Spreading Myself Out

Thank you Tara from A Teaching Life for hosting Poetry Friday!

Please, please, please go to Two Writing Teachers blog today to read my guest post on "Where is Poetry? It's Everywhere." I share some personal early on experiences with poetry and talk about the importance it has in the classroom....everyday. 

Here is my PF offering of the day.

I spread over water

I spread over land

If love is the lake

My heart is the sand.

I spread over head

I spread over trees

If love is the sky

My heart is the breeze.

I spread over grass

I spread over flowers

If love is the clouds

My heart is the showers.

I spread over two

I spread over one

If all this is love

My heart is the sun

Poetry Friday is Here!

You found it! I am excited to be hosting Poetry Friday once again, but from my newer blog...my toddler, one might say! I have been working on other writing projects about poetry instead of writing poems lately. But, as I sat here this week pondering a poem, a rhyme, anything really I realized all I can think about is summer slipping away. How it comes and then it goes and we all move through to the next season.

I hope you will all join me for Chalk-A-Bration on Saturday August, 31st! I hope to keep the Chalk-A-Bration going all year long this time so be sure to join in and check out all the chalkers next week!

And now onto my offerings of the day...


summer
stands
still

sending
sweet
scents

sun
sings
so-long

sweet
summer
song



And then.....I saw a bee! I am so easily distracted. But, had to write about it, because it was a bee buzzing really close to me on my hydrangea bush. Don't worry, the bee was unharmed.

Pollen parcels

packed for flight.

From petal to petal

your dance, a sight

I watch you

captured in the web.

As petals cradle

your little head.

Photo by Shawn Hubbard

And so begins the roundup.....drum roll......

Go catch some fish with Charles Ghigna over at Father Goose!

Check it Out with Jone where she shares a collaborative poem with Mary Lee and information on the Cybils.

Linda, from Teacherdance, wrote a poem back in April using a prompt idea shared by Mary Lee! Linda shares this poem as well as some thoughts about beginning the new school year.

April has guest Sonya Sones who offers teaching tips and a big poetry reveal at Teaching Authors. But that's not all...there's a book giveaway!

Join BJ Lee over at Blue Window for an original ballad.

Myra at Gathering Books shares a wreath of words and a heroic crown of sonnets.

This week at The Drift Record, Julie posts several double dactyls and challenges readers to write one as a way to honor the late poet John Hollander.

Michelle shares an original mask poem titled "Sky Calling" at Today's Little Ditty.

Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference has a cleave poem.

Mary Lee shares two poetry book reviews as she begins a busy school year. Go see the reviews at A Year of Reading.

At Carol's Corner you will find a poem celebrating the unknowns of  "The First Day of School" by Judith Viorst.

Margaret has an exercise she did with her kids this week at Reflection on the Teche.

At The Late Bloomer's Book Blog Gigi has some entertaining animal poetry.

Irene Latham has Valerie Worth poems about farm animals this Poetry Friday at Live Your Poem.

Jama is back from a blogging break and is featuring Kate Lebo, Seattle's Pie Poet. Go check it out at Jama's Alphabet Soup.

Join Author Amok in Gettysburg while her family tours the battlefields ans she shares a poem by a Confederate veteran, describing (some think) the doomed and famous Pickett's Charge.

Stefanie from Morning Musing comes with an ode to one of her favorite summer activities.

Want to read an original poem from the garden? Join Liz Steinglass at her blog for some Fuzzy Tails.

Diane swoops in with a summer poem at Random Noodling and of course KK's Kwotes joins us too!

Check out some Poetry Resources from Penny at a penny and her jots.

Jeannine wrote about deepening poems at Views from a Window Seat.

Ruth has Christina Ressetti's "In an Artist's Studio," at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town.

At Poet! Poet! Anastasia shares a "Why Haiku" that she wrote for Michelle's Haiku garden.

Keri joins us with her last poem swap at Keri Recommends.

Ready for a double haiku about an emu? Go get it with Becky at Tapestry of Words.

Matt joins in with a poem called "To the Newborn," at Radio, Rhythm & Rhyme. You must stop here to see this precious new baby.

Little Willow joins in with Universal by Walt Whitman.

At i.droo.it has five new poems and 15 lunchbox doodle cartons as a result of taking suggestions from twitter and Facebook for challenging poem vocabulary. Check out the tricky words with Samuel.

