April is Poetry Month! Book Spine Poems for Poetry Friday!

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Hello, Campers --it's POETRY MONTH 2011!

At the end of this post, is a Writing Workout about Book Spine Poems.  Try your hand at one and let us know what you came up with! And below that is the Kidlistosphere's list of places to find poetry for Poetry Month.

Thanks to poet Amy Ludwig VanDerwater at The Poem Farm for hosting Poetry Friday today!

Yes, April is Poetry Month, which always pleases me to no end.  Not only is my name April, my birthday is in April and I was named for the Ogden Nash poem, "Always Marry an April Girl". I can hear you saying "Ahhhhh..."

For Poetry Month last year I took the Poem-A-Day-Challenge, writing a new poem each a day for the month of April (read them all here); it was such a profoundly naked and focusing exercise that I've continued to write a poem each day ever since.  So today marks my 366th poem in a row.  Journey with me as I write and post poems for Poetry Month 2011 here.

I only post the poems I write in the month of April; the rest I send, day by day, to my best friend, author and poet Bruce Balan, and his wife, who are sailing around the world in their red trimaran.  After dinner each night, while one washes the dishes, the other reads my poem aloud.  Then they send me their comments. I'm one lucky pup.

Poetry Month is rocking with events:

Over at GottaBook, Greg Pincus is reprising his amazing Thirty Poets in Thirty Days

And take a look at the new ebook poet Janet Wong and Professor Sylvia Vardell have cooked up  in time for Poetry Month for just 99 cents!

First Paperless Poetry e-Book Costs Just 99 Cents

Just in time for National Poetry Month, look for the first ever electronic-only poetry anthology of new poems by top poets for children (ages 0-8), PoetryTagTime, compiled by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong and available for only 99 cents at Amazon on April 1. This collection of 30 new, unpublished poems range from the humorous to serious, about tongues, turtles and toenails, in acrostics, quatrains, and free verse written by 30 of our best children's poets: Children’s Poet Laureates Jack Prelutsky and Mary Ann Hoberman; Newbery Honor winner Joyce Sidman; NCTE Poetry Award winners X.J. Kennedy, J. Patrick Lewis, Lee Bennett Hopkins, and Nikki Grimes; popular poets Douglas Florian, Betsy Franco, Jane Yolen, Alice Schertle, Helen Frost, Carole Boston Weatherford, Calef Brown, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, April Halprin Wayland, Leslie Bulion, Avis Harley, Joan Bransfield Graham, David L. Harrison, Julie Larios, Ann Whitford Paul, Bobbi Katz, Paul B. Janeczko, Laura Purdie Salas, Robert Weinstock, Amy Ludwig VanDerwater, Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, and Pat Mora. And the “connections” between poems as the poets voice how their poems are interconnected adds another layer of fun and meaning. You'll be able to share brand-new poems and poetry tips with children all month long for pennies a day!xxx
Even if you don’t own a Kindle, you can download the free Kindle app for a number of devices, including your Windows or Apple computer, iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, or Android-powered phone. Also, be sure to check out our web site and companion blog for strategies for sharing each of the 30 poems in the book, rolling out one per day throughout the month of April.  For more information: http://poetrytagtime.com. Then check out the PoetryTagTime blog, with fabulous classroom ideas!

Remember...the Kidlistosphere's list of events and places to find poetry during Poetry Month are listed below.

WRITING WORKOUT:
Book Spine Poems!

Here's a fun writing exercise which elementary school librarian Travis Jonker explains how to do here at the Association for Library Service to Children (ALSC) blog!

I tried creating a Book Spine Poem from my bookshelf:

The poem:
WOW!
Ring out, wild bells!
Splish splash!
Calling the doves!
We are all born free!
That's how it is when we draw. [and write!]

(The books pictured: Writers on Writing selected and compiled by Jon Winokur,  Ring Out Wild Bells--Poems About Holidays and Seasons Selected by Lee Bennett Hopkins, Splish Splash (shape poems about water) by Joan Bransfield Graham, Calling the Doves - El Canto de las Palomas by Juan Felipe Herrera, We Are All Born Free--The Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Pictures, and That's How it is When We Draw by Ruth Lercher Bornstein)

Let us know what you came up with--send us your own book spine poems or those your students create ~

Irene Latham compiled this list for the Kidslitosphere:

Susan Taylor Brown will post Lessons Learned (Mostly About Me) in a Poem-a-Day

April Halprin Wayland posts an original poem, the story behind it, and a poetry prompt each day. 

Liz Garton Scanlon will give us her third year of a Haiku-a-Day 

Jone MacCulloch will post 30 Days-30 Students: A poem a day from students 

A Poem A Day: A Personal Journey 

Poetry Postcard Project: Have a student written and decorated poem sent to your 

home. Email her 

Gregory K. will present 30 Poets/30 Days -a whole month of never-before-seen poems by a slew of fabulous poets writing for kids. 

