Reader Spotlight: Margaret Simon + DMC Challenge

MARGARET SIMON

I'm so excited to welcome another beloved Poetry Friday icon to our Reader Spotlight series! An author, poet, and elementary school teacher for more than 30 years (most recently teaching gifted students in Iberia Parish, Louisiana), Margaret Simon writes about creative, personal, and teaching explorations at her excellent blog Reflections on the Teche. Lately, she's also been reading poems aloud and offering mini lessons in writing poetry at her YouTube channel. She has such a calm and inviting way about her, it's no wonder her students love her so! Click HERE to read several wonderful poems by Margaret (and a few of her students, as well) featured on Today's Little Ditty.

During the school year, Margaret spends much of her time teaching and planning. She is passionate about teaching gifted students a differentiated curriculum that includes choice writing and reading. She says that her superpower is inspiring kids to write poems, and I don't think anyone would argue with that!

“I taught a workshop at a local art museum, and Annie, 4 years old, wanted
to write a poem with me. She said her poem and I wrote it down, then she
wanted to write it herself by copying each word. I've never seen such patience
for writing in such a young child.”  – Margaret Simon

Bayou Song was featured
in a Classroom Connections
post on Today’s Little Ditty.

Her own writing is another a priority in her life. She especially enjoys writing about nature, mindfulness, and spiritual awareness, as getting in touch with her spiritual creative self is also a passion of hers. Margaret meets with three different writing groups—one local, one online, and a regional SCBWI group—and has published novels for young readers (Blessen and Sunshine), and collections of poetry for adults (Illuminate) and children (Bayou Song: Creative Explorations of the South Louisiana Landscape). Forthcoming, she has a biography in poems of Emma Wakefield, the first African American woman to receive a medical degree in Louisiana, tentatively scheduled for release this November.
 

With grandsons Thomas and Leo (Nov 2019)

On the weekends, Margaret balances things out with family time, which actually tops any list of things she is passionate about. She loves dancing with her husband and spending time with her two grandsons. She also sings in the choir at her church (a historical Episcopal church built in 1858) and volunteers and serves on the board of a local food bank.

When asked about book recommendations, Margaret mentioned that Kate DiCamillo is a favorite author, but if she had to choose just one favorite book for her students, it would be Wonder by R. J. Palacio. Told from multiple viewpoints, this story about a boy living with a facial deformity teaches wonderful lessons about empathy. For her dear female poet friends, she recommends The Woman in this Poem—a beautiful collection of accessible poems by Georgia Heard.


Let's find out a few more of Margaret's favorites, shall we?

Margaret's Five Favorites:

• Favorite poets: Mary Oliver, Barbara Crooker, Naomi Shihab Nye

• Favorite artist: John Gibson (her father)

• Favorite sounds: wind chimes and dual fiddles

You can hear wind chimes in many of the videos Margaret's posted on her YouTube channel, but I'm partial to this one. Steve Riley and Kevin Wimmer are local dual fiddlers that Margaret enjoys. They play in a band called Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys.

• Favorite smell: gardenia

• Favorite word: inspiration

Poetry is—
. . . food for the soul with deep lyrical song.

How did you come to poetry?

As a teenager I wrote poems in my diary.  I never really showed them to anyone.  I came back to poetry when I was a fellow in the National Writing Project in 1995.  Children’s poetry came to me after Linda Baie invited me to join Poetry Friday.

How does poetry fit into your life?

My husband calls it an obsession; I call it passion.  Either way I have a substantial collection of poetry books.  I read poetry daily, seek out poetry online and in podcasts, the latest being Poetry Unbound.  Writing poetry comes from being in love with what poets do and wanting to be a part of that creation.

Dot Day is a classroom tradition. 
Margaret’s student, Karson,
created his own Dot Day t-shirt!

Describe three of your writing habits.

1. I write at all times of the day. My favorite time to write is with my students. I give them a prompt daily and write alongside them.


2. When I'm not with students, I write at my computer in the kitchen, often with my dog on my lap.

Writing with Fancy, her new kitten, and Charlie, her schnoodle.

Margaret's notebook
(click image to enlarge)

3. I carry a journal with me everywhere, even to church, in case inspiration strikes. On dog walks, I carry my phone and record thoughts in Notes.


What is the best advice you've ever gotten?

I cannot help but compare myself to others.  We all do it, but the best advice I’ve ever gotten and try to remember is to be yourself on the page.