The Drawer of M.M. Socks brings us an original poem about Mr. Knuckles!

Find an original poem and a writing exercise with Joy at Poetry for Kids Joy.

JoAnn has an original poem in The Fib form, check out her blog to learn more!

In this week with Billy Collins and Aimless Love is Karen.

With a poem called Surrender Dia joins the party.

Robin joins us from Teaching Tomorrow's Leaders with a new and improved revised version of a poem called The Summer Bathtub.

Liana joins us from Commas Have Wings, she is a poetry advocate (love her already). Go read her poetic share!

Doraine's post from Dori Reads was inspired by Little Dog, Lost by Marion Dane Bauer.

Jen from Teach Mentor Texts brings us two poems from the book Falling Hard, 100 Love Poems by Teenagers by Betsy Franco.

Bridget Magee brings a poem about three little...but big on importance words. Find her at wee words for wee ones.

Amy from The Poem Farm is in late but joins us with a post including some cats and life in New York City.

Roundup complete now onto reading all of you! Happy weekend poetry friends.

A Hunch

Little hunches

Stir in bunches

Wishes from

A well of punches

Hunches grab

They grow and swell

Up the wall

Into your well

Then suddenly

They become clear

Reality to you

But you must steer

Away from it

For it will spec-

you-late away

all truths and traits

Your wishes

Let them wash you

dear,

don’t doubt your truth

let that be clear.

Hostess Renee at No Water River will have the roundup!

Sun Night Light

Poetry Friday is hosted by Sherri at Semicolon.

Sun Night Light

moon
beams
his light
never sleeps
it shines
over me
each night
in the dark
no fire
not burning
but reflecting
his beauty


I think about the sun a lot. It is there everyday, hard not to. But even when I am squinting, or sweating in its heat I appreciate the sun. Even when he goes to shine on others around the corner he still shines for us at night when he kisses the moon. The moon is my sun night light.

Meet up at Teaching Young Writers for a Chalk-A-Bration on July 31st! Chalk a poem or illustrate one, take a photo and link it next Wednesday. Hope to see you there.

Earthetry: Earth Inspired Poetry

More poems inspired by the U.P. of Michigan.

Bright

Sun in my eyes

pupils small

crinkled brow

I strain to smile

the rays are silent

but the growth

thunderously

billows in the grass and

greens as I

walk……..

Smile

I imagine happiness 

smelling like a pine cone,

sweet, earthy, 

real.

Windows

Hills and mountains

topped with trees

rocky islands

lined with leaves

evergreens

piney stems

greenlit views

sun sprinkled in

like little windows

on a birch

the rays more round

my view in search

of little fairies

watching me

I hear them scurry

I hear them flee.

Little Rock Island

Little island

distant land

isolated from

your own sand

your own trees

defy and find

through the cracks

birch and pine

row and tow

the people go

to test your water

with chill dipped toes.

Honeymoon

My children were having a conversation in the car and it lead to this:

J, "What's a honeymoon?"
E, "It's when honey gets on the moon."

My thought..."honey on the moon." Don't you just instantly see that? The fact that it started with the word honeymoon lead me to a love poem. Short and sweet like a drop of honey. Long on meaning if you are struggling with the sticky strings of love.

Love

Like honey on the moon

I fall right back to you

Slow and golden sweet

My heart’s biggest feat.

A Poetic Peek at My Recent Vacation

I was in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan recently. I love it there. The beauty is bountiful. The colors vibrant. The people are happy and removed from tech this and tech that. They have no cell service in many areas still but you can occasionally find a spot of WiFi here and there (a few times I got it right in my tent)! I wrote a lot of lines, descriptions, anticipations of things I would see. I wrote a lot of words while up there. The first poem is one that I wanted to find before I left. I wrote it and then we went in search of it each day. The second poem was inspired by a beautiful sunset on the night of July 4th. It could not have been pinker or more beautiful. 

Before

Wildflowers will abound

With each step

Soft and sound

A water spray 

From falling springs

Toward river flows

And cliffs that bring

The greenery

The scenery

I wonder and I wait

To see what I am longing for

Outside where I escape.

After

Wind carries away

a blissful day

of sun’s sweet air

perfumed with care

encouragement 

of each bud and bloom

she blankets them

with chromatic hues. 

Michelle has the Poetry Friday roundup today at Today's Little Ditty.