Poetry Friday: A look back at Spanish Moss and Rainbow Eucalyptus

Heat, humidity, beating sunshine. Summer is a wonderful time of year! I love this season more than any other, but when it comes to getting work done – well, summer sort of drops the ball.

Kids are home, gardens need to be tended, wood needs to be split for winter – there are myriad activities that get in the way of being able to write. As a stay-at-home dad, I try to find a balance but it’s darned near impossible this time of year.

This is why I’ve been enjoying pulling out some poems from older posts that you may not have seen originally.

I originally shared this poem – which you can find in J. Patrick Lewis’ The National Geographic Book of Nature Poetry (National Geographic Kids, 2015) – in October 2015, shortly before the book was published. It was an honor being asked by a former U.S. Children’s Poet Laureate to contribute to such a high-profile book, so I jumped at the opportunity!

It was also an unexpected treat to see that my poem about Rainbow Eucalyptus Trees shared a page with my friend, Charles “Father Goose^®” Ghigna. We were in the final stages of polishing our manuscript for Once Upon Another Time (Beaming Books, 2021) when Pat’s book came out, and little did we know that we would end up waiting another 7 years to see our manuscript become a book.

But we were happy to our poems getting some publicity!
.

^{– © 2015 National Geographic Kids, all rights reserved}

Looking for more poetry? Dave Roller is hosting today’s Poetry Friday roundup for the very first time at his blog, Leap of Dave, where he tries his hand at a new-to-him poetry form, the etheree!

=====================================================

Be sure to PRE-ORDER my upcoming new
creative nonfiction picture book,
A BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO BEING HUMAN
(Beaming Books, Oct. 2022)!

Order a PERSONALLY-SIGNED copy of my latest picture book, I AM TODAY (POW! Kids Books),
or ANY of my books from my local independent bookstore!

=====================================================

^{Be sure to check out all the cool new picture books arriving this year from my PB22Peekaboo partners!}

=====================================================

I’m very happy to be part of the BOOKROO family!

Create an account to add books to wishlists and be notified of special deals and dates…create custom collections…and discover and follow your favorite authors & illustrators!

Find out more about BOOKROO here!

======================================================

I continue adding to my “Wit & Wordplay” videos ! These videos were created for parents and educators (along with their kids) to learn how to write poetry, appreciate it, and have fun with it. From alliteration and iambs to free verse and spine poetry, I’m pretty sure there’s something in these videos you’ll find surprising! You can view them all on my YouTube channel, and if you have young kids looking for something to keep busy with, I also have several downloadable activity sheets at my website.

=====================================================

Ordering personalized signed copies online? Oh, yes, you can!

You can purchase personally-signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Astra Young Readers, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly EVERY book or anthology I’ve been part of!

Click here to view all my books and to order!

Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send a comment to the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH requesting my signature and to whom I should make it out. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it, and then they’ll ship it! (Plus, you’ll be supporting your local bookseller – and won’t that make you feel good?)

======================================================

Thank you to everyone for your support!

FLASHLIGHT NIGHT:

• NY Public Library’s “100 Best Book for Kids 2017” AND “Staff Pick!”
• KIRKUS Starred review!
• Kansas NEA Reading Circle Recommended Books!
• “Best Reads of 2017,” Unleashing Readers
• Finalist, 2019 New Hampshire Literary Awards
• Positive reviews from Horn Book, School Library Connection, School Library Connection, Booklist, Publisher’s Weekly, and Shelf-Awareness!

DON’T ASK A DINOSAUR:

• “Rollicking rhyme!” – Booklist
  • “A wild romp!” – Parenting NH Magazine
  • “Cute…intriguing…4 out of 5 stars”     – Tulsa Book Review
  • “Rhythmic…funny and informative”     – Unleashing Readers

======================================================

Did you like this post? Find something interesting elsewhere in this blog? I really won’t mind at all if you feel compelled to share it with your friends and followers!

To keep abreast of all my posts, please consider subscribing via the links up there on the right!  (I usually only post once or twice a week – usually Tues. and Fri. – so you won’t be inundated with emails every day) . Also feel free to visit my voiceover website HERE, and you can also follow me via Twitter , Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, and SoundCloud!