Here's what's in MY to-read stack!
Showing posts with label is it spring break yet?. Show all posts
Showing posts with label is it spring break yet?. Show all posts
Thursday, March 12, 2015
Wednesday, March 11, 2015
Spring Break Reading Possibilities
I am looking ahead to spring break reading and am hoping to get to lots of books on my stack. There have been so many great middle grade novels that have been released recently. Many are by authors whose work I love. I doubt I'll be able to read a MG novel a day over break but this is my Spring Break wish list--the stack I am hoping to get to.
Echo by Pam Munoz Ryan
Wish Girl by Nikki Loftin
The Imaginary by A.F. Harrold
Listen, Slowly by Thanhha Lai
Stella by Starlight by Sharon Draper
Hero by Sarah Lean
Paper Things by Jennifer Richards Jacobson
Friday, March 07, 2014
Poetry Friday -- Show Your Work!
As recently as the middle of last month, I was in a stew over how often or even whether I should share my original poems on the blog. Louise Borden tweeted me about a poetry contest sponsored by Garrison Keillor and when I thought about the poem I most wanted to submit, it was one I'd posted on the blog. I asked around a bit to confirm what I already knew: a poem that is posted on the blog has been published. Period. Can't even take the post down to reverse the action.
Maybe, I thought, I should only post bits from Big Name Poets or poems from the Public Domain. Maybe a poem a day for Poetry Month isn't such a good idea. Maybe I should keep my poems unpublished on the blog just in case...in the event that...
And then I read Austin Kleon's new book, Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered
and received such sage advice as, "You can't find your voice if you don't use it." and "Don't be a hoarder." (Ouch. It sounded like he was talking right to me!) Kleon talks about the importance of people knowing your work so that you can build some kind of audience or following or network. So that you can, at the very least, gather (or via the Internet, "gather") together with your fellow "knuckleballers" -- the others who do whatever kind of thing it is that you do.
I realized that I owe everything I am as a writer, a poet, and a member of this glorious group of knuckleball poetry fans called Poetry Friday to going public with my work. What exactly is it that I'm waiting for when I hoard my work? Nothing comes from nothing, and amazing and never-before-imagined opportunities have come from showing my work.
So I'm back on board with a poem a day for Poetry Month. I haven't decided exactly what that's going to look like or where it will be found, but I've got a couple of weeks to nail down the details, right?
And here's one of the (previously hoarded) poems I wrote for Laura's Pantone® Color Month:
Hope is the Color Green
Hope is the color green.
It comes to us washed by wet weather, or by tears.
It comforts the valley first,
then climbs the mountain with steady assurance,
accompanied by bursts
of wildflower happiness in its midst,
while above the haze and mist
a benevolent aqua sky persists.
©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014
Pantone® colors: wet weather, aqua haze
This week, Margaret has the Poetry Friday roundup at Reflections on the Teche.
Maybe, I thought, I should only post bits from Big Name Poets or poems from the Public Domain. Maybe a poem a day for Poetry Month isn't such a good idea. Maybe I should keep my poems unpublished on the blog just in case...in the event that...
And then I read Austin Kleon's new book, Show Your Work!: 10 Ways to Share Your Creativity and Get Discovered
and received such sage advice as, "You can't find your voice if you don't use it." and "Don't be a hoarder." (Ouch. It sounded like he was talking right to me!) Kleon talks about the importance of people knowing your work so that you can build some kind of audience or following or network. So that you can, at the very least, gather (or via the Internet, "gather") together with your fellow "knuckleballers" -- the others who do whatever kind of thing it is that you do.
I realized that I owe everything I am as a writer, a poet, and a member of this glorious group of knuckleball poetry fans called Poetry Friday to going public with my work. What exactly is it that I'm waiting for when I hoard my work? Nothing comes from nothing, and amazing and never-before-imagined opportunities have come from showing my work.
So I'm back on board with a poem a day for Poetry Month. I haven't decided exactly what that's going to look like or where it will be found, but I've got a couple of weeks to nail down the details, right?
And here's one of the (previously hoarded) poems I wrote for Laura's Pantone® Color Month:
Hope is the color green.
It comes to us washed by wet weather, or by tears.
It comforts the valley first,
then climbs the mountain with steady assurance,
accompanied by bursts
of wildflower happiness in its midst,
while above the haze and mist
a benevolent aqua sky persists.
©Mary Lee Hahn, 2014
Pantone® colors: wet weather, aqua haze
This week, Margaret has the Poetry Friday roundup at Reflections on the Teche.
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
| An Old Irish Blessing |
| May love and laughter light your days, and warm your heart and home. May good and faithful friends be yours, wherever you may roam. May peace and plenty bless your world with joy that long endures. May all life's passing seasons bring the best to you and yours! |
Check out Dublin's Blogging Irish Dance Team. It's been two years since we made our famous video, but we're all still goin' strong. Dancin' up a storm and livin' the grand life in the Land of Shamrocks (Ohio version).
Top of the day to ya!
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