A bit more on writing

March 15, 2013

I often struggle with the idea of being so public.

That’s funny for those who knew me in the days of being the social networking strategist for Powerful Learning Practice. I totally enjoyed all the connections I made through that work, but I found I tired of being “out there” so much.

These days, I write my blog as a kind of journal, a record of what I’m thinking and doing. And I spend much of my time here.

So today, for the record, I am proud to write that though I’ve had 66 rejections for poetry submissions, I’ve also had some wonderful acceptances. They say if you get one acceptance for 100 rejections, you are doing well:)

Thanks….

Brevity Poetry Review
Haunted Waters Press
The Dead Mule School of Southern Literature (forthcoming)
Curio Poetry
We Two and You
The Front Porch

Finding History

February 14, 2013

Mom is settled in her new home, just in time.

The New England blizzard deposited 22 inches of snow around her building, but she was warm and safe.

While I was moving her, I discovered old boxes of letters and cards she had saved over the years. I couldn’t help taking a few minutes to sift through the piles, and I found treasures!

I recognized the handwriting in a poem I wrote to my dad while he was in Vietnam. (I think I was in fourth grade.) The first line shows my typical “big-sister” bossy self: Daddy, I had the idea of a poem first. Debbie copied me!

Daddy, we miss you such an awful, awful lot,

We hope you sleep on a soft, fluffy bed, not an old rag cot.

I was embarrassed by the second, a poorly written piece I attempted in college. I called it “On Contemplating the Thought That I’ve Finally Grown Up,” a poem letting my parents know how much I appreciated them. What a mush of sickening sweet, flowery stuff. At least I worked on line breaks:)

This I Believe

January 27, 2013

Whenever I read a poem that moves me, I know I’m not alone in the world

I often used NPR’s This I Believe program and materials when I taught middle school. The essays, full of powerful ideas, helped students understand how to speak with their own voices and develop experiences with specific examples.

Here, poet Gregory Orr from The University of Virginia talks about why he writes and reads poetry.

Poetry, Again?

January 18, 2013

If you are a teacher or have something to do with technology in schools, you are probably tired of my posts about writing and poetry.

But that’s what’s on my mind these days, even as I continue to work with teachers on project-based learning or digital writing.

Poetry has squirmed its way into my soul. I love playing with language and discovering ways to reflect on my life. If you’re not into poetry, well, read what David Orr, poetry critic for The New York Times says:

“I don’t know that people ought to bother. I think that poetry is one of those choices you make in life that’s … it’s not really susceptible to reasoning or arguments.”

But his reason is MY reason: “Orr says he reads poetry because it helps him negotiate the world around him and understand his own feelings about that world.”

A friend recently shared the work of Virginia Hamilton Adair, who published her first of poetry when she was 83. Not that she didn’t publish poems in magazine and literary journals. She did. But according the Afterword by Robert Mezey, “she wished to write exactly what she pleased and how she pleased, and believed she could more easily enjoy that freedom outside the official literary world.” He writes more about her watching others struggle with desire for fame and recognition–and “how painful and corrosive both hunger and fame could be.”