As I mentioned last week when I shared my cherita about Quechee Gorge, VT, I had a feeling at least a few poems were going to spring out of our trip. Sure enough, I have another one – this time, inspired by my 5-year-old daughter who finds art everywhere she goes:
That’s right, whether it’s stones in a river or the crumbs on her plate, anything can become art in her hands. And I couldn’t be more proud.
For more poetry, please visit Carol Wilcox over at Carol’s Corner for today’s complete Poetry Friday roundup, where she’s sharing some ‘puppy poetry!’
Ordering personalized signed copies online?
Oh, yes, you can!
You can purchase personalized signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly ALL of the books or anthologies I’ve been part of!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH a note requesting the signature and to whom I should make it out to. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it for you, and then they’ll ship it. Try doing that with those big online booksellers!(Plus, you’ll be helping to support local book-selling – and wouldn’t that make you feel good?)
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)
I originally shared this photo on my Facebook page a few days ago along with a few others I’d taken while visiting Quechee Gorge in Vermont, a “mini-Grand Canyon” just over the NH border. As I was taking some of the photos, I immediately knew I’d have to write a few poems about them – and sure enough, this was the first! It is a cherita, an English poetic form that has its roots in the haiku & tanka tradition. (I’ve written cheritas before, HERE and HERE)
If you ever visit Vermont, this is definitely a place I’d encourage you to visit; the entire trail, from one end to the other, is less than a mile, so you can spend a day there and really enjoy the weather, scenery, and your time! Or, if you’d like to extend your walk up through the Dewey Pond Trail at the upper end of the gorge (see the photo to the left), you can add an extra mile to your visit.
The gorge was created about 15,000 years ago when glaciers retreated and carved their calling card into the bedrock; a glacial lake (Lake Hitchcock) that had formed in Connecticut from all the glacial deposits eventually extended all the way up through the Green Mountain State and into Canada, before succumbing to erosion as the glaciers receded and the Ottauquechee River formed. You can read more about the gorge HERE.
If you’d care to read a poem I wrote 2 years ago for my daughter’s birthday, inspired by the Dewey Pond Trail, you can view it HERE. And if you’d like to check out all of today’s Poetry Friday links, please be sure to stop by Deowriter, where Jone Rush MacCulloch is hosting the complete roundup!
Ordering personalized signed copies online?
Oh, yes, you can!
You can purchase personalized signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly ALL of the books or anthologies I’ve been part of!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH a note requesting the signature and to whom I should make it out to. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it for you, and then they’ll ship it. Try doing that with those big online booksellers!(Plus, you’ll be helping to support local book-selling – and wouldn’t that make you feel good?)
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)
Hard for me to believe, but this post was originally published FIVE years ago, in July 2014, before I had seen my first children’s poem in an anthology (“Lullaby & Kisses Sweet” (Abrams, 2015), to be precise). Now, this week, I have a poem in a brand-new anthology! I was watering the window boxes the other day and thought it might be nice to brush off this little tanka and share it again…I hope you like it!)
For today’s complete Poetry Friday roundup , be sure to head on over to The Miss Rumphius Effect, where Tricia is sharing her response to a triolet challenge!
Ordering personalized signed copies online?
Oh, yes, you can!
You can purchase personalized signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly ALL of the books or anthologies I’ve been part of!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH a note requesting the signature and to whom I should make it out to. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it for you, and then they’ll ship it. Try doing that with those big online booksellers!(Plus, you’ll be helping to support local book-selling – and wouldn’t that make you feel good?)
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)
It arrives in just a few days! I Am Someone Else (Charlesbridge) is the newest children’s poetry anthology from Lee Bennett Hopkins, and I’m thrilled and honored to be a part of another one of his books. The book is all about pretending – from firefighters and video game creators to knights and mermaids – and is a perfect book to share with kids who are wondering what to do with themselves over summer vacation!