Jama Rattigan will present her 2nd Annual Poetry Potluck (original poem and favorite recipe by guest bloggers) 

Irene Latham will host a month-long Poetry Party: poetry quotes, trivia, craft tips, publishing resources & free books! 

Andromeda Jazmon will be doing her fourth year in a row of haiga (original haiku + my photos) at A Wrung Sponge

Janelle at Brimful Curiosities will host a National Poetry Month Kids Poetry Challenge challenge in which kids are invited to create pictures for the poems she posts each Friday.

NEW additions:
Anastasia Suen presents EduHaiku! Write a haiku about what you learned in school and share it with her on her EduHaiku blog or twitter.

Lori Degman, at Habitual Rhymer, posts a new poem each day of Poetry Month, along with "fun poem-writing ideas"

National Poetry Month Poetry Friday schedule:

April 1 http://poemfarm.blogspot.com/

April 8 http://www.madiganreads.com/

April 15 http://randomnoodling.blogspot.com/

April 22 http://bookaunt.blogspot.com/

April 29 http://www.tabathayeatts.blogspot.com/

Poetry Friday, Tea with Monkey, and Seasons...

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Howdy, Campers! Welcome to Poetry Friday at TeachingAuthors!

Please add your link to Mr. Linky below and then say a bit about your poetry post in our comments.
Thank you kindly.

Now, pull up a comfy chair and have a cuppa tea with me.

Monkey is having a cup of tea...

...and reading poetry.  Join him. 

We TeachingAuthors have been discussing our writing routines...or lack of them.  Carmela kicked it off, posting about being "writerly" even without a regular writing routine.   Mary Ann talks frankly about an untidy schedule while she's the caregiver of two family members (I can relate!); Jill wonders if routine can save the day (and shows us the quilt she made), and Jeanne Marie knows exactly what will fall by the wayside so that her writing gets done.  In between, both Jeanne Marie and Esther posted Wednesday Writing Workouts, a new TeachingAuthor feature.

For me, writing routines are seasonal--as in the seasons in one's life.  The routines I stick to in this season of my life (sans kid, with a husband who works many hours) are: 1) romp the dog twice a day, 2) exercise, and 3) write a poem a day.  I send my best friend Bruce Balan an original poem each day and he sends one of his back.  (Last night his poem informed me that as of December 26th I had written 1000 poems!)

I just finished working on a nine-month political campaign; it was wonderful having one purpose, one thing to strive for.  And when my husband was in the hospital in November, that, too, gave me a single purpose.  But right now, I am teaching, writing, critiquing, taking care of 92-year-old Uncle Davie.

Despite my routines, I'm in the hallway of unopened doors...
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BETWEEN
by April Halprin Wayland

In this hall of fear and doubt,
open a door and let me out.

Hear that eerie violin?
Unlock a door and bring me in!

Spirit, goddess, hear my prayer
any door will do, I swear!

What? A door at hallway's end
opens, through it sunlight bends?

I am running to escape
thank you for the door-sized gape!

Whoa! This place is way too squarish…
might I view a room less garish?
poem(c)April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved.

In which season of life are you?

What?  No more tea?  

No, Monkey, but luckily there's more Poetry below...
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I'm visiting as many of our wonderful kidlitosphere poets as I possibly can (starting right below these three lines), but please also check the Mr. Linky links far, far below AND the comments to see who's posted what...
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Renee Latulippe is the first one in with a catnap poem for two voices, reminding me of this form and encouraging, instructing and inspiring us to write more!
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Charles Ghigna--aka Father Goose--is in with Valentine Poems, teaching us how to write his four-line If You Were poems.  Charles also links to a comic book, and his book of love poems for adults!

Jama of Alphabet Soup jumps in celebrating Langston Hughes' 111th birthday (happy birthday, LH--let the rain kiss you ~) with poems (including, appropriately enough for Jama, Hughes' poem titled, "Dinner Guest: Me") and foodie tidbits, of course!
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Laura Shovan's post at Author Amok unveils the Academy of American Poets' 2013 postcard-themed National Poetry Month poster and shares a kitten-and-hot-pink-gloves poem based on a postcard--(I love her comment about Poetry Friday's icon: "Army green is so last year, but Poetry Friday is always in style.")
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Catherine Johnson's in with her poem, "Anne of Green Gables meets Lady Shalott"...I love her line,
"hair spilling over like seaweed"
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Laura Salas shares an elf poem translated from the Danish.  I wish I'd imagined this itty bitty man and his pockets packed with mice!  Laura also, as always, challenges us to write a 15 Words or Less poem, this one about her photo of a glass ceiling.
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Diane Mayr, of Random Noodling joins in with a link to an article by author Anita Diamant, about Richard Blanco's poem for the inauguration and how our poetry and our times have and have not changed (note this quote about poetry by Anita Diamant);  Diane also offers us two short videos of a Richard Blanco interview--what riches!
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Diane, in her other guise as Kurious Kitty, recently read an article on memorizing poetry, which reminded her of the poem she memorized long ago: Rudyard Kipling's "If".  I particularly love these lines: "If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster/And treat those two impostors just the same"...
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Feeling a little lonely or the need to get away and BE alone?  Check out these snippets of poems on solitude at the Write Sisters' blog.
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And...oh, my goodness...I completely forgot about Groundhog's Day!  Luckily, Amy, aka Mrs. Merrill, reminds us with this Groundhog's Day Poem ~
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Violet Nesdoly's in with an original fog poem and photo...I love when she says fog finally "weakens under/distant globe/like consciousness/after a coma/colour seeps back/into earth-corpse..."
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Dash over to Robyn Hood Black's blog for the metaphor of doors and books and see her glorious collage of a book-door! 
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Tamera Will Wissinger, like Laura Shovan, loves the Academy of American Poet's poster for National Poetry Month and has an interesting interpretation of its design.
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Joy Acey teaches us how to write a Minute Poem, and then shares her own, "Moon Minute" (try writing your own Minute Poem--I did)...

