POEM IS A NEST blog tour, and even tried writing a nestling. You can read that post here. It’s October first as I write this, and Irene + Octo = her wonderful book, Love, […]
Thursday, 10 September 2020
Happy Poetry Friday, everyone! Now that A PLACE AT THE TABLE has launched, I am working on a new middle grade novel. This one is in verse (at least for now). The floods that destroyed the historic street near our old house is part of this book’s story. Also incorporated into my WIP — memories […]
Thursday, 9 July 2020
It’s Poetry Friday. I’ve been away from my desk for several weeks because of a death in our family. The global pandemic has affected how we grieve, because it affects how we gather … or don’t. It has been difficult to say goodbye without friends and family around. Our family is finding solace in our […]
Thursday, 20 February 2020
Hi, Poetry Friday friends. Are you ready for a robot invasion? I have a new robot friend. Its name is Po-M. Po-M Bot is helping me with this week’s post. We recently received a book from a robot-loving friend, author-illustrator Michael Rex. It’s called FACTS VS. OPINIONS VS. ROBOTS. As an educator, I love this […]
Thursday, 30 January 2020
About a week ago, my poet friend Michael Rothenberg messaged me. The message was this: This looked to me like a monster in need of a poem. So… Monster Poem #1 After artwork by Michael Rothenberg A monster bought the house next door. When it moved in, I wasn’t sure just how this creature, tall […]
Thursday, 5 December 2019
Happy Poetry Friday, everyone. I wanted to do NaNoWriMo this year, but knew I wasn’t ready to work on a new a novel. So I set myself a different task: RoPoWriMo. That’s RObot POem WRIting MOnth. My goal was to write a robot poem every day in November, with the ultimate aim of drafting 40 […]
Thursday, 17 October 2019
Happy Poetry Friday, everyone. This week, I have an original poem inspired by one of my new neighbors. This spider decided it was Guardian of the Mailbox. I found it there, sometimes on the handle, sometimes inside the box itself, for a few days in a row. I wondered, what would a spider be waiting […]