Tag Archives: poetry

The Writer’s Almanac – Podcast Review

The Writer’s Almanac is one of my favorite podcasts. It’s a short one, usually lasting somewhere around five minutes. Every day Garrison Keiller fills the listener in on literary and historical notes. The history may be about events that happened on this date in history, or about the reasons we celebrate certain holidays. The literary history is often interesting facts about authors, where they grew up, former jobs, inspiration, and awards their works have won. Usually it is about authors born on this date. After the brief historical notes, Garrison Keiller reads a poem or two. It’s such a treat … Continue reading →

Sleepy Bears – Mem Fox

Bedtime is a universal challenge. No wonder, then, that so many children’s books have been devoted to the very mysterious topic – how do we get the children to go to bed? “Sleepy Bears” by Mem Fox is another cute story book to add to your arsenal. Mother Bear has six adorable little cubs, and winter is coming. She needs to get them all gathered in to go to bed. She promises that if they’ll come inside and get ready for bed, without arguing, she’ll tell each of them a rhyme just for them. Baxter Bear was first. With a … Continue reading →

Dead Poets Society (1989)

“Dead Poets Society” is not an easy movie to watch, and I don’t recommend it for your young ones. However, it remains one of my favorite movies of all time, and I do think it would be a wonderful jumping-off point for a conversation between you and your teenagers. Robin Williams stars as John Keating, a new English professor at an exclusive boys’ school called Welton Academy. Only the most privileged can attend, and the students all feel a tremendous amount of pressure to be somebody. When Mr. Keating comes on staff, the boys think he’s going to be just … Continue reading →

Scrapbooking Your Poetry

The month of April is National Poetry month, and in honor and celebration of my favorite form of writing, I thought I’d share a bit about how to create a poetry album, or even just to create pages with your poems on them. Typically, I sprinkle my poetry throughout my albums and layouts all year long. I write very personal pieces to my children and often they go right on the layout. However, I have binders full of poetry, all kinds: rhyming, musings, haiku and even a sonnet or two. I needed a place to show case a few of … Continue reading →

Author Interview – Marsha Ward and Her Books

Marsha Ward is our featured author today. If you missed yesterday’s installment of our interview, click here. Journalist, poet, and novelist all wrapped up in one, Marsha has written two novels and has another on the way. Will you tell us about those books? In “The Man from Shenandoah,” Carl Owen returns from the Civil War to find the family farm destroyed, his favorite brother dead, food scarce, and his father determined to leave the Shenandoah Valley to build a cattle empire in Colorado Territory. Crossing the continent, Carl falls in love with his brother’s fiancée while set to wed … Continue reading →

Author Interview – Marsha Ward, Multi-Facted

Our author interview for today features Marsha Ward, novelist, journalist, and poet. Marsha, you have published over 900 articles. I can’t even begin to imagine how you did that. Tips? Advice? Are you magic? I’m not magic. I merely worked for several newspapers, and was editor of three of them. The bulk of my article credits come from those days. I also edited and published two periodicals for writers, one a newsletter and the other a small magazine. I had a couple of columns in other small publications, as well. That sounds pretty magical to me. Plus, you’re a published … Continue reading →

Romantic Poems for Your Scrapbook Pages

Journaling can be easy when you include a poem. Sometimes a poem evokes feelings you couldn’t otherwise express verbally and can really make the whole scrapbook layout come together. With Valentine’s Day coming up, the day involving love, I figured it would be a great time to share some amazing poems with you. The following poems were voted on by over 50 scrapbookers and were voted the top poems to use on scrapbook pages. Remember, you don’t just have to use these on layouts involving Valentine’s Day. You can also use them on layouts on themes such as anniversary, wedding … Continue reading →

Author Interview – Linda Paulson Adams: Thoughts on Creativity

Thank you for joining us for part three of our author interview with Linda Paulson Adams. If you’d like to read part one or two, click on these links. Linda, we’ve been discussing your End Times novels. I wonder, do you have other novels planned for the future? Yes, a few. I have both a fantasy novel and a mainstream women’s fiction manuscript on my back burner. I’ll always be writing something. But as a storyteller, I’m interested in exploring all the various mediums–short stories, novels, plays, songs, film. I expect my work to evolve over time, both in content … Continue reading →

Fun Family Storytime Activity

Here’s a fun activity that you can incorporate into your family storytime. It will introduce your kids to poetry and make reading poems fun. I got the idea from the public library storytime that Tyler attended last year during the time I was teaching him at home. The kids loved it and I hope your kids will too! (1) First, make a copy of this poem by Shel Silverstein. Bear in There There’s a Polar Bear In our Frigidaire– He likes it ’cause it’s cold in there. With his seat in the meat And his face in the fish And … Continue reading →

Author Review — Maya Angelou

Called “America’s Poet Laureate,” Maya Angelou has done more to forward African American literature than quite possibly any author we’ve had to date. Her words are powerful, earthy, moving and inspirational, but there was a time when she didn’t feel that way. She was abused by her mother’s boyfriend as a child, and when she told what had happened, her uncle beat the abuser to death. Maya became convinced that her words had killed a man, and from the age of eight, when the incident happened, until she was thirteen, she would not speak. Sent to live with her grandmother … Continue reading →