I promised a blogger friend, Lisa, from Ontario, Canada some pics of spring.
Profusion of pink
Manifests His boundless love
His message sustains
"Something poetic" every day is my commitment for National Poetry Month this year. I may spotlight a favorite
poem or book or poet or share a quote I love about poetry. Maybe I'll
even stretch myself and occasionally write an original poem.
I adore National Poetry Month. I'm always sad that it comes right after March's Slice of Life Story Challenge. My relief that March is over makes it hard for me to muster a daily commitment to National Poetry Month. This year I'm committing to something poetic daily. It might be a favorite poem or book or poet or even a quote I love about poetry. Maybe I'll even stretch myself and write an original poem. Actually there's just one day that I have committed to writing poetry, April 19th, the day I signed up to add a line to the 2025 Kidlit Progressive Poem. I wrote about it for my Slice of Life on March 27th and extended a playful invitation for other slicers to join us.
Shortly after our move to North Carolina, I was invited to join a unique book club by my daughter's neighbor. This group meets and shares what they have been reading. It's a dangerous gathering for confirmed bibliophiles. We always increase our individual WTR ("Want To Read") book list by several books. I prefer the abbreviation WTR over TBR (To Be Read) which sounds like assigned reading. This group meets at a local coffee shop. No one has to clean their home or worry about providing food for the group.
Around a year ago, I shared How to Love the World: Poems of Gratitude and Hope edited by James Crews, with this new group of bookish friends. Sharing poetry with this group of women I was just getting to know was brave (or perhaps foolish) on my part. They listened to the three poems * I shared from the book. Actually, I could have shared many poems from the book. But I limited myself to three.
And then at our latest book club meeting last week, I extended another invitation. Since April is National Poetry Month, why not bring a poem or book of poetry to share with the group at our next meeting? And they accepted my invitation! How are you spreading poetic love during National Poetry Month? Step our of your comfort zone and join the fun at the poetry playground. I guarantee that you'll have fun!
* "In the Company of Women" by January Gill O'Neil (p. 102), "Wondrous" by Sarah Freligh (p. 97), and "Perceptive Prayer" by Grace Bauer (p. 132.
I read a lot of posts and left comments, trying to figure out how to mark this thirty-first day of my fourteenth year of slicing. I compiled the number of slices I've written on different topics, a favorite way to sum up my month of slicing in the past.
No matter how I try to summarize the month, a slice of our afternoon keeps slithering to the surface.
Grandma knits a scarf
Grandsons plant sugar snap peas
Daughter steps on snake!
I close this month with gratitude for our slicing community. I never considered myself a writer until I began slicing with my students in 2012. Thank you, Two Writing Teachers, for creating this challenge and providing the space and support for us year after year. And thanks to this magnificent community for sharing stories with me and encouraging my writing life.
If I were Queen of Slices:
1. We would write in February.
It only has 28 days AND we could catch our breath before April and all that Poetry Month brings our way.
2. No one would ever have a slice with no comments,
Leave a comment with the day(s) you got zero love and I'll visit.
3. Problems with disappearing comments will vanish, expire, vamoose, beggone, Evanesco, perish forever.
Yes, I've tried Jetpack and had some success with it, but I still have comments that evaporate from sight.
A second try brings this response: "Duplicate comment. Looks like you already said that."
"Well, where the heck did that comment go? It's not showing up on my friend's blog. Is it going walkabout in cyberspace?
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This is my fourteenth year participating in the March Slice of Life Challenge, writing every day during the month of March. Thank
you, Two Writing Teachers, for creating this challenge and providing the
space and support for us year after year. And thanks to this magnificent
community for sharing stories with me and encouraging my writing life.
It was sleepover night with eight year old grandson.
He couldn't wait to make Molasses Butterscotch Ice Cream Sandwiches (his own dreamed-up creation).
We switched our regular routine of dinner at Chick-fil-A to enjoy a Papa John's Pizza delivered by his dad.
And then it was off to the grocery store with Grandpa to select sodas for our taste test. The two varieties of Orange were beat out by Root Beer, a long time favorite.
After watching a favorite show, it was time for Charades, a game that usually leads to him lying on the floor giggling so hard he can hardly breathe over some of our silly actions performed in search of the right words.
Our bedtime book was Loos, Poos, and Number Twos: A Disgusting Journey Through the Bowels of History by Peter Hepplewhite, selected from Grandma's book basket. Jack could not understand why Grandma would have requested such a book.
After a six am rising & hanging out with Grandpa for an hour, Jack roused me from a deep sleep with his "I'm hungry," chant.
When I wandered out of the bedroom, he was looking at the back of last night's dreadful book featuring more titles in the same vein. I redirected him to the The Story of Silk: From Worm Spit to Woven Silk, another worm book in the book basket. That book kept him occupied while I made snowman and Mickey Mouse chocolate chip pancakes.
When we sat down for breakfast, guess what captured our attention? He had discovered the Car Issue of Consumer Reports and was avidly reading about cars and trucks that would allow him to go off road.
Our morning at the Science Center included buying a sucker with a scorpion in it and a packet of Sour Cream and Onion Crick-ettes. Jack pronounced the sucker as yucky once he reached the scorpion and declared the crick-ettes as having no taste whatsoever. Good thing we got that out of his system!
We dashed back to our house for a late morning snack and then it was time to head home. He convinced Grandpa to let him take the Consumer Reports home. Who knows what he's planning for our next sleepover?
I have two bookshelves of books that I want to read. Today I pulled several off the shelf to a make a book spine poem.
