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#gratiku day 14
geese take flight between rainstorms time for tea #gratiku day 15 ancestors walk among the clouds remembrance #gratiku day 16 great family mystery his birth records- hen's teeth down the rabbit hole #gratiku day 17 autumn storm tree shelters squirrels umbrella "Umbrella" video from HOP TO IT
Yesterday's haiku reminded me
of the "Umbrella" video for my poem. Sylvia Vardell created on a recent zoom party for HOP IT IT. Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell always create magic with their books. You can order your copy at QEP Books via phone 800-323-6787 and email: qepsupport@qepbooks.com Let's Welcome 2021 with a Poetry Postcard
Did you know there are 42 days until 2020 ends? Woohoo! Let's celebrate the New Year with a New Year Postcard? In Japan, it’s called Nengajo, a Japanese custom of ushering in the new year.
How It Works:
All poetry goodness can be found at
Teacher Dance. Thanks Linda!
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This week's #gratiku focused on autumn images. I like to photograph images when I walk. I've discovered I like to use the images as inspiration for my notebook pages.
For November 8, 2020
morning frost scarlett leaves linger after rain For November 12, 2020 red sky dawn early riser gift before rain For November 13 grassy blades cradle frost encrusted maple flag crunch! dog is clueless Let's Welcome 2021 with a Poetry Postcard
What I sent last year.
Did you know there are 48 days until 2020 ends? Woohoo! Let's celebrate the New Year with a New Year Postcard? In Japan, it’s called Nengajo, a Japanese custom of ushering in the new year.
How It Works:
Head over to the very talented Robyn at Life on the Deckle Edge for all the Portey Friday goodness in the world.
On Sunday, I opened a new journal. My previous 2020 journal, March 1-October 31 was completed. This year I am using my journal to write gratitude haiku: #gratiku. What a week to start a new journal! November 1 blue moon sets November arrives new notebook November 2 I voted for democracy fingers crossed November 3 geese chorus November grey days yes to change November 4 while sleeping democracy at work counting votes food, drink, class welcomed distractions smashing nerves November 5 dog snuggles a rainy day relieves tree November 6 the tide shifts overnight, peace dreams hope sunrise ************************************* Did you know? 55 days left in 2020! News alert: Next week I will have information about the New Year Postcard Exchange Please go look at at all the poetry goodness flooding the iInternet today.
You can find it at Susan at Soul Blossom Living.  Did you know? Snèap (turnips) were the first Jack O' Lanterns. Tuesday in Scottish Gaelic class, I found some Halloween phrases and worked to create a "found" poem with them.
If you ever want to know what ELL (English Language Learners) go through, I suggest learning a new language. I decided to record my poem. Halting, unsure, hesitant but I did it. You can find it here: https://youtu.be/eoxf6n8-pNo. Enjoy. Head on over to Linda at TeacherDance who is hosting our Halloween Eve Poetry Friday posts. Linda has a prose poem and another, "Sill Halloween". Enjoy. WINNER, WINNER, PUMPIN PIE DINNER: JAMA, you won a copy of THIS POEM IS A NEST. Congrats!