The best writers are the ones who give themselves 

the most permissions.

– Sandford Lyne, Writing Poetry from the Inside Out

What is the best advice you can give?

Read a poem every day. It will enrich your soul.

And finally, what have you chosen as this month's ditty challenge?

Poems of Presence.

The practice of writing poetry is an exercise in mindfulness. To be open to the universe of words and to put them down on a page is nothing short of a miracle.  Mary Oliver said, “There is no nothingness—With these little atoms that run around too little for us to see. But, put together, they make something. And that to me is a miracle. Where it came from, I don’t know. But it’s a miracle, and I think it’s enough to keep a person afloat.”


Write a mindful poem about the present moment.

My poem:

Residing

If we could make of everything
a sacred moment—

This coffee topped with milky froth,
warm on my lips.

This digging in the earth,
mud under my fingernails.

This painting on of eyeshadow,
touching my own skin.

This songof the wind chimes,
ringing a hymn.

Each moment of my day
would become a poem.

© 2020 Margaret Simon. All rights reserved.

Oh, that's lovely! 
And what a perfect challenge for these troubled times.

You'll find the padlet embedded below. Add your mindful poem about the present moment at any point during the month or scroll through to check out what others are contributing.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

By posting on the padlet, you are also granting me permission to feature your poem on Today's Little Ditty. If you have not participated in a challenge before, please send me an email at TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com so that I can contact you, if necessary.

HOW TO POST YOUR POEM
In the lower right corner of the padlet you'll see a pink dot with a plus sign. Click on it to open a text box. I find it works best to type your title on the title line and paste the rest of your poem where it says "Write something...". Single click outside the text box when finished. This board is moderated to prevent spam. Once your poem is approved, it will appear publicly.

PROTECT YOUR COPYRIGHT
Remember to include your name as author of any work that you post!

TEACHERS, it's great when students get involved! Ditty of the Month Club challenges are wonderful opportunities to learn about working poets and authors while having fun with poetry prompts. Thank you for spreading the word! For children under 13, please read my COPPA compliance statement in the sidebar to the right.

BLOGGERS, thank you for publishing your poems on your own blogs–I love that! Please let me know about it so I can share your post. Also remember to include your poem (or a direct link to your post) on the padlet.

If you prefer to open this padlet in a new tab, click HERE.

There's no doubt that Margaret enriches the Today's Little Ditty community. As a writer and a human being, she is as gracious and authentic as they come. Generous with her time and talents, she always inspires the best from others, whether in person or on the page. Please join me in thanking her for being with us today!

If you would like to be featured in a future reader spotlight, I invite you to complete this form.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Thanks once again to everyone who participated in last month's exploration of Patrice Vecchione's My Shouting, Shattered, Whispering Voice: A Guide to Writing Poetry & Speaking Your Truth! If you missed our collection of poems, you'll find it HERE.

Random.org has determined that the winner of a copy of My Shouting, Shattered, Whispering Voice, courtesy of Seven Stories Press, will go to . . .

FRAN HALEY — Congratulations, Fran!

Elizabeth Steinglass is hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup. Don't miss the wonderful video of her sharing selections from Soccerverse: Poems About Soccer. (If you would like to read more about Liz and her debut children's poetry collection, click HERE.)

Reader Spotlight: Tabatha Yeatts + DMC Challenge

TABATHA YEATTS

For our first reader spotlight of 2020, I'm thrilled to feature a well-loved fixture of the Poetry Friday scene and one of my most favorite people: Tabatha Yeatts. Tabatha has shared hundreds of posts about music, art, wellness, and, of course, poetry on her blog The Opposite of Indifference. She has organized poem swaps, useful resources like printables for National Poetry Month, and other "neat stuff" that you can find at Tabatha-Yeatts.com. She is the editor of Imperfect: Poems about Mistakes: An Anthology for Middle Schoolers and has also written nonfiction books for young adults and dozens of articles for magazines and newspapers ranging from Cricket to Logic Puzzles to the Christian Science Monitor. Tabatha especially likes writing about animals, fantasy, and historical subjects. Browse through a selection of original poems on her blog or click here for the ones I've featured on Today's Little Ditty.

Although Tabatha exemplifies the opposite of indifference, she informed me that she is also "the opposite of a person who likes to be the center of attention." An unfaltering force behind the scenes, she spends her time on those things that she is most passionate about, which, besides writing, is making things and caring for people, pets, and plants. Making things can be anything from fixing the tastiest low-histamine, low sugar, gluten-free meals possible to concocting herbal salves and extracts. When asked about her superpower, Tabatha told me that she looks forward to being able to shoot lasers out of her hands when she turns 50.

