Poetry Friday: “None Like Me” & Don’t Ask a Dinosaur news!

 

THE DINOSAURS ARE COMING!
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My box of author copies just arrived yesterday, along with a separate box of Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids) bookmarks! The book, co-authored with Deborah Bruss, arrives in stores everywhere April 17, and we’re planning a dinosaur-sized celebration including TWO launch parties, a special blog tour, an interview with illustrator Louie Chin, and a book giveaway!

If you’d like to pick up a signed copy, just scroll down a bit and you’ll see the complete schedule of where we’re going to be – or you can place your pre-orders now and have your copy personally signed!

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(click to enlarge)

As for today’s poem, I took advantage of one of New England’s recent nor-easters by playing outside with my kids (a perk of being a stay-at-home parent and a luxury for a children’s writer), and my 4-year-old daughter and I put this fellow together:

After I took the photo, I realized a short little poem was in order!

None Like Me

I’m sure you’ve seen my relatives.
We’re very much the same:
white, round, sticks for arms,
afraid of open flames.
Some wear old hats or woolen scarves
to keep them looking fine,
but chances are you’ve never seen
a coiffure quite like mine.

– © 2018 Matt Forrest Esenwine, all rights reserved

For more poetry, please visit my friend and fellow blogger/writer Laura Purdie Salas, who is hosting Poetry Friday today at her little spot on the web, Writing the World for Kids.

Also, the Madness! Poetry competition is down to the 4th round with only EIGHT challengers remaining, so be sure to log on and vote for your favorite poems!

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SCHOOL PEOPLE are here…and the DINOSAURS are on their way!

DON’T ASK A DINOSAUR hits bookshelves April 17!

New dates continue to be added to the Dinosaur Tour! Here’s the most up-to-date schedule:

• Sat., April 14, 11am:  Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough, NH, (Children’s Author Day with illustrator Ryan O’Rourke AND Local Book Launch for Don’t Ask a Dinosaur!)
• Sat., April 14, 2pm:  Toadstool Bookshop, Keene, NH, (Children’s Author Day with illustrator Ryan O’Rourke AND Local Book Launch for Don’t Ask a Dinosaur!)
• Tue., April 17, 7pm:  Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA, Don’t Ask a Dinosaur Dual National Launch Party!! (with Holly Thompson, One Wave at a Time reading/signing/discussion)
• Thur., April 26, 10:30am:  Pillsbury Free Library, Warner, NH, Dinosaur Storytime with Don’t Ask a Dinosaur and School People!
• Sat., April 28, 10:30am: Brookline Booksmith, Brookline, MA, Don’t Ask a Dinosaur and School People reading/signing
• Sat., April 28, 2pm: Barnes & Noble, Framingham, MA, Don’t Ask a Dinosaur reading/signing (with Sara Levine, Fossil by Fossil: Comparing Dinosaur Bones reading/signing)
• Sun., April 29, 2pm:  MainStreet BookEnds, Warner, NH, Don’t Ask a Dinosaur and School People reading/signing and discussion
• Sat., May 5, 10am: Barnes & Noble, Burlington, MA, Don’t Ask a Dinosaur and School People reading/signing
• Sat., May 5, 1pm:  Barnes & Noble, Nashua, NH, Don’t Ask a Dinosaur and School People reading/signing
• Sat., May 12, 11am:  Gibson’s Bookstore, Concord, NH, Don’t Ask a Dinosaur and School People reading/signing
• Wed., May 16, 12pm: Concord Hospital Gift Shop, Concord, NH, Don’t Ask a Dinosaur and School People signing
• Sat., May 19, 11:30am-3pm: Barnes & Noble, Salem, NH, National Storytime at 11am, followed by Don’t Ask a Dinosaur and School People reading/signing
• Sat., June 2, 1-3pm: Books-A-Million, Concord, NH, Don’t Ask a Dinosaur and School People reading/signing

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Thank you so much to all the librarians, bloggers, and parents who are still discovering “Flashlight Night!” 