 Meet Johanna Wright, illustrator of THIS POEM IS A NEST Welcome to Poetry Friday, late edition. I just returned from traveling yesterday plus got up at 3:30 AM to take oldest grand to swim practice, and Buster has needed attention (poor guy caught kennel cough) so I'm just getting to this. Some days are like this, right? Our Poetry Friday is hosted by Jama at Jama’s Alphabet Soup I can't remember when it was that I learned that local artist/illustrator/author, Johanna Wright, was illustrating Irene Latham's book, THIS POEM IS A NEST. I was thrilled as I love Wright's work.  How did you decide which nestling poems would get an illustration? It was tough to decide what poems to illustrate! There are so many in this book that called out to me. The editors gave me a lot of freedom to pick what I was inspired to work with. So I made a list of those that called out to me the most and we went from there. Some of the poems I had ideas for right away, and others I played with lots of ideas before settling. It was a really unique and fun book to illustrate! I love the illustration for “Black”, can you share a bit about that? “Black” was one of the illustration ideas that came to me right away. I love to put a bit of magic into my artwork, and it was fun to interpret that poem in that way. In general I tried to apply nature and magic themes throughout the book. It gave me a bit of a framework and helped me feel less overwhelmed with illustration options! I notice a lot of magic depicted and at work work in your illustrations. It seems that it’s a constant theme for you no matter where your art leads. Would you talk about that a little bit? Oh I love that you’ve noticed that and, yes! Magic is a big theme in my life and work. I love to include it as much as possible. Seeing life through a lens of magic makes everything a bit more bearable and fun and full of possibility.  Illustration for the poem, "Hidden Treasure Story"  Illustration for the poem, "Herd of Alpaca in the Rain" I know that often the author and illustrator don’t get to talk about the book. Were you and Irene able to chat about ideas and concepts? Irene and I didn’t chat directly during the making of the book, but our fabulous editor Rebecca Davis did a great job of communicating our thoughts to each other. When the book was done Irene and I did have some exchanges that were really fun! I love her work and felt so lucky to be a part of this book project. GIVE AWAY~ WIN A COPY OF THIS BOOK Comment and I will select a winner and announce it next week.What are your current projects? What would you consider your signature style? Right now I’m working on illustrating and writing a deck of oracle cards and developing a new, illustrated, guided journal. I’ve really enjoyed combining my interests in healing energy and intuition with illustration these past few years. It’s taken me a long time to feel brave enough to share that work, but I feel like people are more receptive than ever to self healing and creative tools, so it feels like a good time for it! My signature style...I love to have my characters a bit sketchy and free. When I'm working in full color you'll usually find a layered painted background. I've been working with a darker palette the last few years, with brightly colored characters layered on top.
What would you like to share that I haven’t ask? I just really loved working on this special book and I’m excited for kiddos to dive in and make their own poems based on this concept! Johanna Wright has illustrated and written several books. My grands and friend's children have been gifted her books. I love her art work, the richness of the colors and the magical quality. Bunnies on Ice by Johanna Wright The Best Bike Ride Ever (by James Proimos) The Orchestra Pit by Johanna Wright Clover Twig and the Magical Cottage by Kaye Umansky Clover Twig and the Perilous Path by Kaye Umansky Celie Valentine Friendship Over by Julie Sternberg Celie Valentine Secret’s Out by Julie Sternberg Celie Valentine Everything’s Changed by Julie Sternberg Keep a Pocket in Your Poem The Magic of Mindset by Johanna Wright This Poem is a Nest by Irene Latham Thanks for stopping in, Johanna and sharing with us about THIS POEM IS A NEST.  There is a lot of goodness to be had in the Poetry Friday community today. Please visit Janice at Salt City Verse for more places to read poetry. I will get right to it. Yesterday was the official book birthday of HOP TO IT: Poems to Get You Moving, edited by Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell. It features 100 poem by 90 poets that will make you wiggle your hands and toes, hop, skip, stretch, and jump in puddles. The Children’s Book Council (CBC) selects a small number of new releases to highlight on their “Hot Off the Press” page ever month. This month, they chose HOP TO IT. What an honor. Lucky me to have my poem, "Umbrella" in the collection. Living in the Pacific Northwest, there's plenty of rain and puddles for jumping, I've always been that person.  Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell create books that are treasure troves for anyone sharing poetry with kids. In HOP TO IT, each poem is paired with a book. This is something I did when I taught poems and books, they make a lovely paring. So I am thrilled that The Big Umbrella by Amy June Bates and Juniper Bates was selected to be with my poem. 