So to celebrate the book, which hits stores next Tue., July 2, I thought I’d ask Lee and illustrator Chris Hsu to join me for a brief chat about the book – and pretending! So let’s have some fun with this…
First, who did young Lee Hopkins and Chris Hsu pretend to be when they were little boys?
Lee Bennett Hopkins
LEE: I suppose I always pretended to be someone who would be something rather than a young boy living in the projects in Newark, New Jersey, trapped within the confines of a poor dysfunctional family. The pretending always seemed to be toward the arts. I lost myself in movies, mainly musicals, found theatre at age of thirteen and soaked in as much as I could. I began reading plays, one after another.
CHRIS: Probably Mario! The original Nintendo had just come out and it was natural to want to jump around, off of, and over things like he did in the game.
How did ‘pretending’ and playtime help influence/develop the person you are today?
LEE: Obviously, and I had not thought about this before, music, theatre are all rich in language and poetry. It had to have had an influence on my life. I think as grown-ups, we miss out on the opportunity to step ‘outside of ourselves,’ so to speak, and pretend to be someone else – other than at Halloween.
CHRIS: I believe it develops and stretches the imagination, which in turn translates into creativity and abstract thinking as an adult.
If you could be someone else, who would you be?
2017 Florida Artists Hall of Fame, L-R: Don Felder, Billy Dean, Lee Bennett Hopkins, Secretary of State Ken Detzner, Jim Stafford .
LEE: I like myself. I always have. This is not to be pretentious, but I have led a wondrous life. I have always been independent, knowing what I want and how to get it. Were I to be someone else? Perhaps a playwright such as Tennessee Williams, a poet like Carl Sandburg, Walt Whitman or Langston Hughes — men who wrote about the gut of life. Among the greatest thrills was being inducted into the 2017 Florida Artists Hall of Fame – on the roster with the 1989 recipient, Tennessee Williams! Of course, I’d love to be Barbra Streisand, one of the greatest talents in the world.
CHRIS: I’d want to be an explorer in the age of exploration, maybe landing on an island no one had ever set foot on, with the role of documenting the wildlife and land to bring back home. What an adventure that would be!
Indeed, Lee, your life has been one amazing accomplishment after another! Let’s talk about the book now…was there any particular character you wish could have been included, but wasn’t? Why?
LEE: The characters I chose for I Am Someone Else were well thought out. In the section on story book characters, for example, rather than a giant, I thought of a giant’s wife who is ‘in a total quandary /each time (she tries) to do the laundry!” People who help others, like the firefighter who risks his/her life every day. The makers – those creative beings who make our lives richer, a dancing child whose “Music makes my body move!” or the poet “to show / what a poem / what a poet / can do. / To show you — YOU!”
CHRIS: At the beginning, the kids file into a classroom, so the assumption is there’s a teacher present. Ultimately, though, I chose not to illustrate any adult and keep the focus on the kids, much like how in the old Muppet Babies cartoon it was always told through the eyes of the Muppets, and the one adult present (Nanny) was there but remained anonymous if ever seen at all. I felt this made the kids seem more independent.
Self-Aggrandizement Warning: my spread!
Were you surprised by anything during the process of making the book – perspectives of the writers, perhaps, or an unforeseen problem, or revelation?
LEE: A wondrous revelation came when I was beginning the idea. I was discussing it with my dear friend, Lois Lowry, at a luncheon at her summer condo in Naples, and I batted around some ideas. Lois jumped at the chance to write “Big Problems,” a poem about a giant’s wife. Being one of the most distinguished writers of our times, even winning two Newbery Awards, did not mean she might come through writing a poem for young children. What the heck. Let her try. She did. She DID! Now she is on a roll with future poems to appear in my collections.
I also try very hard to bring new voices to a collection. Janet Clare Fagal has been ‘after me’ for eons. It was time for the tryout. Her “A Mermaid’s Tale” is charming. She worked draft after draft after draft until the poem was complete. It was Karen Boss, the editor, who decided the mermaid would be a young African American boy. This happened before Julian is a Mermaid (Candlewick, 2018), a wonderful book by Jessica Love, appeared. And why not? If a young boy wants to pretend to be a mermaid, why shouldn’t a man like me not want to pretend to be Barbra Streisand?
