Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Tenth Day of Thanks-Giving: Roundup of Thankus and Thank-You Notes

Today is the last day of our Ten Days of Thanks-Giving. The event was inspired by Esther's post about a poetry form called the THANKU, a thank-you note in haiku form. We TeachingAuthors decided to sponsor the Ten Days of Thanks-Giving as an opportunity for our readers, students, and everyone in the Kidlitosphere to share their own thank-yous.  We hope to make this an annual event taking place every November 20-30.

Today, I'll share some of the thank you notes we received, and a roundup of links to sites where fellow bloggers posted their thank-yous. But first, I want to share my own THANKU.

On Monday, Mary Ann wrote about being thankful for the Hive, a group of Vermont College alumni that we're both blessed to be part of. My thank you today is an appropriate follow-up to that post because it's to the woman responsible for my attending Vermont College: my teacher, mentor, and friend, Sharon Darrow. I've known Sharon for so long now that I can't even recall how we first met. However, I do remember the fateful day when we had lunch together and I mentioned my desire to take some advanced writing classes. Sharon encouraged me to apply to the Vermont College MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults instead. The idea terrified me. Who was I to try to get an MFA in writing? My undergraduate degree was in Math and Computer Science! But Sharon had such faith in me that I decided to take the plunge and apply. Little did I know then all the wonderful things my acceptance to VC would lead to.

I don't think I can top the marvelous tribute Esther wrote last week in honor of her mentor and teacher, Barbara Lucas. So instead, I dedicate this simply Thanku Haiku to Sharon Darrow:

Your encouragement
yielded a harvest beyond
my expectations.

Thank you, Sharon. And thank you to all the wonderful writing teachers I worked with at Vermont College as a result of following Sharon's advice.

Now, to share some of the thank you notes and comments we received during our Ten Days of Thanks-Giving. As it happens, just this morning Bobby Miller, a terrific writer I met when we were both students at Vermont College, posted a Vermont College-related thank-you comment on Mary Ann's post of yesterday:
I share my big Thank You to the MFA/Writing for Children program. It changed my life, personally and professionally. It brought my life's goal into focus, gave it purpose. And I walked away with treasured friendships.
Yesterday, Linda at Teacherdance posted a beautiful 25-word thank-you note to her writing community as a comment on that same blog post:
Thank you my writing colleagues;
your words bless me, put my life
into a higher plane, entice me to
write more, think more, be more.
I had invited the students of a creative writing class I'm teaching for homeschoolers ages 10-14 to participate in our Ten Days of Thanks-Giving. Only one girl, Julia, was brave enough to share her 25-word thank-you note here:
Thanksgiving is a time to be thankful, so let's eat and drink and be merry. It is a time to be with family and friends.
Hooray for Julia! (See below for another student submission!)

And here are links to posts by other bloggers who participated in our celebration (roughly in the order of their posting):
Together we find
spirit greater than ourselves.
Our words, golden light. 
  • Finally, on Thanksgiving day, Margo Dill posted her Thanku Haiku to her parents on her blog.
This just in (at 2:05 pm): a fun thank-you poem from Tyler, another of my homeschool students. (He submitted it via the comments, but I want all our subscribers to be able to see it too.)

I am thankful for:
family and friends,
cats, dogs,
fish, frogs,
people and places,
dungeons and maces,
Wait not thankful for that...
...it just rhymes.

Love the humor, Tyler! Thanks so much for participating!

And from author Leone Castell Anderson comes this lovely Thanku Haiku:
 "Thanks." A little word
but of infinite meaning.
For loving thoughts shared.
Marvelous, Leone!

Thanks again to everyone who took part in our Ten Days of Thanks-Giving. For those of you who'd still like to join in: it's not too late to send us your links and thank-you notes. I'll either add them to this roundup, or ask April to include them in her post on Friday.
Happy writing!
Carmela

9 comments:

Tyler Garman said...

I am thankful for:
family and friends,
cats, dogs,
fish, frogs,
people and places,
dungeons and maces,
Wait not thankful for that...
...it just rhymes.

Linda B said...

Thank you for doing, Carmela. It's been great to read all along, & wonderful to see all the words today. I've really enjoyed this blog & all that you all are trying to do.

Carmela Martino said...

Hurray, Tyler! Love the humor in your poem. Thanks for participating.
And Linda, thanks for the lovely comment.

Joyce Ray said...

I'm pretty late, but want to share my Thanku to my granddaughter Lindsay for terrific help in revising a poem recently.

you oiled mired wheels
pushed my poem from its rut
your words, my words - WOW

Jan Godown Annino said...

Grateful to the 10 Days (catching it at the tail end. was in a cave of thesis-writing.)

Grateful to be able to try to learn to say Thank You in
many languages.

This includes some of the 560 ways of Thank You in First Languages of Peoples here before arrival of the Spanish, French & other beautiful languages that came from over the big water.
Often, thanks were so extensively prayed that it was a challenge to isolate one or two words to represent the concept.
If you like to post this, the safe site is
http://users.elite.net/runner/jennifers/thankyou.htm

And so I thank all of you, but especially the brave young creative writing students mentioned.

jan godown annino said...

If that link doesn't work about Thank You in many languages please try

ttp://users.elite.net/runner/jennifers/thankyou.htm#M

I think the #M may have disappeared from a previous post.

THANK YOU!

Esther Hershenhorn said...

I'm thinking our Ten Days of Thanksgiving offering proved the Kent State University social scientists I referenced in my original October 20 Thanku post right: people who compose short letters of gratitude do indeed experience a significant increase in their overall happiness!
I followed every link, I read each and every Thanku, I can't wait to share with my Young Writers the 465 ways to say Thanks that Jan shared this morning.
ThankU, TeachingAuthors readers. for taking and making the time to put some Good back in our World.

Sharon said...

Carmella, thank YOU! I remember when we first met; I knew you were a writer from that first meeting. I'm so happy you have followed your dreams and achieved so much. You've encouraged me along the way, too, you know. I still have the quote you gave me about having the courage to take the first step and unseen forces will rise to your aid. That has kept me going through many difficult days.

Carmela Martino said...

Joyce, no matter that you were a last-minute participant. I love the image of pushing the poem from its rut. Beautiful!
Jan--what an amazing site! Thanks so much for sharing it with us.
Sharon, it does my heart good to know that I encouraged you, too. Take good care, my friend.