Mick
Celebrate This Week : January 6, 2017. Mick, my little brother, has been in my heart much this week. Just five years ago, on January 4, 2012, after a very long battle with Parkinson's Disease, Mick said goodby to me. The next day, I posted Mick's high school senior...
Snow
Poetry Friday : January 6, 2017 Grandkids are praying for snow. Weather forecasters are predicting snow. January is the month for snow. And I'm writing about snow. Here's my haiku for snow. snowflakes softly drifting down one by one by one grandkids sledding on our...
Endings to Beginnings
Three Things Thursday : January 5, 2017. On this Thursday in the first week of the first month of a new year I REJOICE in the satisfaction of endings closure conclusions and grand finales I REJOICE in the opportunities for continuation something that starts where...
December 2016
Tuesday Slice of Life : January 3, 2017. How did December slip by so fast? Seems only a couple days ago my daughter and I were unpacking boxes of Christmas decorations. It's one of our traditions: together we remember Christmases past as we decorate my tree, retelling...
One Little Word 2017
Celebrate This Week : December 30, 2016. For days I've been pondering words -- nouns, verbs, adjectives, and even adverbs, searching to know the one little word I should choose for 2017. The word rejoice came to mind, but I pushed it aside and thought of strength...
Winter Solstice
Poetry Friday : December 23, 2016 The land tilts away. Sun skims the horizon For a quarter day, shortest day Vanishing into the earliest sunset. Plunged into darkness-- No sunrise, no sunset-- North Pole is beyond Sun’s reach. At its lowest point, Sun stands still,...
Story of the Season
Tuesday Slice of Life : December 20, 2016. We consider Christmas as the encounter, the great encounter, the historical encounter, the decisive encounter, between God and mankind. He who has faith knows this truly; let him rejoice. Pope Paul VI Each year, I enjoy so...
Haiku – Haiga – Tanka
Poetry Friday : December 12, 2016. It was just past 5 AM; sunrise was more than two hours away, and the temperature hovered just above freezing. Like a shroud, fog wrapped itself around everything. While family slumbered, I stepped onto my back porch to experience a...
Walk on Ice
Tuesday Slice of Life : December 12, 2016. First, big wet, sloppy flakes fell. Then, the wind began to howl, driving the flakes sideways, changing them to little pellets of ice. The wind blew so ferociously that when my furnace shut off, the cold that had been...
Question Poems
Poetry Friday : December 8, 2016. A couple weeks ago, Kiesha Shepard on Whispers from the Ridge shared "Leaf Dance" followed by an Invitation to Write: "Have you ever wondered what objects would say if they could speak? I wonder about this all the time! I think about...
Mother to Son
Poetry Friday : November 25, 2016. My day had started with the car service picking me up at 6:45 AM. Now, after a full morning visiting classrooms, I slipped to Mr. L's office to eat a late lunch: part from the hotel breakfast bar--hard boiled egg and orange--and part...
A Smile, A Gift
Tuesday Slice of Life : November 22, 2016. It is early. The sun has not yet risen; windows are still black with night. Waiting at Gate A4, sipping a steamy, creamy morning coffee, I casually watch fellow passengers as they gather. That’s when I see her. She is bent...
Listen for Me
But most of all, I love words. Words that form shapes and splash color on plain paper. Words that slip and tumble smoothly off my tongue. Words that make music driven by the rhythms of my heart–
In the Morning
Poetry Friday : August 26, 2016. I never tire of the quiet peace of the early morning hour with its sleepy rhythms and sweet freshness. It is about that hour -- when one day fades to a memory and the next has not yet begun -- that I write. In the early morning When...
Is summer really over?
Tuesday Slice of Life : August 23, 2016. A week of August is left. But the squirrels have already stripped the walnut tree of its fruit and buried it. At least that’s what my daughter and I think. Yesterday we stood under her old walnut tree, looking for any sign of...
Dear Beautiful Friend
Poetry Friday : August 19, 2016. This evening, I collected words that family, friends, colleagues, and former students shared on my friend's Facebook page and wrote a brief eulogy. I felted comforted as I read and gathered their words and as I put them into the lines...
Bugscuffle
Tuesday Slice of Life : August 16, 2016. It's all Robyn Hood Black's fault and she has no idea. I read her Friday Poetry blog post last week. Bugscuffle? Really! I just couldn't let go of it. She'd piqued my curiosity. Now, if anyone reads any further and clicks on...
Poetry Notebook: Day One
Poetry Friday : August 12, 2016. I really like interactive notebooks. Many teachers I know really like interactive notebooks. I've used them for years in one form or another -- binders, handmade notebooks, or composition notebooks. Today is Poetry Friday. It is...
Madut
Tuesday Slice of Life : August 2, 2016. A text from the limo service was waiting for me when AA Flt 1475 touched down four hours later than scheduled. As we taxied to the gate, I connected with my Limo driver. While I waited for my bag, our texts continued. I walked...
Sittin’ on a Tennessee Porch
Poetry Friday : July 22, 2016. She waits Gently swinging back and forth Slowly sipping cool, sweet tea The air hangs heavy-- peonies lemon grass and magnolias Two butterflies dance upon a zephyr A brave cottontail hops close by Robins pull their breakfast And a...
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