CHRIS: Even though the book is a string of separate poems with different tones and no story arc, Karen (Boss, editor), Martha (Sikkema, art director), and I thought to give it some sort of visual continuity so it didn’t just feel like a chain of non-related poems. We did that by casting a group of six kids, and then putting them in a common location – the classroom – where they could then take turns “acting” out the poems. And by using six kids to act out fifteen poems, you get to see each kid starring in two or three scenarios each; and I felt that showing each kid exploring multiple roles was important to the concept of using one’s imagination.
Chris Hsu
The classroom setting also provided a continuous time frame that this all takes place, which is within the a single school day. The unexpected roadblock of creating a mini story, however, was that once the last poem ended the whole book just ended very abruptly with no sense of a “the end.” So to solve that, we added a final page that mirrored the first page of the book that gave a feeling of coming full circle.
Wow, it never occurred to me that the same kids were trying out multiple roles – what a great idea! So what do you two hope readers (grown-ups as well as kids) will take away from this book?
LEE: We are living in unexpectedly, confusing, almost insane times. We have to – need to – pretend. We can do this via poetry. We can wish to be someone else – for awhile – and make believe, masquerade. We need to get away from reality now and then, yet we must all realize, in the long run, there is nothing better than being yourself. Maybe, perhaps, pretend can lead to reality. Anything is possible with perseverance, stamina, dreams.
CHRIS: My goal is to make books that both kids and adults can take something from. For kids who experience the book, I hope they leave with the idea that as long as they can imagine it they can act it out – even using props they likely have sitting around already and even if it’s a role not stereotypically suited for them. And it’s not limited to just one role; they can act out as many roles or characters and emotions they can think of.
For adults or parents who read the book, I hope they take away the reminder that kids’ minds are constantly in play, and that play develops into growth. As adults, we can always do our part to encourage that exploration of their imagination – whether it be engaging with them while they’re in “character,” making suggestions, or even helping them collect costumes and props.
I’m so thrilled to be a part of this book with you…I’m gad we were able to chat! By the way, what projects do you have coming up soon?
LEE: I Remember: Poems of Pride and Prejudice (Lee & Low), will be released September 10th, a book that has been in production for four years. Fifteen of America’s top poets of varied ethnicity reveal heartfelt memories of childhood. Each poet defines what poetry means to them; each artist comments on their craft. An added bonus is an album of photographs of poets and illustrators as child and adult. Sixteen full-color paintings were created to match ethnicity of the poets, including cover art by Sean Qualls.
A favorite book of mine, Manger (Eerdmans), will be released in August in a high-quality paperbound edition, illustrated by Helen Cann. Starred in Kirkus as a book “worth savoring during the Christmas season.”
CHRIS: The new season of ‘Archer’ just premiered a few weeks ago! I’m a background artist on the show so check it out, it’s a funny season this year inspired by ’70s and ’80s space sci-fi movies. Other than that, I’m always on the lookout for my next book gig, and I hope it’s a good one!
Chris, you’re an artist for ‘Archer’?? Very cool! I’ll definitely have to pay more attention to the scenery! Thank you both again for your time, and congratulations on this wonderful book we’re part of.
LEE: Thank you, Matt, for your most interesting questions! .
TWO NEW BOOKS!
Coming soon, July 2, 2019: …………………Just released June 23, 2019:
For all of today’s Poetry Friday links and fun, please visit my friend Buffy Silverman’s blog, where you can find the complete roundup!
Ordering personalized signed copies online?
Oh, yes, you can!
You can purchase personalized signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly ALL of the books or anthologies I’ve been part of!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH a note requesting the signature and to whom I should make it out to. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it for you, and then they’ll ship it. Try doing that with those big online booksellers!(Plus, you’ll be helping to support local book-selling – and wouldn’t that make you feel good?)