• NY Public Library’s “100 Best Book for Kids 2017” AND “Staff Pick!”
• KIRKUS Starred review!
• Amazon “Best Books of the Month,” Sept. 2017!
• “Best Reads of 2017,” Unleashing Readers

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Purchasing personalized signed copies ONLINE? Yes, it’s true!

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new way to purchase personalized signed copies of not only Flashlight Night, but ANY of my books or anthologies I’ve been part of!

I’ve teamed up with the good folks MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH to present an option for people who would love to have a signed copy of one of my books but don’t live anywhere near me. MainStreet BookEnds has ALL but one of my books available for ordering…and the best part is, you can get them personalized!

Just log onto my website and click the cover of whichever book you want, and they will get it to me to sign and send it off to you. 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 twice a week – on 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, Pinterest, and SoundCloud!

Poetry Friday: “Some of us, everybody”

This photo was taken just a quarter-mile down the road from our house a few days ago. Click the image to enlarge.

I’ve been thinking about the state of the world, the state of the country, the state of our attitude toward others…and considering we just celebrated Martin Luther King, Jr.s birthday this past Monday here in the U.S., the idea of dreams began to form a poem. Hope you like it.

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Don’t Ask a Dinosaur (Pow! Kids Books), the new picture book I co-wrote with Deb Bruss, doesn’t hit bookshelves until April 17, but the book tour is already taking shape with several dates! Here’s how our schedule looks right now:

• Sat., April 14, 11am:  Toadstool Bookshop, Peterborough, NH (Children’s Author Day with illustrator Ryan O’Rourke AND Local Book Launch for Don’t Ask a Dinosaur!)
• Sat., April 14, 2pm:  Toadstool Bookshop, Keene, NH (Children’s Author Day with illustrator Ryan O’Rourke AND Local Book Launch for Don’t Ask a Dinosaur!)
• Tue., April 17, 7pm:  Porter Square Books, Cambridge, MA, Don’t Ask a Dinosaur National Launch Party!! 
• Thur., April 26, 10:30am:  Pillsbury Free Library, Warner, NH Dinosaur Storytime with Don’t Ask a Dinosaur!
• Sun., April 29, 2pm:  MainStreet BookEnds, Warner, NH Don’t Ask a Dinosaur reading/signing and discussion
• Sat., May 5, 1pm:  Barnes & Noble, Nashua, NH Don’t Ask a Dinosaur reading/signing
• Sat., May 12, 11am:  Gibson’s Bookstore, Concord, NH Don’t Ask a Dinosaur reading/signing

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“School People” arrives soon!

School People (Wordsong), Lee Bennett Hopkins’ newest children’s poetry anthology, arrives Feb. 13 to bookstores everywhere! The book includes 15 poems about the grown-ups that children meet at school…and I’m so honored to have my poem, “Bus Driver,” included!

It’s a beautiful book, edited by my Flashlight Night editor Rebecca Davis, so I hope you’ll consider picking up a copy. If you’d like, you can read a couple of wonderful reviews from Publisher’s Weekly and from Kirkus!

For more poetry, be sure to visit Kay McGriff at A Journey Through the Pages for today’s complete Poetry Friday roundup!

 

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• NY Public Library’s “100 Best Book for Kids 2017!”
• KIRKUS Starred review!
• Amazon “Best Books of the Month,” Sept. 2017!
• “Best Reads of 2017,” Unleashing Readers

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Purchasing personalized signed copies ONLINE? Yes, it’s true!

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new way to purchase personalized signed copies of not only Flashlight Night, but ANY of my books or anthologies I’ve been part of!

I’ve teamed up with the good folks MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH to present an option for people who would love to have a signed copy of one of my books but don’t live anywhere near me. MainStreet BookEnds has ALL but one of my books available for ordering…and the best part is, you can get them personalized!

Just log onto my website and click the cover of whichever book you want, and they will get it to me to sign and send it off to you. 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 twice a week – on 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, Pinterest, and SoundCloud!

Poetry Friday: Arctic haiku

(click to enlarge)

This photo of the view across from our house was taken awhile ago…thanks to Winter Storm Grayson, there’s now 16 inches more snow than there had been, which I suppose underscores the whole point of this haiku!