Welcome to Poetry Friday. For other places to find poetry in the world, please go to Bridget at wee words for wee ones  If you haven't gotten THIS POEM IS A NEST by Irene Latham and illustrated by Johanna Wright yet, go to your nearest independent book store and order. What a delight: poems as nests and little nestlings inside the nests. Today I decided that I would play with the poem nest, "Autumn" and see what nestlings I could find.  It's really fun and soothing to do blackout poetry.  climb the branches where the crispcool world settles +++++++++++++++++++ dizzy leaves flood the stage below a sun puddle, clouds still +++++++++++++++++++ imagine another life the whisperweight of faith with ancient memory +++++++++++++++++++ What nestlings can find? The art work is by one of my favorite local artists, Johanna Wright. I will be featuring an interview with her soon. Stay tuned!
So glad to see that Tabatha at The Opposite of Indifference is providing all the poetry goodness this week. I've been taking a poetry class through Georgia Heard's The Poet's Studio. It's a reminder if the importance in connecting with other poets during this crazy time period of history. For the final assignment, we focused on the music and sounds with poetry. Given the option to revise a poem, I chose Grandmother's Garden. I was surprised today to discover I actually wrote the original poem, almost ten years ago! we waited for moonrise atop the roof while the beets grew lesser moons below in the garden soil we forgot to plow stars flickered as we tried remembering constellations and slugs harvested garden greens in the garden soil we forgot to plow as we waited for moonrise atop the roof Below are the pages from my notebook. I decided to write the 2010 poem as a pantuom in 2016. So for class I looked at the sounds by color coding sounds and thinking about revisions such as moving it to present tense.   I've been thinking about the comments and feedback from class. One thing I have spent time with over the past few days is the purpose of this poem. For me, it's the dreamlike quality of waiting for the moon to rise in late summer. It's a magical moment. A comment was made about the word "pummel". The idea of watermelon seeds flying through the sky makes me smile but I wondered if pummel was the best word for this dream like poem. So I changed the word, Same with the line, "Then Ursa Major growls, bares her teeth". I love that image but I was it what I really wanted? So I made a change in that line as well.  In Grandmother’s Garden by Jone Rush MacCulloch We wait for moonrise in grandmother’s garden Below us, beets, the lesser moons grow loamy soil between our toes in grandmother’s garden we search for slinking nightcrawlers loamy soil between our toes watermelon seeds soar through the sky we search for slinking nightcrawlers slugs harvest zucchini flowers watermelon seeds soar through the sky as stars in a celestial bowl slugs harvest zucchini flowers purple-blackberries ripen on vines as stars in a celestial bowl nectar bats hover low purple-blackberries ripen on vines below us, beets, the lesser moons grow nectar bats hover low We wait for moonrise
CONGRATULATIONS TO
Irene Latham Michelle Kogan Sara Lewis Holmes Bridget Magee Carol Labuzetta Please HOP TO IT and email me at macrush53 @ yahoo dot com with your snail mail address so the books can be sent out mid-October. Much thanks to Pomelo Books for providing copies.
Welcome, welcome, welcome. I've been wanting up my website game for awhile. I'm so glad you are here! Today, I have a special treat because I get to share the latest collaboration of Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell, HOP TO IT: Poems to Get You Moving. This is a SNEAK Peek because the book's birthday it OCTOBER 15, 2020. PLUS...five people who comment on this blog, will get their very own copy thanks to the generosity of Pomelo Books. How cool is that? A few poems in the book tie in well with today being NATIONAL MATH STORYTELLING DAY #MathStorytellingDay as well as #NationalBraveDay 
Everyday Use reminds us that good muscles, a compassionate heart can help us to be brave as we march on the long road to justce.
In March, I met Xelena Gonzalez at the AWP2020 convention in San Antonio, TX (maybe one of the last conventions before the Covid shutdown). I love the idea that sometimes we just need warm up in our chair to be brave enough to dance.
In Reach!, Rebecca Balcárcel, reminds us that we can reach for our dreams and reach for bravery if we stretch our hands to the sky.
Our final sneak peek involves math and what a poem it is! Mixing math and science and movement with a stamp and clap. Thank you Joan Bransfield Graham.
What poetry goodness do you bring to the world today? We certainly are in need. Please join the fun. Don't forget to comment for a chance to win a copy which will be mailed to you in mid-October.
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