* NEWSFLASH * 

Don't lean in too closely to your screens, folks, because that would be TODAY.

An alternative superpower might be that Tabatha is never bored, or maybe that she is a calming presence (minus the lasers). She's offering bonus points for anyone who figures out what her superhero name would be. I'm going with Laser Girl or possibly Scorch, but you can leave your suggestions in the comments. Whatever her name is, I'm flattered that this reluctant interviewee decided to share herself with the TLD community!

Tabatha's five favorites:

• Favorite superhero: Captain America (Chris Evans)
• Favorite color: dark cyan, orchid, or sea green
• Favorite food: cheesecake
• Favorite unpopular vegetable: Brussels sprouts
• Favorite childhood stuffed animal: a cat named Big Fuzzy

Newest family member Preston likes Big Fuzzy too.

Poetry is —
. . . fitting word-pieces into a puzzle whose picture you make as you go.

How did you come to poetry?

I started writing poetry at an early age. My first published piece was a poem in Jack and Jill magazine about Vincent van Gogh, who is still one of my favorite artists.

Why do you write?

I write because I love reading, because I like being a conduit between an idea or story and other people, and because I LOVE the way it feels after I've written something.

Who or what inspires or influences your writing most?

My inspirations and influences overlap. The Poetry Friday community is a huge influence on my writing life. I pocket many ideas from making the rounds of their posts. Other inspirational influences include: my parents, kids, pets—

Preston’s plumb tuckered out from inspiring poems like this one.

and even my hardware architect husband, Anne Lamott (Bird by Bird), Stephen King (On Writing), Diane Lockward's poetry newsletter, Bernadette Geyer and the poets I met through her, J.K. Rowling, and anybody who's ever written a time-travel story.

What is the best advice you've ever gotten?

Some of the best advice I've gotten wasn't about writing. It was about love.

"The best way of knowing life is to love many things"

– paraphrasing Vincent van Gogh (again!)

I live by that. More love advice, this time from author Aberjhani:

 

At BOTH ends, baby! That may seem like a stretch, so start out with one pot of gold and see how it goes. :-) Once you've loved lots of things and yourself, it will be easier to put love at your center when you are dealing with tough situations. There will always be situations that pretty much seem like garbage from top to bottom. What I've discovered is that when love is your motivation, there is a glimmer of something beautiful no matter what. Love brings its own patina.

Hold on, folks, let's just savor that last bit, shall we?

Love brings its own patina. 

Mmmm... yes.

Do you have any recent or forthcoming books or projects you'd like to mention?

IMPERFECT is now available as an ebook!

Fantastic! Order your ebook copy HERE.


And finally, what have you chosen as this month's ditty challenge?

Write a poem about people (or animals or inanimate objects) and a game. 

It could be a board game, a sport, a fictional game—any kind of game—and the narrator could be in the middle of playing it or teaching you how to play or telling how it went very wrong or the poem itself could be a game. Okay, poets, it's Game Day!

Click to enlarge.

Game on!
I'm excited to see where this challenge takes us.

"Ticket to Ride: District 5" (see right) is a game that Tabatha and her husband made for their son.


You'll find the padlet embedded below. Add your poem about a game at any point during the month or scroll through to check out what others are contributing.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

By posting on the padlet, you are also granting me permission to feature your poem on Today's Little Ditty. I'm not sure how often I'll be featuring poems from reader challenges, but I want to keep my options open. :)

If you have not participated in a challenge before, please send me an email at TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com so that I can contact you, if necessary.

HOW TO POST YOUR POEM
In the lower right corner of the padlet you'll see a pink dot with a plus sign. Click on it to open a text box. I find it works best to type your title on the title line and paste the rest of your poem where it says "Write something...". Single click outside the text box when finished. This board is moderated to prevent spam. Once your poem is approved, it will appear publicly.

PROTECT YOUR COPYRIGHT
Remember to include your name as author of any work that you post!

TEACHERS, it's great when students get involved! Ditty of the Month Club challenges are wonderful opportunities to learn about working poets and authors while having fun with poetry prompts. Thank you for spreading the word! For children under 13, please read my COPPA compliance statement in the sidebar to the right.

