This month, in our year of writing poetry together, my Poetry Sisters have called on me to supply the art for our ekphrasic poems. I've chosen to share my photos of the cloisters of Glencairn Museum, a place I love to visit. You can read about the cloister here. The mansion was built as a family home for Raymond Pitcairn and his family in the 1930s, and later turned into a museum for

My Poetry Sisters and I are trying out a new-to-me form this month, something I have found quite tricky. I only just pulled something out that I am willing to share. I need to work on this one a bit more; it's a challenge! Trisha had posted about the Clogyrnach form on her Monday Poetry Challenge last year, explaining it this way: Clogyrnach is a Welsh poetic meter that falls under the

  You know how much I love house plants and greenery of all kinds. I don't have a green thumb, and my plants don't always do well, but I am stubborn and don't give up easily. My office is full of plants. sometimes they get those really annoying fungus gnats, so I am continually in a battle of control.  There was an outbreak the same week that my Poetry Sister Sara shared her photos of the art

Every so often the Poetry Sisters and I like to try writing In the Style of... a poet whose skill we admire. In the past we looked at e.e. cummings and wrote poems somewhat like his. This month we are echoing Kay Ryan, US Poet Laureate from 2008 -10 and Pulitzer Prize winner in 2011. Ryan is known for short lines, brevity, alliteration and internal rhyme, or what she calls "recombinant rhyme". I

I've been trying to spend more time outside this month, following the Rewild Your Life 30 Day Challenge, and getting more connected to nature after reading Jon Young's books What the Robin Knows and Coyotes' Guide to Connecting with Nature. I've loved bird watching for many years, but man, there's a lot more to know about those humble backyard birds! I am fortunate to work in a place that is

This month my poetry sisters and I are experimenting with Ekphrastic poems. Laura Purdie Salas chose the image for us and we all went off in different directions, responding to the images as we were called. Ekphrasitc poems are written in response to visual art; an image, a painting or a sculpture. The images we are working with this month are photographs of the ceiling frescos of Mark Balma (

I just realized that March 9, 2016 is my 10 year blogoversary!!! Hard to believe how fast that has flown. Back then I was doing a lot of parent blogging and also reviewing children's books more, as I was an elementary school librarian. I haven't been blogging as much lately, what with a new job since last summer (Reference librarian in a small college close to home = YAY!), but I am still

For the past several months my Poetry Sisters have been working madly behind the scenes, creating a Crown of Sonnets. That's seven linked sonnets, each one starting with the ending line of the one that came before, the last one ending with the first line of the first, in a wonderful circle. Wow. We did it once before, several years ago, and were just crazy enough to try it again, after a full

This month my Poetry Sisters and I decided to try Ekphrastic poetry, which is simple poetry written in response to an image or work of art. Laura found this amazing image, and we all wrote about it in whatever form we chose. I reverted to blank verse, having defaulted to my old favorite. The image is taken from a tumblr blog linked here. The original blog posting (Carnival of Dogs) gave this

This month the Poetry Sisters have been working on producing Etheree poems. This form consists of ten lines; and the poems grow by add one syllable to each line. There are no rhymes. Trisha got us started early in the month by posting about the form on here Monday Poetry Stretch. I submitted my first poem there, and then later worked on a few others. You might be able to tell I am in the fall

Our poetry project for this month, cats and kittens, is to create a "Found Poem". This type of poem is drawn from text you find, or stumble over, in any context, that strikes you as rich in potential. Sometimes one can find irony, or humor, or surprising wisdom. Sometimes it's just fun. I happened to run across an old copy of Norton's Anthology of American Literature, vol. 1 on the library Free

Mid-August. When the crickets sing all day in the long grass and the sky invents blue every morning. A lovely time to savor the moments with small bites of haiku, no? That's what I was thinking when we made the proposed schedule for a year of playing with poetic forms, my Poetry Sisters and I. Then someone threw a wrench in it last month, and suggested we try writing haiku in the form of