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)
Starting today, summer is officially here, and I just wanted to take a moment to thank all the teachers, librarians, and bloggers who have included my books on their summer reading lists! The following are only a small sample – the ones of which I’m aware – so if your school has included either Flashlight Night (Boyds Mills & Kane, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), or one of the anthologies I’ve been a part of, please let me know so I can thank them and add them to the list!
I especially tickled with the Waverly-Belmont librarians, since I’m a former resident of Music City! I also need to thank the folks at the Toledo Lucas County Library in Ohio for including Flashlight Night in a post about the “Human-Nature Connection” – where my little book shows up on a list of books perfect for reading by flashlight! (of course!) And another nice surprise: Flashlight Night shows on Goodreads’ list of Most Popular Bedtime Books, a list that includes books by Deborah Freedman, Deborah Underwood, and Tammi Sauer!
I’d also be neglect if I didn’t mention Barnes & Noble, which includes the Lee Bennett Hopkins poetry anthology I was part of, School People (WordPress, 2018), in its 2019 Children’s Choice Book Awards. School People was also one of the finalists for the Children’s Book Council’s Children’s and Teen Choice Book Awards earlier this year! (If you’d like to order any of these and have them personally signed, please see the links below!)
Again, if you know of any summer reading lists or book lists that include either of these books, please let me know so I can thank the appropriate people properly. And happy summer reading!
Coming soon, July 2, 2019: ………………. Coming sooner, June 23, 2019:
That’s right, the new Donald Hall anthology, Except for Love (Encircle Pub.), comes out in just a few days – and I couldn’t be more excited, honored, and humbled. This book pays tribute to former U.S. and New Hampshire Poet Laureate Donald Hall by featuring the poems of 35 poets from around New England who have been influenced in different ways by Hall and his extraordinary voice.
In my case, I grew up in New Hampshire, so Hall’s work (indeed, his very presence) was never difficult to come across; here where I live, in the same area of the state that inspired so many of his poems, his legacy is nearly ubiquitous.
The book, which is set to be released on the one-year anniversary of his death – this Sun., June 23 – includes poetry by such accomplished poets as Jane Yolen, L.R. Berger, David Giannini, and Jessica Purdy. So you can understand why I’m so honored to be a part of this project! If you’d like a copy, you can order HERE, and 10% of proceeds will benefit the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in honor of Hall’s late wife, poet Jane Kenyon.
I’ve shared a snippet of my poem, “Stone-Kicking,” previously on this blog, but I can’t share it in its entirety until after this Sunday…I promise I will, though! For more poetry today, though, head over to A Word Edgewise, where Linda is hosting Poetry Friday today with a fantastic event: a clunker exchange! Have a few words you can’t do anything with, or a line from a poem you just can’t stand? Share it – and pick up some inspiration with someone else’s clunker!
Ordering personalized signed copies online?
Oh, yes, you can!
You can purchase personalized signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly ALL of the books or anthologies I’ve been part of!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH a note requesting the signature and to whom I should make it out to. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it for you, and then they’ll ship it. Try doing that with those big online booksellers!(Plus, you’ll be helping to support local book-selling – and wouldn’t that make you feel good?)
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)
Last month, for Mother’s Day, I shared one of my mother’s poems I discovered at their house, while cleaning out 50+ years worth of clothes, memories, paper, and assorted sundries from the attic and closets.
Today, it’s Dad’s turn in the spotlight!
The Lady-Killer himself, circa 1958, give or take a year or two. Now you finally know from where I get my devastating looks.
When I posted Mom’s poem, I mentioned that I was surprised to find it because I’d never known how much she loved poetry. With Dad, however, I wasn’t quite as surprised because I’d always known him to be very creative: a graduate of Baltimore Polytechnic Institute, he was very skilled at graphics, woodworking, and problem-solving. He could make an entertainment center for our living room one minute and then turn around and craft earrings for Mom.