BLOGGERS, thank you for publishing your poems on your own blogs–I love that! Please let me know about it so I can share your post. Also remember to include your poem (or a direct link to your post) on the padlet.

If you prefer to open this padlet in a new tab, click HERE.

One of Tabatha's superpowers may be that she's never bored, but I'd have to add that she's also never boring. Tabatha is the perfect combination of caring and fun, her blog posts never fail to make me think, and she inspires me to be a better, more loving person. So please join me in thanking her for being here today and help me wish her the happiest of birthdays!


If you would like to be featured in a future reader spotlight, I invite you to complete this form.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Thanks once again to everyone who participated in last month's DMC challenge from Buffy Silverman! If you missed our collection of poems that use combined or invented words, you'll find it HERE.

Random.org has determined that the winner of a signed copy of On a Snow-Melting Day: Seeking Signs of Spring by Buffy Silverman will go to . . .

LINDA MITCHELL

Congratulations, Linda!

Volcanoes and eggs are on the menu at this week's Poetry Friday roundup hosted by Rebecca Herzog. Find out what else is on offer at Sloth Reads.

Reader Spotlight: Kate O'Neil + DMC Challenge

KATE O'NEIL

According to her website, Kate O'Neil has written poetry, mostly for children, since her school days. Her poems have appeared in many magazines and anthologies—most recently, Moonstruck! Poems About Our Moon, edited by Roger Stevens. She has two poems in The Best of Today's Little Ditty 2016 and in the forthcoming volume as well. You can also read her work here on the blog. Last year a collection of her poems (113 of them) was published by Triple D Books, Wagga Wagga. Part of a series of "Reciter" collections by Australian poets, Cool Poems includes poems for a range of ages, chosen for their suitability to perform out loud.

Cool Poems and the family of "Reciter" collections, published by Triple D.

Until recently, Kate taught "Performing Text" in after-school lessons to students ranging in age from 7 to 21 years old. It involved tailoring programs of poetry, prose and dramatic monologue to each student for the purpose of exams, auditions or eisteddfod performances. It also happened to be the perfect excuse for spending hours reading familiar and new literature! But with an uptick in her writing time (and who can complain about that?), Kate's had to make some time management choices. She enjoys writing about the world around her (space, the Moon, etc), about the world within her (emotions, philosophical puzzles, etc) and about words and the act of writing.

Kate's lovelies: Joey-Leunig and Poppy-Houdini

Aside from poetry, Kate is passionate about her family, her adorable rescue dogs, and the future of this Earth we live on. At a loss for what her superpower might be, she asked her family. One said dog-whispering, one said dry stone walling, one said rhyming, and one was silent. (Who am I to doubt their expertise?) As for a book that everyone should read, Kate recommends The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry.









What do you say we find out a bit more about this multi-talented little ditty rhymer from down under?


Kate's five favorites:

• Favorite sound: the sea

• Favorite perfume: night-scented plants

• Favorite music: "Dedication" (Schumann / Liszt) — listen HERE

• Favorite film: Blade Runner (Did you know the story is set in a dystopian future Los Angeles of November 2019?!!) — watch the official trailer HERE

• Favorite quote: 

But words are things, and a small drop of ink,
Falling like dew, upon a thought, produces
That which makes thousands, perhaps millions, think…

          – Byron, Don Juan

Poetry is—
... what results from a poet’s search for the best way to put into words an insight or perception or experience s/he wishes to share.

How did you come to poetry?
I remember being fascinated by words when I was very young. I loved nursery rhymes, (memorised the most appalling rhymed advertisements and wrote my own appalling rhymes). I loved ambiguity, puns, all wordplay and the way figures of speech could say so much so concisely. Studying poetry at school clinched the relationship.

Passing on a love of words and reading to her grandkids.

Five years later . . . same grandson, same reading chair.

Why do you write?
I write for so many reasons: to capture a thought or observation, to entertain friends, to enter competitions, to see what will happen when I do. Apart from writing that comes from an inside source, I like writing to prompts (yay TLD) and love the way the outcome can totally surprise me.

How does poetry fit into your life?
There’s a randomness about my writing and thoughts I’ll write about, so I make frequent use of the Notes app in my iPhone. (Beware—these are easily deleted. I have learnt to save them elsewhere as soon as possible). Listening to radio, conversations, reading, at weddings or funerals—ideas for poetry pop up anytime. Long road trips are wonderful for actually working on an idea. (Husband doing the driving).

