May starts off with an exchange-and-respond challenge from Linda Mitchell: each of us sent off a poem to another Inkling and received a poem from another Inkling. Then, we were tasked to “Fiddle with, play with, tinker, tear-apart, be inspired or stumped by the poem.” By chance, Mary Lee and I sent poems to each other. She sent hers first--a golden shovel with a striking line from Jane Hirschfield's “‘It is night. It is very dark.’ " I sent her a golden shovel in return, with a Mary Oliver striking line, which you can read here. Mary Lee's poem left me speechless and kind of reeling with ..read more

Greetings, all, and power to you as April draws to a close and many of us are beginning to feel a little poetryed out! Let's give ourselves grace--I want to post on this Friday but I know I'll need to limit my commenting if not my reading.  My goal is 11 eleven-word comments; what balance of creation/participation/rest do you need this week? Here are my ?rescue?elfchen, intended for kids, for the last couple of weeks.  You can see them all on Instagram, but here they are all gathered for ease of enjoyment, and I hope you do. brought to you by Wm ..read more

Greetings once again to all who keep Poetry Friday, to all who mark National Poetry Month, to all who care about Poetry and Justice for All!  I'm thrilled to be your host today, this Earth Day weekend, and to remind us all of our ancestral roots in the Kidlitosphere by bringing you some number of poems written and composed by kids of my acquaintance.   You don't need me to remind you that the future of our planet belongs to these our youngest poets. You need THEM to remind you. and, in conclusion: Diversity.  Unity.  Wonder.&n ..read more

  Today this year's Progressive Poem lands with me. As an ever-changing but pretty consistent group, we've written journeys before--quite a few--but never one that could literally mean the difference between life and death. I'd like to thank Janice who, on Day 3, introduced this whole new dimension with just 11 carefully chosen words.  This poem has STAKES, the kind of stakes that many of us have never had to live through. Today I've tried to give our narrator some more of what they need to make it through, and my lines of four beats have gone double-time in recognition of the urge ..read more

  Greetings, all. My project this month involves Elfchen, a form I know almost nothing about except what shows up on Wikipedia, and who knows who wrote the Wiki article, or who composed the little guide above that I'm relying on as I start each 11-word poem?  All I know is that I find the content description for Line 4 to be piquantly demanding for a poet.  What do we mean, when we select a thought, an object, a colour, a smell or "the like"? Which two words best express what the word from the first row does?  Where is the word? How is the word? And before we sum up the ..read more

Greetings, April Rangers, National Neighbors, Poetry Month Makers! It's good to be here with you and all your projects.  Today I'm writing to a challenge set by fellow Inkling Mary Lee Hahn, most appropriate to the month: Write a haiku sequence that talks about poetry without mentioning it by name. Here is your mentor text: "The L Word" by Kelly Sargent. Now, I am of the opinion that what goes unsaid in a poem is an important part--nay, ESSENTIAL part--of the poem's success.  If you tell me everything, then where is the work to be done, where is the smithing of my soul upon t ..read more

Greetings from the land of cherry blossom! No, I'm not in Japan, but here in the DC area this time of year is cherry blossom time, and in many neighborhoods nearer than the Jefferson Memorial Boat Basin downtown, swathes of ornamental cherries are doing their thing. Twenty-five years ago we took our brand new little April Fool, baby Daisy, on her first outing--to the Kenwood neighborhood in Bethesda, MD, where the very grand houses stand on streets lined with some very "ancient" cherry trees. I've checked, and as I remember the weather was pleasantly warm that Easter week, rising to 85* on Apr ..read more

Greetings, poetry people! This week my climate post is swerving slightly to highlight new poems by kids published at WHISPERshout Poetry Magazine.  I started this online journal about a year ago and I believe it's the only magazine in the US publishing work by the youngest kids ages 4-12. Often I can include accompanying artwork or photos of the kids. I really thought it was a vast untapped opportunity for teachers, librarians, homeschoolers and freelancers like me to guide their young poets towards--kids love to see their work "published" in some form, just like we do!  But I've be ..read more

Greetings, all, and welcome to March (a favored month of mine).  We kick it off, we Inklings, by writing persona poems with Margaret Simon, whose challenge read "A persona poem has a specific audience, conveys a message, is written in the voice of another person, place, or thing, uses direct address. A great sample poem is “Mother to Son” by Langston Hughes." I'm double dipping for this one, because during the recently concluded February Poetry Project hosted by Laura Shovan (the theme this year was Games), we enjoyed a prompt provided by Margaret herself that included cards from a gam ..read more

     Tight on time today, but here's a word from our sponsor Planet Earth, in the voice of her proxy, poet Caitlin Gildrien.  This poem comes from the anthology you've seen me mention before--DEAR HUMAN AT THE EDGE OF TIME (Paloma Press, 2023). I like the breadth of the perspective in this poem, its surprising density given that breadth, its uncertain, intense desire to carry on. Thanks to Mardiret I mean Margaret of Reflections on the Teche, who is hosting us following the festivities of Mardi Gras ..read more