...and Matt Forrest shares an original mud pies poem (yum!)

At Supratentorial (look up the definition--I did), Alice and her kids are reading and memorizing poems about colors from the classic, Hailstones and Halibut Bones. 
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At Fuse #8, Elizabeth Bird reviews Jack Prelutsky's Stardines Swim High Across the Sky and Other Poems.  Jack once again smashes two words together to come up with new animals; illustrator Carin Berger's shadow box pictures are out of this world (stay for the 2:09 minute video tour of Carin's studio). 
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Tara, at a Teaching Life also writes about memorizing poems, sharing a 2:59 NPR story about "Poetry by Heart" in the U.K, a poem she memorized in fourth grade, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson himself saying his poem.
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Our dear Linda at TeacherDance helps us say good-bye to January with Wallace Stevens' "The Snow Man".
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Margaret, of Reflections on the Teche opens pages of the new edition of The Mysteries of Harris Burdick and the ensuing discussion triggers students' idiom poems.
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Fats Suela from Gathering Books shares one of the amazing reverso poems from Marilyn Singer's Cybil-award winning book, Mirror, Mirror.  Have you ever tried to write a reverso?  SO HARD!!! 
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Amy at The Poem Farm has written a wonderful poem about meeting someone who you feel so connected to it's as if you've known them for years.  And she has great news regarding Mr. J. Patrick Lewis and her soon-to-be-published book, FOREST HAS A SONG--woo-woo! 
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Greg Pincus of GottaBook is in, of course.  He's always concise and always clever...today he ties us in knots!
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And M.M. Socks (aka Alvaro Salinas Jr.) has the hiccups in his post's poem.
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Tabatha Yeatts on her perch at The Opposite of Indifference shares five short Richard Brautigan poems; some are mind-blowing...
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Mary Lee, at A Year of Reading, shares a wonderfully concise poem about getting into a writing rut or losing one's focus.
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Doraine Bennet, at Dori Reads shares an incredibly personal original poem about a stillborn child.  Sharing grief--or any difficult emotion--is an act of generosity.
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Katya at Write. Sketch. Repeat. shares Robert Service's "The Shooting of Dan McGrew" which she recites around the fire on camping trips.  I'd heard of it but never read it all the way through. Thanks, Katya!
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Bridget Magee at wee words for wee ones posts an original poem a day.  For Poetry Friday she writes about that song that will not stop singing in your head.  Yes, that one.
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Liz Steinglass, who also writes a poem a day, shares two original silly poems, "The Sparrow at the Store" and "The Secret of the Cat."
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Andromeda Jazmon Sibley, of wrung sponge, reviews Joyce Carol Thomas' new book, The Land of Milk and Honey. 
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Steve Peterson at inside the dog considers, in his original poem, the testing his 8 and 9-year old students are facing and isn't sure whether to accept it or not...
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Bright light in our poetry universe, Sylvia Vardell always has good news at Poetry for Children ...
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...while Sylvia teams with author/poet Janet Wong in their Poetry Friday Anthology blog--a poem a week is all they ask!
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Little Willow offers a poem from The Australian Girl ...
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...while Ed DeCaria at Think, Kid, Think! is calling all classrooms to pick words with which to torture the participating poets in March Madness.  (The application deadline for poets has passed.)
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Lorie Ann Grover gives us a brother and sister haiku.  Why not try writing your own?
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MsMac at Check it Out writes a tender poem about when to say good-bye to her old dog, inspired by a William Stafford poem.
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Janet Squires' posts at All About the Books are short and to the point.  Wish I had that skill!
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Kort's family at One Deep Drawer has good news: baby #3!  She posts (HOW CAN SHE POST?!?! SHE JUST HAD A BABY!!!) a poem by Christina Rossetti and photos of her three chicks...congrats, Kort!

 

We Have A Winner! And We Have A Writer's Drought Poem for Poetry Friday!

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Howdy, Campers!

