Children’s Poetry – Write on the World

Cover of "A Poetry Handbook" — Cover of A Poetry Handbook

Is it hot out this week, or what? I wrote another poem for my poetry class and was thinking I’d have to hang on to it for a few months since it has a summery feel to it. But with this weather, I’m thinking, “Why not share it now?”

I got the idea for this poem one morning while out on my morning walk. Our reading for the week, from Mary Oliver‘s A Poetry Handbook, was focused on sound. So, I was trying to decide how to start writing a sound poem.

While mulling this over, I began to think about the challenge of spelling out sounds without using the same old boring cliches. You know, “Boom!” “POW!” “THWACK!” That kind of thing.

Continue reading “How do you spell that sound?” →

This semester, I’ve been taking a course on writing poetry for children and young adults. I’ve never really thought of myself as much of a poet, but I thought it would be good to push myself out of my comfort zone and give it a shot.

As it turns out, I’ve learned quite a bit about language and words that will probably help me in my other writing. I would recommend at least one poetry class for every aspiring author, poet or non.

And as long as I have to write a poem every week, I thought it might be fun to share my poems with you. So here’s a Halloween poem for you, inspired by my childhood fear of catching a glimpse of my own reflection in the window at night: Continue reading “Hiding from the Creeps” →