He and I even built the barn!
Dad was always writing songs, too, and sharing them with Mom and me…so discovering his poetry, while surprising, was not completely unexpected. So, like I did for Mom last month, I’m sharing one of his poems today. I told him he’d finally be a published poet – and he chuckled and said, “Well, if you think anyone would want to read them!”
I definitely do think so, Dad. In fact, I’m going to share two!
(click to enlarge)
Pretty impressive, I think, for someone who never studied the craft formally. A very classical style, of course, but very thoughtful, with solid meter and rhyme. As soon as I read it, I knew I was going to have to post it here.
The other poem of his that I wanted to share is much more unusual in its structure and rhyme scheme, but no less insightful:
(untitled)
To Live, …..Thy life fulfilled – …..Thy kindness spilled…on others, …..Are part of life, and still –
To Learn, …..And sow the seeds I find …..Of knowledge, in my mind – …..But not to hold as divine, but
To Teach, …..That they may know …..That I might share – and so, …..The understanding grows – but then,
To Love, …..All – and still just one… …..With depth and meaning – and done, …..Myself complete…I’ve known it’s worth
To Live. .
Dad met Mom while he was in the Army. He saw her across the room and told one of his buddies, “I’m going to marry that girl one day.” Fortunately for me, the plan worked.
.
Again, I’ve got to hand it to Dad (and Mom) for all the poetic genetics they’ve passed on to me. I’d never known they had the interest nor the ability to craft poetry like this, so my love of the genre and whatever skill I may possess did not come about through learning at home. There were a couple of poetry anthologies in their small library that I used to read all the time, but I don’t recall there ever being any push to get me to “like” poetry. In fact, I only had one poetry collection as a child, Dorothy Aldis’ The Secret Place and Other Poems (Scholastic, 1962), which I can look back on now as the single most important book in my literary development…so I can’t thank my parents enough for lighting that spark!
There’s plenty more poetry to be found, though, so be sure to head over to Laura Shovan’s blog, where she is hosting today’s Poetry Friday roundup with some choice selections from her poetry students!
From two weeks ago: Dad, in front of the house that we called home since 1975.
Ordering personalized signed copies online?
Oh, yes, you can!
You can purchase personalized signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly ALL of the books or anthologies I’ve been part of!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH a note requesting the signature and to whom I should make it out to. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it for you, and then they’ll ship it. Try doing that with those big online booksellers!(Plus, you’ll be helping to support local book-selling – and wouldn’t that make you feel good?)
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)
This little guy (or girl?) was following my wife and me as we walked home from downtown earlier this week. We could tell it was a Karner Blue butterfly (the official state butterfly of New Hampshire, which is actually a thing) by its color and minuscule size…and it seemed to have an affinity for my wife’s sneakers!
We can only assume it must have thought her footwear was a flower!
For today’s complete Poetry Friday roundup, head on over to Michelle Kogan’s little corner of the web, where she is spotlighting U.S. Poet Laureate Tracy K. Smith!
Ordering personalized signed copies online?
Oh, yes, you can!
You can purchase personalized signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly ALL of the books or anthologies I’ve been part of!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH a note requesting the signature and to whom I should make it out to. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it for you, and then they’ll ship it. Try doing that with those big online booksellers!(Plus, you’ll be helping to support local book-selling – and wouldn’t that make you feel good?)
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)
I once again have my friend and fellow blogger/poet Michelle H. Barnes to thank for a Poetry Friday post. It was her blog’s “Ditty of the Month Challenge” that spurred me to write the following little piece of light verse.
Earlier this month, she interviewed another mutual friend, Liz Steinglass, about her upcoming debut children’s poetry collection, Soccerverse: Poems about Soccer(Wordsong, 2019), which arrives in stores next week. Following the lead of her poem, “Instructions for the Field,” Liz thought it might be fun to invite readers to write poems that speak to an inanimate object about how to do its job.