For the past month my Poetry Sisters and I have been working on writing poems modeled after poems written by e. e. cummings. He is one of my favorite poets, so when we were throwing around names trying to chose a focus for our work I was delighted when everyone jumped on his. Something about his mix of irreverent, unconventional diction and grammar built on top of an exceptionally sharp wit and

My Poetry Sisters and I have been scribbling down Odes all through the past month. Every month this year we are working on writing different forms of poetry in a group challenge. It's been both fun and frustrating at times! But Odes are pure fun. We agreed to take a light-hearted look at things this month, and some of these are downright funny! Check out my compatriot's Odes at these links:

This month my Poetry Sisters and I are working on writing Pantoums. Pantoums are an old form of poetry with four line stanzas, where the second and fourth line of each stanza is repeated as the first and third lines of the next stanza. They can be any length, and don't have a set rhyme scheme. The last stanza reapeats the third and first lines of the first as the second and fourth lines. The

My online poetry group is working our way through the year by exploring a new poetic form each month. In April we are posting a form called "Raccontino". My friend Trisha explains: Here are the requirements of the form. composed of couplets (any number) even number lines share the same end rhyme the title and last words of the odd numbered lines tell a story  I love a poem that tells a story

This month my poetry sisters and I are working on writing Sestinas. It's a very difficult form to get the knack for, partly because the end words are extremely restricted. Each of the six-line stanzas use the same words in a spiral repetition. The best sestinas, IMO, tell a story. My favorite one is this by Elizabeth Bishop. Kelly has a wonderful explanation with tips on how to write one here.

I found this lovely old gem on my shelf today. Here are a few pages in honor of Valentine's Day: Is t that delightful?  Now be sure to visit Merely Day by Day today for the Friday Poetry Roundup!

At the start of the year my online group of poetry sisters decided to challenge ourselves with writing and posting poems all year with a different form for each month. January was triolets, and February has been all about Villanelles. I have to confess I have really struggled with this one! I had a story I wanted to tell about my young son and his first taste of hot peppers, but try as I

Happy New Year!  2015 is off to a great start already. Here is my brand new Poetry Journal for 2015. I need this journal because... It's time for the Poetry Seven to swing into action once again! This year we have set ourselves up to meet a huge challenge. We are going to work on a different poetry form every month, and post original poems on the last Friday of each month. I am excited

by Russel Freedman. Chinese poems translated by Evans Chan. Clarion Books, 2014. (Library copy). This nonfiction text for young people covers the west coast immigration center Angel Island in San Fransisco Bay. Between 1910 and 1940 more than half a million people from 80 countries passed through this station. After being examined medically and interrogated, they often waited weeks or months in

The Magic Mirror by Zetta Elliott. Illustrations by Paul Melecky. Rosetta Press, 2014. Review copy. Kamara suffers from the mean words of a boy at school until her Gramma comforts her and shows her the ancient mirror kept in a back bedroom of her old house. Kamara willingly cleans Gramma's mirror and discovers a magical storytelling window into her own family history. Generations of brave,

by Patricia Hruby Powell, pictures by Christian Robinson. Chronicle books, 2014. Review copy. This adorable 8" x 10" full color hardback book is a treasure trove of inspiration and information on the glorious life of Josephine Baker. Baker was born in a hard scrabble life in East St. Louis in 1906. Growing up with poverty, discrimination, race riots, and a family that loved ragtime music and

by Christopher John Farley. Black Sheep, 2014. Middle grade fantasy with an inclusive cast of characters. Sixth grade gamers are sucked into their favorite video game and have the chance to become heroes battling giant spiders, evil hummingbirds, and plant people. Heavily drawn from Jamaican culture and video game story lines. Farley's children and their friends read the drafts and gave

by Julie T. Lamana. Chronicle Books, 2014. Every time I think about Katrina now, I think about this book. Armani lives in the Ninth Wards of New Orleans with her family. She's looking forward to celebrating her 10th birthday with a big party, cake and presents, when Katrina hits. Her party is canceled and her family is rocked by the storm that brings tragedy and intense challenge for all of