The folks over at the Academy of American Poets have decided that April 17th will be the first-ever national "Poem in Your Pocket" day. It's been an annual event in New York City since 2002, and this year it's going national. Or perhaps global ( Read more... )

In yesterday's mail, I found an envelope from Highlights Magazine. I was going to post a picture, but, really, it was just a big white envelope with a mailing label.

I opened the envelope, and pulled out the contents, only to find two copies of the December 2007 issue of Highlights Magazine. That's right, my contributor copies!


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It's fun poking around in anthologies and page-a-day calendars. I keep finding "new" poets to read and love ( Read more... )

Scary Things Come Out at Night
by Kelly R. Fineman

Scary things come out at night
Ghosts that boo! and bats that bite;
Warlocks cloaked in purple capes;
Satyrs wearing wreaths of grapes.
Sometimes you might spy a witch
Or a hunchback with a twitch
Don’t be frightened by this scene -
After all, it’s Halloween!


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I first read this poem by Emily Dickinson about two weeks ago, and I keep going back to it, even though I'm several dozen poems past it in my reading of The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson. The poem that's been haunting me is number 18, "The Gentian weaves her fringes."

The Gentian weaves her fringes ( Read more... )

I sent two football poems to the Eastern PA SCBWI for possible inclusion in their newsletter. One about football (not chosen), and one about futbol, or soccer, which was selected.

If'n you want, you can read it in the Fall 2007 issue of Penn & Ink, on page 3. It's called Leading the ChargeAlso in there? Debbi Michiko Florence's interview of Jerry ( Read more... )

Today I want to talk a bit about processional by Anne Compton. (And yes, the title has a lower-case "p", which I will ask Anne about in her interview. She does not, as a rule, use only lower case letters, a la ee cummings.) Her first collection, Opening the Island won the Atlantic Poetry Prize. This book, processional won both the Atlantic ( Read more... )

This week, I’m sharing with you (by permission of the author) two poems by Anne Compton from her first poetry collection, Opening the Island. This poetry collection won the Atlantic Poetry Prize in 2003, and for good reason - the poems are spectacular.


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