On the road with Kate O'Neil (outback New South Wales)

Who or what influences your writing most?
I studied literature at university and the selection of poets I read gave me a basis for further exploration. Even the academic approach—lit crit, prosody etc, was grist to the mill. Entering competitions has led to meeting up with other people writing poetry now (especially children’s poetry) and I’ve done some online month-long, prompt-a-day poetry courses with UK poet Wendy Pratt. This has introduced me to another community of poets (adult poetry).

What is the best advice you can give?
Read poetry every day. All forms, subjects, eras. You’ll learn where you like to be. Read books about writing poetry – there are some fabulous ones. And read Nicholson Baker’s entertaining novel, The Anthologist.

What have you chosen as this month's ditty challenge?

Words at Play.

With this challenge I have in mind the enormous value of this site as "A poetry playground for the child in all of us." Yes, the child in the adult still likes to play. So my challenge is to write a poem based on the sheer delight of words at play: malapropisms, ambiguities, unintended meanings, puns, clichés, etc.  Inspiration could be found listening to children, from newspaper headlines, lists of ‘howlers’ on the net, etc. As an example . . .


RUNNING

The garden tap is running—
we shouldn’t waste a drop.
Can anybody catch it?
We have to make it stop.

The garden tap is running
and I am running late.
Since I’m running out of time
please catch it at the gate.

© Kate O'Neil. All rights reserved.


This is going to be so much fun!
I'm expecting laughs and groans in equal parts, folks, so don't disappoint me. ;)

For those on the lookout for more inspiration . . .

"No Tears for the Puns" by Alan Levine

Darn! Seems they're all taken. Guess you'll have to find some "tearable" puns elsewhere.

What you will find here is the padlet—it's embedded below. Add your poem(s) at any point during the month, or scroll through to check out what others are contributing.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

By posting on the padlet, you are also granting me permission to feature your poem on Today's Little Ditty. I'm not sure how often I'll be featuring poems from reader challenges, but I want to keep my options open. :)

If you have not participated in a challenge before, please send me an email at TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com so that I can contact you, if necessary.

HOW TO POST YOUR POEM
In the lower right corner of the padlet you'll see a pink dot with a plus sign. Click on it to open a text box. I find it works best to type your title on the title line and paste the rest of your poem where it says "Write something...". Single click outside the text box when finished. This board is moderated to prevent spam. Once your poem is approved, it will appear publicly.

PROTECT YOUR COPYRIGHT
Remember to include your name as author of any work that you post!

TEACHERS, it's great when students get involved! Ditty of the Month Club challenges are wonderful opportunities to learn about working poets and authors while having fun with poetry prompts. Thank you for spreading the word! For children under 13, please read my COPPA compliance statement in the sidebar to the right.

BLOGGERS, thank you for publishing your poems on your own blogs–I love that! Please let me know about it so I can share your post. Also remember to include your poem (or a direct link to your post) on the padlet.

If you prefer to open this padlet in a new tab, click HERE.

Such a clever one, this Kate O'Neil! I love her enthusiasm, her sense of humor, her playful approach to writing and life, and I love that she brightens up the TLD neighborhood whenever she's around. Please join me in thanking her for being with us today.

If you would like to be featured in a future reader spotlight, I invite you to complete this form.

I had a blast counting down to Halloween with daily ditties about monster fears! This week I featured my own poem, along with others by Janie Lazo, Jone Rush MacCulloch, and Matt Forrest Esenwine. There were also new padlet contributions from Buffy Silverman, Elizabeth Steinglass, Maria Marshall, Penny Parker Klostermann, Juanita Havill, Amanda Sincavage, and Mary Lee Hahn (who also shares her poem today at A Year of Reading). You'll find the entire collection HERE. Feel free to keep adding to it if you'd like!

Tabatha Yeatts has this week's Poetry Friday roundup at The Opposite of Indifference. She shares a Samantha Reynolds poem called "My Four-Year-Old Poetry Teacher" that might also serve as inspiration for this month's DMC challenge! Thanks, Tabatha!

Reader Spotlight: Rebecca Herzog + DMC Challenge

REBECCA HERZOG

Rebecca Herzog is a stay at home mom of two kids (9 and 2) and two pets (bearded dragon and tarantula). She’s passionate about learning new things, cheesy jokes, and Halloween. As you might expect, she leans toward writing creepy and funny things as well. (She’s tried writing more serious fare, but it never felt right.) Read Rebecca's creepy poem "Dolly" HERE or peruse more of her work, plus book reviews and assorted ramblings, at her blog Sloth Reads.