For more poetry links, please head over to Reading to the Core, where Catherine Flynn is hosting Poetry Friday today with a spotlight on the new children’s poetry book,  Can I Touch Your Hair? Poems of Race, Mistakes, and Friendship (Carolrhoda Books) by two friends of mine, Charles Waters and Irene Latham.

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Purchasing personalized signed copies ONLINE? Yes, it’s true!

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new way to purchase personalized signed copies of not only Flashlight Night, but ANY of my books or anthologies I’ve been part of!

I’ve teamed up with the good folks MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH to present an option for people who would love to have a signed copy of one of my books but don’t live anywhere near me. MainStreet BookEnds has ALL but one of my books available for ordering…and the best part is, you can get them personalized!

Just log onto my website and click the cover of whichever book you want, and they will get it to me to sign and send it off to you. 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?)

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

• NY Public Library’s “100 Best Book for Kids 2017!”
• KIRKUS Starred review!
• Amazon “Best Books of the Month,” Sept. 2017!

Thank you so much to all who have enjoyed “Flashlight Night” enough to write about it:

• “Delicious language…ingenious metamorphoses” – Kirkus Reviews (starred)
• “The verse is incantatory…a simple idea that’s engagingly executed” – School Library Journal
• An old fashioned, rip-roaring imaginary adventure” – The Horn Book
• “[Esenwine and Koehler] don’t just lobby for children to read—they show how readers play” – Publisher’s Weekly
• “Imaginative…fantastical” – Booklist
• “Favorably recalls Where the Wild Things Are” – Shelf Awareness
• “Readers, you must share ‘Flashlight Night’…as often as you can” – Margie Myers-Culver, Librarian’s Quest
• “Begs to be read over and over” – Michelle Knott, Mrs. Knott’s Book Nook/Goodreads
• “A poetic and engaging journey” – Cynthia Alaniz, Librarian In Cute Shoes
• “Illuminates the power of imagination” – Kellee Moye, Unleashing Readers
• “Readers will be inspired to…create their own journey” – Alyson Beecher, Kidlit Frenzy
• “Beautiful words and stunning illustrations” – Jason Lewis, 5th grade teacher at Tyngsboro Elementary School, Tyngsboro, MA

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

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 twice a week – on 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, Pinterest, and SoundCloud!

 

Poetry Friday: Christmas Break fun

Just a short little ditty I came up with after sliding with my kids at our neighbor’s place the other day. Watching them fly down on their tubes while trying to bump each other once they got to the bottom, I started thinking…

Arctic Recreation

Ice and snow spray faces cold
as winter winds go swirling.
Some folks call it tubing – me?
I call it human curling.

– © 2017 Matt Forrest Esenwine, all rights reserved

Not a whole lot of difference, amiright?

I hope you’re enjoying the holiday break, as they call it; we’ve had single-digit daytime highs and overnight wind chills near -30° which means the kids have been stuck inside all week! But at least we have some poetry with which to amuse ourselves – and today, my poet/blogger friend Heidi Mordhorst is celebrating trees and hosting Poetry Friday at My Juicy Little Universe.

Today my son turns 8, Sunday we’ll be visiting my sister-in-law and her family, and Monday begins a brand-new year of possibilities – so have a great weekend, and I wish you all the best for a successful, happy, and healthy 2018!

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Purchasing personalized signed copies ONLINE? Yes, it’s true!

In case you haven’t heard, there’s a new way to purchase personalized signed copies of not only Flashlight Night, but ANY of my books or anthologies I’ve been part of!

I’ve teamed up with the good folks MainStreet BookEnds in Warner, NH to present an option for people who would love to have a signed copy of one of my books but don’t live anywhere near me. MainStreet BookEnds has ALL but one of my books available for ordering…and the best part is, you can get them personalized!

Just log onto my website and click the cover of whichever book you want, and they will get it to me to sign and send it off to you. 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?)

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

• NY Public Library’s “100 Best Book for Kids 2017!”
  .
  
• KIRKUS Starred review!
  .
• Amazon “Best Books of the Month,” Sept. 2017!