Happy hot and glorious summer!  I'm loving this hotter-than-usual Southern California summer: lying on hot cement by the pool in a wet bathing suit, barefeet, no sleeves, long days, bright mornings, driving with all the windows down, sleeping with all the windows open, taking Eli to the dog park early because he's black and brown and otherwise he gets too hot to romp like a pony, cold drinks with just the right kind of crunchy ice...I can go on listing all the things I love about summer.

Speaking of lists, we have a winner of Sylvia Vardell's book, THE POETRY BOOK OF LISTS!  If you were on vacation, Sylvia was our Mystery Guest Author on August 3rd.  It was very exciting.  And so is announcing the winner, who is...dum-dah-dah-dum...Carl Scott!   Yay, Carl!

And now onto the topic we TeachingAuthors have been discussing:

GETTING THROUGH TIMES OF DROUGHT
OR HOW I FILL THE WRITING WELL. 

(Sorry...I didn't mean to shout.)

Mary Ann posted about finding at least three things to write in her journal each day that trigger her curiosity.  Carmela posted that she replenishes her writer's well by taking herself on an artist playdate. And Carmela tells us about her friend, Leanne Pankuch, who writes a page a day.  

My contribution is the following poem, inspired by our topic.

DROUGHT
by April Halprin Wayland

We writers,
we've been through Hard Times.
Dry times.
The Long Drought.

Dry?  Oh my.
We place our plates upside down,
glasses bottom side up,
so the winds won't blast dust into 'em.

Our typewriters go thirsty on parched parchment.
We've got scrawny stories—or none at all.
Ideas simply
evaporate.

We hear that on the outskirts of Amarillo,
crows built a nest from barbed wire—
the only thing they could scavenge
from burned-out fields.

Those birds made a nest
from barbed wire?
Well, Sir, then so can we.
And then: we'll crow.

poem © 2012 April Halprin Wayland.  All rights reserved.

WRITING WORKOUT: Vitamins

Raise your hand if you take vitamins.  Now look at the vitamin bottle.  Do the directions say: take one when the mood strikes you?

I challenge you to write something, anything, every day, even if it's small, even if it's crummy. The trick to doing this consistently, for me, turned out to be connecting with a writing buddy.  You may remember that I write a poem a day and send each one to my friend who sails around the world in a trimaran.  Well, Bruce is now writing a poem a day, too, and sending them to me.  It's a lovely circular thing. 

One brilliant poem a day?  Ha ha.  Some rare days the poems are wonderful.  I give those a star.  Some days they're just okay.  Poetic possibilities in waiting.  And some days, wandering in a desert, or depleted by Real Life, I can only squeeze out what Bruce and I call a PHP--a Place Holder Poem.

So every day, take your vitamins.  Write a page or a poem.  And walk out your door into the world feeling virtuous.  You are a writer.

Thanks to Andromeda at A Wrung Sponge for hosting Poetry Friday!
(Note from Carmela: Andromeda's roundup didn't come out until Saturday.
Meanwhile, Mary Lee was kind enough to post one at A Year of Reading) 

posted by April Halprin Wayland

A Poem-A-Day! Frustration! A Poem & a Poetry Writing Exercise! Book Giveaway!

Hi!  So...if you follow TeachingAuthors, you know that for National Poetry Month I am participating in the poem-a-day challenge.

It's VERY strange. I'm having those naked-in-public dreams.

Most of my poems take days, weeks or months to complete.  At the very least I leave them to "rest" for a day and then come back and read them with fresh eyes. (As it's been said here, revision means to see again.)

So writing a poem and posting it on the same day feels as if I'm an artist and suddenly someone flings open the door of my studio and thirty lookie-loos crowd around me as I'm painting at my easel.

Some days it's fabulous.  I think, Wow...this is so cool, I can't wait to share it! And other days, (yesterday and today, for example), I'm that grim-jawed miner determined to find a poem. 

But it takes a village, right?  My sister, also a writer, sent me the Writer's Digest interview with mystery writer Sue Grafton, which has helped center me today.   I recently heard Sue Grafton speak; I liked how honest she was.  Here's my favorite quote from the interview:

What have you learned in writing the series?
I’m learning the same lesson every single time. I’m learning to trust the process. I’m trying to remember that writing should be a form of play. I keep saying the fate of the free world does not hang in the balance. Even if I write a book that fails, nothing will happen. I’ll be mortified and embarrassed, but lives will not be lost over this. I take writing terribly seriously, and sometimes that just gets in my way. Writing is about the Shadow, which is about play. I just have to learn that again. And, in my own life, it’s like I can’t learn that I’ll rise to the occasion. I do rise to the occasion, but I’m never sure that’s going to happen. I keep thinking, Uh-oh, this is going to be the book that does me in. So that frightens me so desperately that I get into a panic when I should shut my mouth and get on with it. 

I think I may need to post this quote near my desk.

But after I'd finally finished yesterday's poem, I COULD NOT GET IT TO POST properly. I pushed the "update" page...but the spacing was whack-o or all the older poems disappeared.  I also discovered that if I edited it through Firefox it would not necessarily come out right when viewed with Internet Explorer. 