Becky's superpower is research. She loves to learn all sorts of things and will often do deep dives into a topic that interests her. I was intrigued by these diving expeditions and asked if she could give me an example of a topic she might have delved into recently. Her response was impressive enough that I wanted to share it verbatim:

I am currently writing a spooky middle grade novel about a doll that comes to life. I always thought that dolls were kind of creepy, and I wanted to learn a bit more about how bone china dolls were made. So I researched how they'd grind bones up to make a paste and that 50% of the bone china is actual bones. Then I jumped to a fear of dolls being called pediophobia. And before I knew it, I'd learned that the first film with a scary doll came out in 1928, and that E.T.A Hoffman's stories from 1816 are considered the first creepy doll stories in literature. Once I go down the rabbit hole, something that should have only taken me 5 minutes can turn into a much longer dive.

Whoa. Like I said, impressive, right?

A book that Becky recommends everyone should read is Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes, but ask her five minutes from now and she might give you a different answer.

I don't know about you, but I'm ready for a few more answers right now!  Let's start with five of her favorite things.

"Frankenkid" © John Herzog

Becky's five favorites:

• Favorite color: green 
• Favorite word: cogitate 
• Favorite artist: my husband (www.johnherzog.art)
• Favorite music: folk music and movie scores
• Favorite monster: werewolf

Poetry is —
. . . so hard to do well, but fun enough to keep trying.

How did you come to poetry?

I saw a twitter post for the Madness Poetry tournament back in 2017 and discovered the Poetry Friday community through it. I hadn't really written any poetry before then, so it has been a lot of fun to learn.

Why do you write?

I write because I have so many interests. I've wanted to be an astronaut, a wilderness survivor, a biologist, a monster hunter, an archaeologist, a circus clown...the list goes on and on. Writing lets me wear each of these hats whenever I want. 

How does poetry fit into your life?

I have young children, so finding time to write my poetry is tough. In the summer, I write from 9:30PM-1:30AM and my husband gets up with the kids. During the school year, I try to get up at 5AM to get some writing in before getting my daughter and husband off to school.

Courtesy Herzog Family

Describe three of your writing habits.

1. Must have a drink nearby (usually water or Cherry Coke Zero),
2. I like to know exactly what I am writing before sitting down to work, and
3. I like to listen to white noise if the house is noisy.

When you’re feeling stuck, what gets your creativity flowing?

Whenever I feel stuck, I will usually start writing in stream of conscience. This keeps the inner critic from getting louder while I wait for the wheels in my mind to catch again and I can continue whatever it was that I was writing. For bigger moments of stuck-ness, I like to get outside and skateboard or roller skate.

What have you chosen as this month's ditty challenge?

Monster Fears. 

Most everyone is afraid of monsters, but what are monsters most afraid of? What scares a werewolf? A swamp monster? etc.

As an example, here's a poem I wrote about "Frankenkid"—John's illustration shown above. 



Frankenkid Goes to the Dance

Bet you think I'm scared of fire
But there's something much more dire

The music starts, I need to move
But I can't seem to find my groove

It's really hard to feel the beat
When you have someone else's feet

© 2019 Rebecca Herzog. All rights reserved. 

Frankentastic! 

So who's ready to jump into this month's challenge with both feet?

Ronel Reyes

(You never know what you might find!)

You'll find the padlet embedded below. Add your poem about something a monster might fear at any point during the month or scroll through to check out what others are contributing.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

By posting on the padlet, you are also granting me permission to feature your poem on Today's Little Ditty. I'm not sure how often I'll be featuring poems from reader challenges, but I want to keep my options open. :)

If you have not participated in a challenge before, please send me an email at TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com so that I can contact you, if necessary.

HOW TO POST YOUR POEM
In the lower right corner of the padlet you'll see a pink dot with a plus sign. Click on it to open a text box. I find it works best to type your title on the title line and paste the rest of your poem where it says "Write something...". Single click outside the text box when finished. This board is moderated to prevent spam. Once your poem is approved, it will appear publicly.

PROTECT YOUR COPYRIGHT
Remember to include your name as author of any work that you post!

TEACHERS, it's great when students get involved! Ditty of the Month Club challenges are wonderful opportunities to learn about working poets and authors while having fun with poetry prompts. Thank you for spreading the word! For children under 13, please read my COPPA compliance statement in the sidebar to the right.