Thank you so much to all who have enjoyed “Flashlight Night” enough to write about it:

• “Delicious language…ingenious metamorphoses” – Kirkus Reviews (starred)
• “The verse is incantatory…a simple idea that’s engagingly executed” – School Library Journal
• An old fashioned, rip-roaring imaginary adventure” – The Horn Book
• “[Esenwine and Koehler] don’t just lobby for children to read—they show how readers play” – Publisher’s Weekly
• “Imaginative…fantastical” – Booklist
• “Favorably recalls Where the Wild Things Are” – Shelf Awareness
• “Readers, you must share ‘Flashlight Night’…as often as you can” – Margie Myers-Culver, Librarian’s Quest
• “Begs to be read over and over” – Michelle Knott, Mrs. Knott’s Book Nook/Goodreads
• “A poetic and engaging journey” – Cynthia Alaniz, Librarian In Cute Shoes
• “Illuminates the power of imagination” – Kellee Moye, Unleashing Readers
• “Readers will be inspired to…create their own journey” – Alyson Beecher, Kidlit Frenzy
• “Beautiful words and stunning illustrations” – Jason Lewis, 5th grade teacher at Tyngsboro Elementary School, Tyngsboro, MA

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

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 twice a week – on 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, Pinterest, and SoundCloud!

Poetry Friday: “The Snow Clouds Know,” part of ‘The Best of Today’s Little Ditty!’

A few weeks ago, friend and fellow writer Michelle H. Barnes published a collection of 75 poems by 55 different folks who have visited her blog and contributed poetry over the past 2 years. The book, The Best of Today’s Little Ditty, 2014-2015, is available now, and showcases a vast array of styles, forms, and voices.

Today, I’m sharing another one of my poems you’ll find inside…this one from a challenge from the one and only Joyce Sidman, who encouraged readers to write a “deeper wisdom” poem, modeled after her poem What the Trees Know, from her book, Winter Bees & Other Poems of the Cold (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014).

If you just clicked the link to read Joyce’s poem, you’ll see what the form looks like. As I often do, though, I tried to put my own spin on the challenge:

The Snow Clouds Know

What’s born above will soon be gone
to comfort what it falls upon.
Beauty blooms before the dawn;
this the snow clouds know.

Limbs are weak; snow is strong.
Days are short; nights are long.
Coyote sings a lonesome song;
this the snow clouds know.

– © 2015 Matt Forrest Esenwine, all rights reserved

Congratulations again, Michelle! I encourage everyone to visit her website today and find out more about the book and how to get a copy.

And speaking of poetry, be sure to ‘check out’ Jone MacCulloch’s little home on the web, “Check It Out,” for today’s complete Poetry Friday roundup, as well as info about her New Year Poetry Exchange!

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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 twice a week – on 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, Pinterest, and SoundCloud!

Poetry Friday: “Sledding”

For some, winter may be behind us, but this past weekend we ended up with nearly 3 inches of snow and temperatures in the low-teens – so it really didn’t feel like spring! I’ve been meaning to share this poem for a couple years now and keep forgetting…so before spring actually DOES arrive, I thought I’d share it today:

Sledding

I love to sled,
I love to slide.
I find the biggest hill around
then jump aboard
my plastic ride
and start my journey toward the ground.

Racing down
a sheet of snow,
frozen cheeks and icy hair –
faster, faster,
here I go,
snowflakes flying everywhere!

Carve a turn!
Get it straight!
Don’t think I can take much more!
Wonder how I’ll stop,
but wait! –

……I guess…that’s what…this…
……………rock…
……………    ………is for……

– © 2016 Matt Forrest Esenwine, all rights reserved

If you’re looking for more poetry, you’ll find the complete Poetry Friday roundup at Laura Purdie Salas’ home on the web, Writing the World for Kids, where she has some very putrid poetry! (not that her poetry is putrid – it’s really quite nice, actually – so you’ll just have to visit to see what I mean!)

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Irene Latham‘s annual Progressive Poem continues all month long! A different writer adds a line each day, and on April 30 we’ll see how it ends. Today you can see how far we’ve come at Irene’s blog, Live Your Poem!