So, I HAVE NEWS FOR YOU, SUE GRATON--the fate of the free world DOES hang in the balance!  At least that's how it felt.  My brain knew that no one would die if I didn't post the poem. But my boiling blood pressure couldn't seem to get the message.

It's obviously time to get some perspective and remember how wonderful my life is.

So, today's WRITING WORKOUT is about a form of poetry I've named the Dayenu poem, a poem about a day or experience for which you are grateful.  These poems make wonderful read alouds...everyone says "Dayenu" as the chorus.

Here's the April 1st post from my Poem-A-Day Challenge :


I have been thinking a lot about the word Dayenu, which we hear each year at the Passover seder.


What’s dayenu?  Here’s a definition condensed from Wiki:

“…The word “dayenu” is Hebrew for “it is enough for us” or “we would have been satisfied.” The song lists the miracles…performed for the Jewish people…The song follows the format “If G-d had done x and not done y, dayenu. If G-d had done y and not done z, dayenu,” and so on. This…expression of gratitude… helps to inculcate a mindset of thankfulness that is appropriate outside the confines of the Seder as well.


I decided to copy the original format (which you can read here) and apply it to one day in my life.  Warning…this is pretty long.  My goal in writing poetry and picture books is to condense, condense, like a soup stock.  But, ironically, this takes time–if I had longer to work on the poem it would be shorter!  So here is a first version of a poem incorporating the idea of  Dayenu.  What could be a better writing assignment?  Relive a really wonderful day.

DAYENU (pronounced: die-Ay-new)

by April Halprin Wayland

If we had driven along the jungley road

And not found the hiking trail

Dayenu

If we had found the hiking trail

And had not reached the hill overlooking the ocean

Dayenu

If we had reached the hill overlooking the ocean

And hadn’t noticed the turquoise water, the hundred shades of green and that red dirt

Dayenu

If we had noticed the turquoise water, those greens and the red dirt

And we not hiked down, down, down to the water

Dayenu

If we had hiked down and climbed over the round grey rocks, right to the water’s edge

And had not gone swimming

Dayenu

If we dove into those turquoise and deep blue waves

And not built cairns when we were done swimming
Dayenu

If we had built the cairns

And had not hiked up, up, up and then dowwwwwn again, back to the car
Dayenu

If we had hiked up, up, up and then down-down-down, back to the car
And had not found the farmers market
Dayenu

If we had found the farmers market
And had not bought fresh ahi tuna, avocado and mangoes
Dayenu

If we had bought fresh ahi, avocado and mangoes at the farmers market
And had not cooked it together, all of us chopping and marinating and setting the table
Dayenu

If we had cooked the yummy dinner together, all of us helping
And had not taken a good hot bubbling bath
Dayenu

If we had taken a hot bath to soak our sore hiker legs
And had not had soft beds to sleep in
Dayenu

If we had soft beds to sleep in
And not had kisses on our foreheads
Dayenu

Thank you, thank you and thank you

For this day. 

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Now...write your own Dayenu poem. 

And remember to enter our new book giveaway!  Before entering, be sure to first read our Giveaway Guidelines here.

If you'd like a chance to win an autographed copy of the anthology Ladybug, Ladybug and Other Favorite Poems, post a comment to today's blog post telling us why you'd like to win the book. Also, we'd love to know if you're doing anything special to celebrate National Poetry Month. And please, don't forget to provide your email address or a link to your own blog in your comment so that we can contact you. (U.S. residents only, please.)  Entries must be posted by 11 p.m.(Central Standard Time) Wednesday, April 14, 2010. The winner will be announced on April 15.

We look forward to reading your comments.  And remember to write with joy.  (or at least to hope it lowers your blood pressure!)

poem and drawings © by April Halprin Wayland 2010 all rights reserved

Out & About at SCBWI...and Why Does She Keep Two Journals?!?

Hi, Gang!
A quick reminder about TeachingAuthors’ latest book giveaway for Karen Romano Young’s intriguing graphic novel about a girl who keeps a doodles-and-writing journal, Doodlebug: A Novel in Doodles.  Entry deadline is 11 pm (CST) Wednesday, August 4, 2010. For details, read this post.

More about keeping a journal in a minute.

OUT AND ABOUT 
But first...I’m at the SCBWI’s 39th Annual International Summer Conference in my home state of California! (TeachingAuthors’ very own Esther Hershenhorn is featured on the first web page about the conference with her timeless article, Confessions and Secrets of a Veteran SCBWI Conference-Goer!)  2010 is SCBWI's biggest year ever, with over a thousand attendees!

The photo is from SCBWI's website...it's actually from the annual Winter Conference...but you get the idea: big, enthusiastic crowd!

This is the ninth year I’ve critiqued manuscripts.  Wow.  I AM old!  I love having this unique role at the conference.  Each attendee who pays extra and submits a manuscript ahead of time is given a half hour slot during the conference.  They are escorted (some on trembling legs) into a long room where there are more than fifty members of the faculty sitting across tables, talking quietly with writers about their manuscripts.

