National.Punctuation.Day? & Poetry Friday!

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FIRST…Did you know that there are only (gasp!) 10 days left to enter our giveaway contest for classroom teachers, librarians, and homeschooling parents?!?!? Win your choice of either a 30-minute Skype visit from a TeachingAuthor or a set of six autographed books—one from each TeachingAuthor—such a deal! 

And guess what?  The odds of winning are ginormous—we only have three entries so far!!!!!!

For all the hairy details, read this post. And please spread the word to your fav teachers, librarians, and homeschooling parents.

SECOND, did you know that today is the seventh annual NATIONAL PUNCTUATION DAY?  According to the website, NPD, begun by Jeff Rubin in 2003, is “A celebration of the lowly comma, correctly used quotation marks, and other proper uses of periods, semi-colons, and the ever-mysterious ellipsis.”

Getting a ticket from the Punctuation Police
for driving under the influence of apostrophes...

What a relief to know I’m not the only member of the Punctuation Police!  Here are some of NPD readers' photos of poorly punctuated signs.

I'm so happy that Carmela showed me the NPD site!  Other punctuation resources I use are: Grammar Slammer  and Grammar Girl.


Writing Workout:  Write a poem about punctuation. If you’d like to write a haiku, consider entering the National Punctuation Day Haiku Contest (which ends September 20, 2010) and see examples here (scroll down).

If haikus don’t light your creative fire, write any kind of a poem featuring your favorite punctuation mark…and then share it with us!

For inspiration, here are two of my own poems about punctuation…or are they about punctuation?

LOVE ME
by April Halprin Wayland

she signs her emails
love
me
without the comma

and I think
without the comma
is really
what she means


PERIOD. 
by April Halprin Wayland

It sounds so final. 
Like things stop.
When you get it.

I know that when I finally get mine,
I'm going to be so thrilled I'm going to call it my
Exclamation Point.

First published in GIRL COMING IN FOR A LANDING—a novel in poems by April Halprin Wayland, illustrated by Elaine Clayton (Knopf 2002)

Remember to breathe...and whatever you write, write with joy.

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poems and drawings (c) April Halprin Wayland