You can follow the 2015 Progressive Poem at the following blog spots:

April

1 Laura at Writing the World for Kids

2 Joy at Joy Acey

3 Doraine at Dori Reads

4 Diane at Random Noodling

5 Penny at A Penny and Her Jots

6 Carol at Beyond LiteracyLink

7 Liz at Elizabeth Steinglass

8 Janet F. at Live Your Poem

9 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche

10 Pat at Writer on a Horse

11 Buffy at Buffy’s Blog

12 Michelle at Today’s Little Ditty

13 Linda at TeacherDance

14 Jone at Deo Writer

15 Matt at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme

16 Violet at Violet Nesdoly

17 Kim at Flukeprints

18 Irene at Live Your Poem

19 Charles at Charles Waters Poetry

20 Ruth at There is No Such Thing as a Godforsaken Town

21 Jan at Bookseedstudio

22 Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge

23 Ramona at Pleasures from the Page

24 Amy at The Poem Farm

25 Mark at Jackett Writes

26 Renee at No Water River

27 Mary Lee at Poetrepository

28 Heidi at My Juicy Little Universe

29 Sheila at Sheila Renfro

30 Donna at Mainely Write

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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 twice a week – on 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, Pinterest, and SoundCloud!

Poetry Friday: winter haiku

My friend and fellow writer/blogger Buffy Silverman shared a photo on her Facebook page the other day. It was a beautiful shot of individual snowflakes that had just fallen during the early evening, and she titled the post, “snowflakes at dusk.”

I told her that was a darned good title for a poem!

As it turned out, she ended up posting a couple of poems with that title on her blog shortly before I posted this following poem on MY blog…which is great, because I can encourage you to check out her blog and see the photo and poems for yourself! (I’m actually working on a second poem, but it just has not come together the way I want it, so I can’t share it yet)

Hope you like it!

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stars fall, cold, dead,
lit by living room window
snowflakes at dusk

– © 2015, Matt Forrest Esenwine, all rights reserved

For today’s complete Poetry Friday roundup, please visit Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference!

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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 twice a week – on 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, Pinterest, and SoundCloud!

Poetry Friday: “What the Snow Clouds Know”

I originally wrote this poem early this year as a challenge from poet Joyce Sidman on writer/blogger Michelle H. Barnes’ blog. Since we’re only a week away from Christmas with still no snow in the forecast, I thought I’d share it today!

What The Snow Clouds Know

What’s born above will soon be gone
to comfort what it falls upon.
Beauty blooms before the dawn.
This the snow clouds know.

Limbs are weak; snow is strong.
Days are short; nights are long.
Coyote sings a lonesome song;
this the snow clouds know.

– © 2015, Matt Forrest Esenwine, all rights reserved

Looking for more poetry? Please visit my fellow New Hampshire-ite Diane Mayr at Random Noodling for today’s complete Poetry Friday roundup!

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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 twice a week – on 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, Pinterest, and SoundCloud!

The necessity of splashing in puddles

My 5-year-old son and his 19-month-old sister couldn’t stand being inside the other day. (truth be told, I couldn’t stand them being inside, either) Temps have been getting a bit warmer lately – even though tonight’s overnight temp is expected to be in the single digits F – and I really can’t blame them for wanting to go outside.

The problem is, there’s not much to DO, this time of year. When we had tons of snow during the winter, it was usually so bitterly cold I didn’t dare bring them out for more than a few minutes. Now that temps have moderated, all we have is hard, frozen snow that will break your back if you fall on it and pathways of grassy mud.

Can’t play on the snow, can’t play in the mud.

Boring.

But I dressed them in their snow pants and coats and boots and such and let them go outside, anyway, figuring they’d at least get some fresh air for a little while. They ended up (once again) teaching me a valuable lesson.

It’s only a big deal if you make it a big deal

That’s a rule of thumb I learned back when I was first learning about promotions, particularly radio promotions. You can take the simplest, blandest concept and, with enough excitement and hype, turn it into a big deal.

In this case, the kids taught me that what I thought was a big deal…really wasn’t.