Critiquing means you have lots of work before the conference.  It takes me at least an hour--sometimes two--to write the critique I give each of the ten or so writers I'm assigned.

My favorite part is having a full half hour to talk with each person about their work.  As we’ve just read in the last few posts on critique groups, you walk a fine line…you want to encourage…and you also want to help make that manuscript the best it can possibly be.  You do NOT want to squash the person’s fragile ego like a bug on the sidewalk.  That’s easy to do!

I do my best to follow Jeanne Marie Grunwell Ford's suggestions: "PQP -- Praise, Question, Polish.   Start with praise.  Always.  There's something good you can find.  Somewhere.  Always. Usually you can find a way to end on an encouraging note, as well. In between, be constructive, be specific, and offer suggestions."

Be gentle!  That's the writer's heart...

Luckily no one gives me suggestions about the entries in my journals...not that either of them is private.  As I wrote in a previous post about journaling, “Do I still keep a journal?  You betcha.  I’ve been emailing it to a dear friend, one day at a time, for years—I call it my blog with one reader.  And she actually reads it.  Now that’s a friend!”

That's the journal I call my news journal, and satisfies the journalist in me.  But something was missing.  The artistic flying-squirrel-crazed-angel part of me didn’t have a platform.  Where were my poems, my colors, my thoughts that didn’t march in a logical procession? 

When I took the Poem-A-Day Challenge in April of 2010, I wrote and posted a poem each day for the month of April.

That challenge forced me to put poetry among the top three priorities in my life (The other two?  Health and family).  A writer is SUPPOSED to make writing a top priority …but this?  This was like pouring jet fuel into my poetry paper airplane!

So even though the official Poem-A-Day Challenge ended on April 30th, I’ve kept a daily poetry journal, in which I write one poem a day, ever since.  I email each poem to one of my best friends, author Bruce Balan, who is sailing around the world in his trimaran named Migration (named for his picture book, The Cherry Migration.)  Right now he’s in Tonga.  How cool is that?

Here’s the exercise about keeping a journal which I assign to my students at UCLA Extension.  It’s from this post.

“Write a one-minute journal each day.  Take only one minute to record the thing you most want to remember about that day.   It can be weighty—that your friend passed the bar exam, for example.  But it could be that one moment—seeing the long slant of the sun on a skateboarder as she skated past.”

Go ahead.  Attack a fresh page--with words and/or doodles--for one minute.  You’ll be glad you did.

And of course, write with joy.        

Drawings (c) by April Halprin Wayland

What I Wish I'd Known...Happy Poetry Friday...and G'bye, Poetry Month 2011!

The celebration of our TeachingAuthors Second Blogiversary continues! You can still enter to win one of our two Critique Giveaways! Click on the link to learn the Contest details. As always, we’re cheering you on.

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Howdy, Campers! And Thank you, Tabitha, at The Opposite of Indifference, for sponsoring today's Poetry Friday!

As Esther Hershenhorn posted on Wednesday, "Our Second Blogiversary got the six of us thinking: what nugget, what Truth, do we wish we’d known when we began writing for children?"

In a nutshell, what I wish I would have known when I began writing for children is keep writing.  And be wary of the lure of the stage.  I do love performing and teaching, so speaking in schools wasn't a bad thing when my first picture book, To Rabbittown, came out.

The problem?  My touring schedule overwhelmed my writing time.  As as result, I had fewer manuscripts in the pipeline.  Fewer books being published.  Lots to teach and tell, no product.

And that's my contribution in a nutshell on this topic!

Now it's time to say good-bye to Poetry Month 2011.  Boo-hoo.  I've been privileged to be part of Poetry Month is numerous ways:

• I was interviewed by the wonderful author (and now my friend), Jama Rattigan (and given a raisin birthday card!) on her blog, Jama Rattigan's Alphabet Soup;
• My poem "World Wide Wag" was included in Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong's groundbreaking book, POETRY TAG TIME, the first electronic-only poetry anthology for kids, with 30 new poems by 30 contemporary poets (which you can buy and read for 99 cents even if you don't own a Kindle or e-reader);
• Janet Wong, Joan Bransfield Graham and I were interviewed by the most excellent author, Michelle Markel on her The Cat and the Fiddle blog about writing poetry (here's Part Two of her wonderful interview);
• My poem, "Whoever Composes the Sky" was included in Greg Pincus' fabulous 30 Poets in 30 Days project at his GottaBook blog;
• a brief (under 3 minute) audio interview with me about the importance of school libraries and school librarians was posted on Circulate This!;
• And I've posted an original poem each day on my poetry blog, including a back story and a poetry prompt with each poem.

To be honest, POSTING a poem a day is very different from WRITING a poem a day.  Even if I didn't include the story behind each poem and a poetry prompt, there's the awareness that other people besides my best friend will read the poem.  Pressure.  As my husband has said, I can make a picnic into homework.  It's true!