And so, ever the one to find the angle or subject no one else has, I decided to write instructions…for instructions!
Instructions for Instructions
Don’t give me cords in tangled knots.
Don’t show me tabs where there are slots.
Don’t leave out pieces I will need.
Don’t make your text too hard to read.
Your diagrams are convoluted. “Some assembly,” quite disputed.
Don’t pretend there’s nothing to it
and please – don’t say a child can do it.
.
I dare say, I doubt there is anyone who can’t relate! Hope you like it – and if you’d care to read all of the poems submitted to Michelle’s blog, you can check out her Padlet HERE. Still looking for more poetry? Then head over to A Year of Reading, where Mary Lee Hahn is hosting today’s complete Poetry Friday roundup with a cool new book about writing prompts!
Ordering personalized signed copies online?
Oh, yes, you can!
You can purchase personalized signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly ALL of the books or anthologies I’ve been part of!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH a note requesting the signature and to whom I should make it out to. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it for you, and then they’ll ship it. Try doing that with those big online booksellers!(Plus, you’ll be helping to support local book-selling – and wouldn’t that make you feel good?)
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)
This was originally posted six years ago, on May 24, 2013 (where does the time go??)…but since the school year is winding down and graduations are ubiquitous these days, I thought a little school-themed poetry might be nice. Plus…I’ve been a little busy lately!
I thought I’d go waaaaay back in time for today’s post – back to the fall of 2000!
This is one of the first few children’s poems I ever wrote (I started writing for children in ’99, I believe), but when I read it today, it doesn’t feel that old, if that makes sense. Sometimes when you’re developing a skill – whether it’s writing, singing, painting, whatever – you can tell the older, unskilled work from the newer, more polished stuff. Personally, I can tell it’s not new…but I’m not embarrassed by it, either (and yes, there are plenty of poems that will never see the light of day for that very reason).
“Book Report”
My teacher said I have to write
a book report for class –
at least one hundred-fifty words,
or else I will not pass.
So here I sit with pen in hand
and nothing in my mind;
if I don’t get this handed in
I’ll be in quite a bind.
There must be some creative way
I can begin the text:
I know my name, I know the date,
I don’t know what comes next.
Come on, now, brain, you’ve got to think
and help me get this done!
It’s due tomorrow morning, and
I’ve not even begun!
But wait – that’s it – I’ve got it now!
I know just what I need!
The first thing that I’ll have to do…
is find a book to read.
Looking for more poetry? You’re in luck! Dani is hosting today’s Poetry Friday at Doing the Work That Matters. Head on over and check out all the links!
Ordering personalized signed copies online?
Oh, yes, you can!
Coming July 2, 2019!
You can purchase personalized signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly ALL of the books or anthologies I’ve been part of!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH a note requesting the signature and to whom I should make it out to. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it for you, and then they’ll ship it. Try doing that with those big online booksellers!(Plus, you’ll be helping to support local book-selling – and wouldn’t that make you feel good?)
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)
When I started this blog way back in 2012, I planned to publish two posts per week, on Tue. and Wed. – but if you’ve been following for the past year or so, you know that Poetry Friday is often the only day of the week I get to post these days.
You see, I’ve been kinda busy…
For one thing, I’ve signed four – yes, 4! – book contracts this year already, and one of those contracts was a 3-book deal with the same publisher! This brings me to a total of SEVEN more books on the way between 2020 – 2022. (And the year isn’t even half over yet!) I’m obviously over the moon at this news, but I’m rather proud of the fact that I’ve been able to accomplish everything I’ve done so far without an agent.
Not for want of trying, certainly…I’ve been submitting to agents as well as editors for years! But for me, publishing has been much, MUCH easier than landing an agent. Who knows – with nine books on my resume and nearly 30 children’s poems published in anthologies, journals, and magazines, perhaps an agent will decide to take a chance on me one these days!