Kids being kids, they are adept at finding all sorts of things to play with that aren’t toys – sticks, stones, snow shovels – and the one thing little Babycakes discovered was a puddle on the edge of our dirt driveway.

To her, it was the most amazing, awesomest thing, ever.

And I almost killed her joy.

Letting go of “grown-up” mentality

We grown-ups really have a knack for putting the kibosh on our kids’ fun. It’s something I try to counter by using childlike perspective when I write…but actually putting it into practice isn’t always as easy as I’d like it to be.

You see, my first reaction was to tell her “no,” pick her up out of the puddle, and set her onto our gravel walkway. Which is what I did.

Independent-minded little lady that she is, she immediately turned around and walked right back into the puddle, splashing her feet and flailing her arms in a chaotic, quasi-dance I can only describe as Fred-Astaire-meets-the-Ministry-of-Silly-Walks.

I was just about to tell her no again when I stopped myself. What was I doing? She had winter boots, snow pants, a coat, and mittens. Who cared if she splashed in the puddle???

It was fun, after all – there was no harm being done to anything or anyone – and I could think of no good reason to not let her have her fun.

If one gets to do it, they all have to do it

Her 5-year-old brother, upon seeing what was going on, had to jump in the fray. I watched the two of them, their faces lit up with smiles and love and streaks of wet earth – and couldn’t help but join in.

So there we were, on the edge of the driveway, splashing away…and I can only imagine what the folks driving past our house were thinking:

“Ridiculous waste of time.”

“Such silly, immature behaviour.”

“I wish I could do that.”

They soon tired of it, though, and moved on to other areas around the house – but I was glad I had the opportunity to splash in the mud with them. It got me thinking how often I, or even we as a society, make a big deal out of small things.

It’s only a big deal if you make it a big deal

My son likes to play with kitchen utensils like the spatulas, whisks, and ladles. I once started to get upset with him because he was just making more dirty dishes for me – but then it occurred to me, who cares? Is it that big a deal? No.

My daughter doesn’t eat sandwiches like normal human beings (granted, she’s not yet 2), and instead prefers to separate each piece of bread and then eat them face-forward, like eating a pizza top-down, starting with the toppings and working your way down to the crust. I’ve attempted to stop her – but again, who cares? Is it that big a deal? No! Heck, at least she’s eating it.

And how many times have we stopped what we were doing to leave a comment on a Facebook wall or online news story, when we really didn’t need to? I’ve come to the realization that my opinion about most things doesn’t matter to anyone, so I’m not going to waste my time sharing it.

I’ve mentioned before here that, when you’re an adult, it’s difficult to not be a grown-up. But I’m trying. So I have to throw a few extra clothes in the washing machine, or load a few extra utensils in the dishwasher. None of it is a big deal, unless I make it a big deal.

Oh, and it look like the kids are finally asleep now. I need to go.

There’s a puddle outside with my name on it.

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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 twice a week – on 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, Pinterest, and SoundCloud!

Poetry Friday: “Snow Blowing”

Sharing my newest poem today – something a little bit autobiographical that I plan on including in my winter-themed collection:

Snow Blowing

Dad likes to clear snow at night.
He says there’s something special about
being outside, by yourself
in the dark and cold
with nothing but the vrum, vrum, vrum
of the snow-blower
chewing up everything in its path
and shooting it skyward
like a winter volcano
erupting in a graceful arch
of snow and ice.

“You get a lot of thinkin’ done,”
Dad says.
“Just you and the machine
and one job to do.”

“It’s a certain kind of peaceful,”
he says.
“Clears your mind.”

I don’t really understand
how working so hard
in the dark and cold,
pushing, pulling,
angling, arching,
a lone light leading his way,
can be peaceful.
It seems like such…

…work.

But maybe I’ll learn
what Dad means
next winter,
when we get the snow-blower
and both go outside
together
to clear snow at night.

– © 2015, Matt Forrest Esenwine, all rights reserved

Linda Baie is hosting Poetry Friday at her blog, Teacher Dance, so head on over and check out all the links and poetry!

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To keep abreast of all my posts, please consider subscribing via the links up there on the right!  (I usually only post twice a week – on 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, Pinterest, and SoundCloud!