BLOGGERS, thank you for publishing your poems on your own blogs–I love that! Please let me know about it so I can share your post. Also remember to include your poem (or a direct link to your post) on the padlet.

If you prefer to open this padlet in a new tab, click HERE.

Please join me in thanking Becky for being with us today. The life of any Halloween party, I'm thrilled to death to have her here for this month's DMC festivities!

If you would like to be featured in a future reader spotlight, I invite you to complete this form.

You'll find last week's wrap-up celebration of all-about-me acrostic poems (inlcuding some terrific late additions) HERE. Feel free to continue adding to the collection if you'd like.

Cheriee Weichel introduces Vancouver children's poet Bob Heidbreder and hosts this week's Poetry Friday roundup at Library Matters.

Reader Spotlight: Jane Whittingham + DMC Challenge

JANE WHITTINGHAM

On her website, Jane Whittingham describes herself as "a Canadian picture book author, children’s librarian, book lover and cat lady." In Poetry Friday circles, she is fondly recognized as the "Raincity Librarian"—the title of her blog before she changed it over to "Jane Whittingham: Author and Librarian." She hasn't been making Poetry Friday rounds lately, but there's good reason for that. Fortunately for me, she helped me out with this interview before the stork arrived!

Courtesy Jane Whittingham

Jane considers herself pretty lucky to be a children's librarian—visiting and connecting with kids and families at local schools, neighborhood houses and community groups, delivering professional development events for early childhood educators, planning and facilitating fun programs kids programs like writing and book clubs and craft afternoons, and delivering baby story times. She actually gets paid to read and surround herself with amazing children's books! Besides that, she's passionate about early literacy, diverse and inclusive children's books, and travel, which allows her to explore and experience different cultures.

As far as her writing goes, Jane enjoys penning stories about imaginative beings, whether they are children or animals. She has three picture books published by Pajama Press over the last couple years: Wild One, A Good Day for Ducks, and Queenie Quail Can't Keep Up.

A few months ago she claimed her superpower was being the "queen of procrastination," but with three books and a new baby? Somehow I doubt it. When asked about a book that everyone should read, she said that she couldn't recommend just one: "as a librarian it's my job to get to know my patrons' needs and preferences, and then help them find just the right books for them to read." Okay, we'll give her a pass on the book recommendation... for now. In the meantime, I highly recommend you read this interview with Jane Whittingham!

Jane's five favorites:

Favorite color:
Blue—the color of the ocean and the wide open sky.

Favorite word:
Desafortunadamente—Spanish for "unfortunately". I remember learning this word in high school Spanish class and immediately falling in love with the way it rolls off the tongue so elegantly. Spanish is such a beautiful language!

Favorite movie:
It's so hard to choose, but I'd have to say it's a tie between Jurassic Park and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. I just love me some classic Steven Spielberg!

Favorite food:
SUSHI. There's such an incredible variety of flavors and textures, and I appreciate the emphasis on fresh, quality ingredients served with great care and deceptive simplicity.

Favorite vacation spot:
Japan—my partner and I have traveled this island nation from tip to tip on three separate occasions, and we're already planning our next visit!

Traveling in Japan, courtesy Jane Whittingham

What is poetry?

Poetry is whatever you choose to make of it.

Why do you write?
I write because I enjoy the mental stimulation, the way poetry challenges my creative brain. I don't write because I feel some innate need in my soul, I simply write because I enjoy it, because it's fun and helps me express myself and connect with others. Growing up I used to think I couldn't ever be a "real" writer because I didn't "suffer" enough—poetry always seemed to be about angst and "depth" and drug-addled English poets wasting away from consumption. I like to write silly little ditties about birds and the weather and tea, how could I ever be a poet?! But as I've grown older and hopefully a bit wiser I've come to realize that poetry, and any other kind of writing, for that matter, really is about what you make of it, and there's no such thing as a "real" writer or a "real" poet. We are all poets and storytellers!

Describe three of your writing habits.
I like to brainstorm my ideas on paper—there's something particularly inspiring I find about being able to scribble my thoughts down on paper, crossing things out, drawing arrows linking different ideas, and creating a messy but beautiful first draft.

I write when and where I want to—I don't have a writing schedule, and simply fit writing in when I can around my busy life.

