If you haven’t already heard about this wonderful little book of poems, I am here to offer another shameless promotion. I was one of the readers who selected poems to be included; I have 2 poems included; and I wrote a blurb for the back cover. Michelle Heidenrich Barnes is a person I know I love even though I’ve never met her face to face. She is incredibly generous. Each month she features a wonderful poet and asks us out in the Poetry Friday cyberspace to write ditties. When we do, we understand that the fame is short lived on a blog post gallery at the end of the month. However, now we have an anthology! So many great challenges from cinquain to zeno, from haiku and beyond. This collection is a must for any classroom poetry library.
Also in this sphere of poets, I’ve virtually met Tabatha Yeatts who mixes us up and organizes a Winter Poem Swap. This week I received my poem gift from Matt Forest Esenwine. Matt managed to find time to read my Christmas blog posts and create a found poem from them. He printed his poem on one of my Christmas tree images. So thoughtful. So meaningful. So special. Thanks, Matt.
We are in our last few days before winter break. I invited our art teacher to lead the students in an activity during their party on Monday. She taught them about shading in a snowman image. It’s funny when we talk about snowmen because few of my students have ever seen snow, much less made a snowman. But all kids love drawing them. We ended up with a rainbow of snowmen, grey, blue, teal, and even purple.
I hope you are finding gifts everywhere, under your tree, in your mailbox, and in the smiles of children. Happy Holidays!
Wow! Thanks for sharing about the book and all the poems! I’ve only lived where it snows so funny to think of kids shading the perfect snowman drawing who haven’t ever made one! Enjoy the Holiday break!
Happy Christmas! Thank you for the gift of words you share all throughout the year.
Happy Happy Holidays to you and your family! Thanks so much for your passion for poetry. Wish I had you as a teacher in my formative years. 🙂
Beautiful Blog review here Margaret. Perhaps I’m biased, as I too worked on the selection and cover, but I’m so happy you are sending the book out into cyberspace, it’s truly a rich collection! Happy Holidays and New Year to you and your family!
Yes, I loved hearing about the book and all the poems. It is all very inspiring to me. Thank you.
Margaret, what can I say? You… this post… Christmas (my folks have arrived)… Matt’s poem… a rainbow of snowmen. It’s all making me teary. Much love, my friend.
Beautiful words as always. This book is a must get. Thank you for sharing.
Margaret, Michele, gave us such a wonderful book to tuck into our hearts and those of others. Thanks for showcasing it and Matt’s wonderful gift of an original poem created from your own blogs. Researching is a way to capture the moment when your words become reimagined through the eyes of another. Happy Holiday preparations!
So glad you liked the poem, Margaret…it was fun looking back through the past couple years to see what you were writing about, then pulling words and phrases to create something new. And I do hope our milkweed pod ornament survived the Post Office! Have a great Christmas.
Oh, Matt. The ornament went straight onto the tree. I’m sorry I forgot to mention it. I didn’t know it was a milkweed pod. Love it!
Thanks! I just wanted to make sure it survived the journey…we make them here, as they are so abundant. Have a nice Christmas!
[…] I’m sharing the poem I wrote for educator, blogger, and poet Margaret Simon! I decided that it might be interesting to read through several of her past blog posts about […]