What have I learned in writing a poem a day for more than a year?  Be present.  Be ready to catch the poem when it appears. 

Here's my poem from June 24, 2011 about this:

WHEN I LOOK FOR A POEM IN THE TREE OF TODAY

by April Halprin Wayland

I hear the soft sound of my car's under-performing air conditioner,

I lean in to hear this murder mystery on tape,

I study the green left-turn arrow at Wilshire and La Cienega,

I listen to Uncle Davie’s doctor:

“Are you aware you have memory problems?”

Finally, it is the moldy smell of a corn cob 

in the compost pile this morning.

It is when I stopped holding my nose,

when I realized this small soil-covered cylinder was redolent;

when I realized it was good.
c) 2011 April Halprin Wayland, all rights reserved

WRITING WORKOUT: Be Present
Go outside.  That's always a good place for me to start. 

Lean down.  Look closely.  Now close your eyes.  Smell.  Listen.  

What's around you?  What wants a say on your page?

Write your poem.   Perhaps the only structure is that each stanza has the same number of lines...as in my poem, above.  Or perhaps there's one repeating line.

Write with joy.  And share your words with someone who needs a poem.

Share your poem with a friend.

Eli and our backyard cow say g'bye to Poetry Month 2011 ~

poem, photo of Eli and the cow, and drawing (c) 2011 by April Halprin Wayland ~ all rights reserved

Poetry Friday Roundup and a Couple of Dog Poems

The Teaching Authors are so excited to host Poetry Friday today! What is Poetry Friday? A weekly celebration of poetry on the Web. Bloggers from all over share their favorite poems, review poetry books, and contribute their thoughts on poetic topics. One blog rounds up all the posts each week so poetry lovers can find and enjoy them all. Welcome to the roundup!

In honor of Poetry Friday, we have two poems today. By happy coincidence (or maybe ESP), April and I both wrote poems about our dogs. Here's mine. Enjoy!

What Is She?
by JoAnn Early Macken

With her black and white speckles
and her stubborn streak,
Bea leads the way,
jangling as she trots,
tail unflagging,
always on her toes.
She plows headfirst into each moment,
black patches covering both eyes and ears,
sniffing every splotch on the sidewalk.

When people ask, "What is she?",
we tell them what the shelter said, but nobody believes it.
They can’t resist a guess: "Maybe pointer?"

When she meets another dog,
she plops to the ground, tail a metronome,
waits for the signal it’s okay to play,
takes the first step in the introduction dance,
risks a quick pounce, feet splayed, head down,
woofs, and bounces.

What is she? We don’t know.
She’s a mutt.
     She’s Bea.
          She’s ours.

Here is April's dog Eli and her poem, which originally appeared on an NPR bulletin board.

HALLOWEEN AT THE DOG PARK
by April Halprin Wayland

The dog park
is dog dark.
It can haunt you
like the hooting of something you can’t see.

There is no moon.

You’re both loners.
No dogs, no other owners.
Mostly it’s ghostly.

No owl, mouse or moon
can chase this ghoulish feeling.
Your dog finds a bone.
At night it’s not stealing.
He knows: it’s his alone.

Then—the double clink
of the double dog park gate.
Must be fate.

Two forms
one four-legged,
one hard to discern, not howling, probably human
walking towards you
a fellow dark dog park devotee.
Probably not a parolee.
Still.

And then a kind of thrill:
An all-white dog,
convenient on a black night.

Though you hear two dogs
swirling in large circles in the damp dirt
you see only one blinking by.
The other, yours, is invisible
in the dog dark.

If you have a link to share for Poetry Friday, please leave it in the comments. I'll update this blog throughout the day. New to Poetry Friday? Here's what you do:

1. Leave the exact link to your Poetry Friday blog post (not your generic blog address).
2. Say a little something about your post.
3. Link back to this page within your post.

Happy reading!

JoAnn Early Macken

Morning Roundup

• Diane Mayr has three Poetry Friday posts today: a Poem a Day blog from a fellow NE librarian at Random Noodling, a look at the anthology Songs of Myself at Kurious Kitty, and a P.F. quote by Don Marquis, accompanied by an awesome travel poster of the Grand Canyon, at Kurious K's Kwotes.

• Andromeda Jazmon has original haiku and photos up at A Wrung Sponge.

• laurasalas is in for Poetry Friday with the cover of her next poetry picture book at http://laurasalas.livejournal.com/245774.html. (Congratulations, Laura!) And 15 Words or Less poems are at http://laurasalas.livejournal.com/245665.html.

• Amy LV has a post about how poems can heal us along with #23 in her series of poems about poems: http://bit.ly/avh9MJ.

• The Write Sisters are in this week with The Hay Rake by Kate Barnes at www.thewritesisters@blogspot.com.

• Author Amok has a lesson in concrete poetry that includes a fun craft and model poems by Betsy Franco. http://authoramok.blogspot.com/2010/11/concrete-poetry-friday.html.