I like to write with a hot cup of tea close at hand. :)

Neighborhood "goings-on" (Jane Whittingham)

When you're feeling stuck, what gets your creativity flowing?
Whenever I'm feeling burnt out, frustrated, or in a rut, I can always count on a walk in the fresh air to help clear my mind and refresh my spirit. I am most inspired by nature—walking around my neighborhood, listening and watching and observing all the goings-on around me. And walking has always been one of my favorite stress-relievers. It works just as well at breaking through a creative block as it does soothing an irritated soul.




What is the best advice you've ever gotten?
When I first started out as a librarian and was feeling nervous about delivering a program, a now-retired library supervisor of mine always used to say "did any babies die?" It might sound pretty dramatic, but what she meant of course was to step back and look at a situation from a bigger perspective. So, if I submit a poem to a journal and it gets rejected, if I read a poem to an audience and they don't get it, really, what's the worst that can happen? Nobody is going to die, so stop worrying so much and just go for it!

What is the best advice you can give?
Go for it! Honestly, I spent so much of my youth worrying about what others would think of my work, too afraid to share my writing with anyone for fear that they wouldn't like it, wouldn't "get" it, would make fun of it or think it too silly or superficial to be "real". To which I now say BAH HUMBUG. Write what makes you happy, and to heck with what other people think. That's what's so great about the internet, and about communities like this one—you can connect with so many amazing fellow creatives who are happy to welcome you into the poetry fold, whatever you choose to write about, and who will say nice things even after you've written your tenth poem about cats or tea or the rain. ;-)

Is there anything else you'd like to mention?

My most recent picture book, Queenie Quail Can't Keep Up, was released in March of this year, and I'm really proud of how beautifully the book turned out. The idea of writing about quails was inspired by my late and deeply, deeply missed father, who loved watching the little quail families that hurried and scurried through his backyard, so I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to share this story, and share a little piece of him with the world.

What have you chosen as this month's ditty challenge?

Write an all-about-me acrostic poem.

The challenge is a simple one—use the letters in your name as the starting point to create a little ditty all about you! I love doing this one at the beginning of a new series of workshops because it's a great icebreaker, allowing kids to share as much about themselves with their peers as they feel comfortable. I've also had kids express delight at the idea of writing a poem about themselves—"a poem about me?" 

Like I once did, many kids feel that poems have to be about serious things and are delighted to discover that they themselves are worth writing about, too!

As an example,

Jane is a girl who loves
Apples and sushi, but
Never, not ever
Eats gross Brussels sprouts!

Haha! What do you think, readers?

Seems to me like we've got a tasty little ditty challenge to start off the school year!

You'll find the padlet embedded below. Add your all-about-me acrostic poem at any point during the month or scroll through to check out what others are contributing.

HOW TO PARTICIPATE

By posting on the padlet, you are also granting me permission to feature your poem on Today's Little Ditty.  I'm not sure how often I'll be featuring poems from reader challenges, but I want to keep my options open. :)

If you have not participated in a challenge before, please send me an email at TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com so that I can contact you, if necessary.

HOW TO POST YOUR POEM
In the lower right corner of the padlet you'll see a pink dot with a plus sign. Click on it to open a text box. I find it works best to type your title on the title line and paste the rest of your poem where it says "Write something...". Single click outside the text box when finished. This board is moderated to prevent spam. Once your poem is approved, it will appear publicly.

PROTECT YOUR COPYRIGHT
Remember to include your name as author of any work that you post!

TEACHERS, it's great when students get involved! Ditty of the Month Club challenges are wonderful opportunities to learn about working poets and authors while having fun with poetry prompts. Thank you for spreading the word! For children under 13, please read my COPPA compliance statement in the sidebar to the right.

BLOGGERS, thank you for publishing your poems on your own blogs–I love that! Please let me know about it so I can share your post. Also remember to include your poem (or a direct link to your post) on the padlet.

If you prefer to open this padlet in a new tab, click HERE.

Please join me in thanking Jane for being with us today! I love her effervescence, her silly sense of humor, her go-getter attitude, and especially this spot-on advice: "Write what makes you happy, and to heck with what other people think."

If you would like to be featured in a future reader spotlight, I invite you to complete this form.

You'll find last week's wrap-up celebration of poems inspired by song lyrics HERE. Feel free to continue adding to the poetry playlist it if you'd like.

Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong are welcoming the new school year with a sweet poem about gratitude, information about the upcoming IBBY conference, and this week's Poetry Friday roundup. You'll find it all at Poetry for Children.