Speaking of poetry…
This past Saturday, I was officially presented with the MacGregor Poetry Prize, coordinated by the Derry Public Library and Robert Frost Farm board of trustees. Derry, New Hampshire Poet Laureate Robert Crawford and finalists Stacy Milbouer and Melissa Juchniewicz joined me at the Coffee Factory in Derry for the award presentation and poetry reading.
My poem, “Stumpfield Pond, 1975” was chosen as the winning poem from over 100 entries in the MacGregor Poetry Contest, now in its second year. In addition to a $250 cash prize, I will get to see my poem displayed publicly at the library. Over the years in radio, I’ve interviewed Charlie Daniels, took Alice Cooper to the movies, and hung out on Def Leppard’s drummer’s tour bus…but nothing is quite like having a poem recognized by the Frost Farm.
Oh, and about that podcast…
(Hanging out with The Writer’s Block crew, from L: Shelley, Yours Truly, Deborah, and Mandra)
I had an opportunity to sit down with the folks at The Writer’s Block Podcast to chat about children’s books, poetry, and inspiration, and you can hear the entire conversation HERE! Of all the episodes they have recorded, from novel writing to character development to working with editors, none up until this point have focused on writing for children, so I’m honored that they asked me to join them. I hope you’ll tune in – and please let them know what you thought! You can also find them on Facebook to keep abreast of what they have planned for future episodes, and check out the United Podcast Network, where you can watch the podcasts on video.
By the way…the newest children’s poetry anthology I’m part of, I Am Someone Else, comes out July 2 from Charlesbridge – but you can pre-order NOW at nearly 30% off the retail price! I couldn’t believe it when I found out…so if thinking about picking up a copy, now’s the time to do it!
Thank you, as always, for coming along on this ride – I wouldn’t be able to continue doing what I’m doing with your support. Lots of people tell me how lucky I am to have gotten to this point having only been in the children’s literature field since 2009 or so then. While I do consider myself fortunate, I explain that luck has nothing to do with it; working hard, writing, revising, and submitting have everything to do with it.
It’s Jane Yolen’s “BIC Rule:” Butt In Chair. Do the work! I always say that whatever I lack in talent I try to make up for in hustle, just like when I’m playing soccer. I may not be the most phenomenal player on the field, but I’m running, passing, and going after the ball with ferocity and tenacity. Same thing applies to writing – and pretty much any other goal one hopes to achieve. Hang in there, keep getting better, and don’t give up!
Ordering personalized signed copies online?
Oh, yes, you can!
Coming July 2, 2019!
You can purchase personalized signed copies of Flashlight Night, (Boyds Mills Press, 2017), Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books, 2018), and nearly ALL of the books or anthologies I’ve been part of!
Just click the cover of whichever book you want and send the good folks at MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH a note requesting the signature and to whom I should make it out to. (alternatively, you can log onto my website and do the same thing) They’ll contact me, I’ll stop by and sign it for you, and then they’ll ship it. Try doing that with those big online booksellers!(Plus, you’ll be helping to support local book-selling – and wouldn’t that make you feel good?)
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Thank you to everyone for your support!
Poetry Friday today with a fantastic event: a clunker exchange! Have a few words you can’t do anything with, or a line from a poem you just can’t stand? Share it – and pick up some inspiration with someone else’s clunker!
There’s plenty more poetry to be found, though, so be sure to head over to 
(Wordsong, 2019), which arrives in stores next week. Following the lead of her poem, “Instructions for the Field,” Liz thought it might be fun to invite readers to write poems that speak to an inanimate object about how to do its job.
more polished stuff. Personally, I can tell it’s not new…but I’m not embarrassed by it, either (and yes, there are plenty of poems that will never see the light of day for that very reason).
Looking for more poetry? You’re in luck! Dani is hosting today’s Poetry Friday at 
and Melissa Juchniewicz joined me at the Coffee Factory in Derry for the award presentation and poetry reading.