• Tabatha has The Finest Hour.

• Sally Thomas is sharing a self-imposed animal-poem assignment at Castle in the Sea: Poetry Friday.

• Shelley's poems are about a young farm wife and her husband and son and the last Great Depression. http://dustbowlpoetry.wordpress.com.

• Mary Lee is in with a October mosaic of photos she took last month and part of a Linda Pastan poem: http://readingyear.blogspot.com/2010/11/poetry-friday-change-of-seasons.html.

• Christine Marciniak is in at Simply Put with an original poem by her teenager.

• The Stenhouse Blog has a student poem titled "Comida."

• Susan Thomsen is in with a found poem based on a passage from Spilling Ink (Roaring Brook, 2010) about finding your voice: http://bit.ly/cILiLZ.

• Debbie Diller has a poem by Valerie Worth called "Acorn."

• jama is sharing "Eating Together" by Kim Addonizio and some thoughts about saying goodbye at http://jamarattigan.livejournal.com/480809.html.

• Ruth has a Longfellow poem about building a ship and a link to her found poem using words from tap-taps in Port-au-Prince: http://thereisnosuchthingasagodforsakentown.blogspot.com/2010/11/poetry-friday-longfellow.html.

• Toby Speed is in with some tea and T and poetry at The Writer's Armchair.

• Sally at PaperTigers is in with a post on the poetic origins of Diwali: http://www.papertigers.org/wordpress/about-diwali/

• maclibrary has a poem for Veteran's Day: http://maclibrary.wordpress.com/2010/11/05/poetry-friday-in-flanders-fields/.

• At Wild Rose Reader, Elaine Magliaro has a poem titled "The Anthologist" for Lee Bennett Hopkins and links to all of Tricia Stohr-Hunt's and Sylvia Vardell's NCTE Poetry Posts: http://wildrosereader.blogspot.com/2010/11/anthologist-poem-for-lee-bennett.html.

• Melissa Wiley is in with a new poem and some sound advice from Sara Teasdale: http://melissawiley.com/blog/2010/11/05/spend-all-you-have-for-loveliness/.

More at Midday

• Gregory K. (Woof!!!!) is up with a seasonal original at Too Much, Too Soon.

• Maria has Poetry Friday is Delicious! at http://teachingin21.blogspot.com/2010/11/poetry-friday-is-delicious.html.

• Elaine Magliaro is a guest blogger at the blog of law professor and legal scholar Jonathan Turley this week. Her post is titled Poetry, Politics, and War and includes three poetry videos produced by the Favorite Poem Project: http://jonathanturley.org/2010/11/05/poetry-politics-and-war/.

• Charles Ghigna (Father Goose) has Echoes from a whippoorwill at The FATHER GOOSE Blog and a Peek inside The Art Gallery at The BALD EGO Blog.

• Sylvia Vardell posted a third installment in her look at poet Pat Mora and her work as part of a project to make her NCTE conference presentation (Nov. 19) accessible to all: http://poetryforchildren.blogspot.com/2010/11/pat-mora-on-web-and-in-print.html.

• Liz in Ink posted about swimming and writing and sticking with it: http://liz-scanlon.livejournal.com/161602.html.

• Blythe Woolston shares two translations of one poem by Shuntaro Tanikawa on the Squat All Blog: http://blythewoolston.blogspot.com/2010/11/one-poem-two-translations.html.

• Karen E. is in this week with "In the Middle" by Barbara Crooker, here.

• Anastasia Suen is sharing the picture book poem I’m a Truck Driver by Jonathan London (Author) and David Parkins (Illustrator).

• Jeni has written an original poem, "When Pigs Fly," inspired by a photo Laura Salas posted on her blog yesterday: http://jeniwrites.livejournal.com/34727.html.

• david elzey's poem is a bit of an update on "for he's a jolly good fellow" at http://fomagrams.wordpress.com/2010/11/05/poetryfriday-three-cheers/. He's also got a "when pigs fly" poem up over at laura salas's place.

Evening Additions

• Anticipating Veteran's Day, Julie Larios posted a love poem written by Edward Thomas, a Welsh poet killed in WWI, at The Drift Record.

• Heidi Mordhorst is in with a fine example of "soscientry" and some Little Red Hen.

• Caryl couldn't resist posting some Shel Silverstein:
  http://leaningtowerofbooks.blogspot.com/2010/11/poetry-friday-runny-babbit.html.

Bedtime Bonus

• Janet Squires has 'Twas the Night Before Thanksgiving, written and illustrated by Dav Pilkey.

• AnneShirley is in at Everyday Readers/Writers Workshop with a poem (appropriately) about a teacher by New Zealander Janet Charman: http://readerswritersworkshop.blogspot.com/2010/11/poetry-friday.html.

Thanks for all the woofs, comments, and dog pictures! Next week's Poetry Friday roundup (Friday, November 12) is at Liz in Ink.

JoAnn