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.

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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.

Spotlight on Buffy Silverman + DMC Challenge

BUFFY SILVERMAN

It's true, we just turned the page to February. But in my neck of the woods temps are back in the 70s, trees are beginning to flower, and look what else arrived this week—a new book to warm my heart.

ON A SNOW-MELTING DAY: SEEKING SIGNS OF SPRING
Millbrook Press (Lerner Publishing Group), February 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1541578135, available for a discounted price at Lerner Books.

I'm tickled blossom-pink to introduce my friend and critique partner Buffy Silverman for our first Spotlight ON interview of 2020! Buffy is the author of more than 90 nonfiction books for young readers, featuring topics from angel sharks to alligators, and Mars to monster trucks. Children's poetry fans might be more familiar with her nature-inspired poems that pop up regularly in anthologies, popular children's magazines, and, I'm pleased to say, here on Today's Little Ditty.

In her role as a TLD contributor, Buffy has taught readers much about how connecting with nature can make us better poets. She spends time outdoors every day, occasionally with a dragonfly perched on her nose, but more often accompanied by her dog and camera. There’s always something new to discover living near woods and a lake in rural Michigan, and taking photographs encourages her to slow down and watch closely—a skill that every good poet must cultivate. I'm delighted to include several of Buffy's outstanding photographs in today's post. (The hardest part was deciding which ones to share!)

One of the qualities I find most remarkable about Buffy's writing is her ability to transform those carefully observed small details into poetry, finding the perfect word in every instance, even when it's one she's had to invent herself. Buffy is adept at wordplay alchemy—something she has practiced from the age of 10 years old. On a Snow-Melting Day: Seeking Signs of Spring is a superb example of what kind of enchantment can come of it.

Back cover: On a Snow Melting Day (Millbrook Press, 2020)

Described in a starred Kirkus review as “Crocus-poking, mud-luscious enjoyment,” Buffy describes On a Snow-Melting Day as "an extended poem about all the changes that occur as winter retreats and spring begins. It features chickadees sipping from icicles, spotted salamanders marching over melting snow, and insects warming themselves in skunk cabbage." (Read more from Buffy's interview with Raven Howell here.)

Vibrant photographs paired with playful rhyming verse will captivate young children, making this book an ideal read-aloud for home, preschool, or library story time. For grades 1-3, teachers will appreciate this book as a mentor text because of the expressive sensory language. They can also make use of the back matter (an informational author's note, glossary, and further reading) to extend and enhance interactive learning. The book is "perfect," according to the School Library Journal, "for answering nature-related questions or crafting lesson plans."

Why not try this simple idea for the classroom:

"Reading poetry to your students can be a gift," explains Buffy in an interview at Two Writing Teachers. "Let them enjoy listening to a poem each day, without asking for discussion or analysis. Then read the poem again and ask students to remember one or two favorite words. Write those words in a class word bank, and encourage your students to borrow them for their own writing."

And what should they write? How about "drip-droppy, slip-sloppy" poems in response to Buffy's DMC challenge this month! You'll find detailed instructions later on in this interview.

Let's begin, as always, with five favorites.

Buffy Silverman

FAVORITE COLOR:
Pale green, the color of fresh leaves in spring.

FAVORITE SMELL:
The scent of soil after a rainstorm. There’s a word for that smell—petrichor—which comes from the Greek words petra ( meaning stone) and ichor (a fluid flowing in the veins of the gods.)

FAVORITE SOUND:
The flute-like song of a wood thrush on an evening in May.

FAVORITE GRADE IN SCHOOL:
In fourth grade, Mrs. Rasanen had a reel-to-reel tape player and played a song for us that went, “Hey ho, what do you know, friction makes heat. Hey ho, what do you know, we’re making heat!” Combining music with science was pretty radical at the time (and that might be why I can still sing the tune while rubbing my hands together!) Fourth grade was also the year we took a class trip to Sturbridge Village.

Buffy, the 4th grade outlaw, with some of her classmates at Sturbridge Village

FAVORITE TEACHER IN SCHOOL:
Mr. Kirkpatrick, eleventh grade English. I was often unengaged in classes in junior high and high school. But Mr. Kirpatrick told me that I was a good writer—and he took the time to show me how to make my writing stronger. His words and attention set me on a different path. Understanding how to revise what I wrote helped turn me into a successful student in college and a writer today.

As a child you were a tree climber, an insect finder, and a word collector, yet you didn’t begin thinking of yourself as a writer until graduate school. When did you realize you were a poet?

I’m not sure I think of myself as a poet. Let’s just say I’m someone who enjoys writing poetry. (The first definition in the dictionary of a poet is someone who writes poetry, so perhaps someday soon I will embrace the term.) I’ve always loved playing with language, and I think that led me to dabbling in poetry.


Your bibliography, especially for the nonfiction educational market, is quite impressive! What do you enjoy most about writing for that market?

For me there have been two great benefits to writing for the educational market. The first is having tight writing deadlines. I am a procrastinator, and deadlines force me to be organized and to keep writing. The second is learning about a wide range of subjects, including many that I had little knowledge of before diving head first into the research. I now understand why airplanes have flaps, big rigs have tails, and how to bring a hot air balloon down to earth!

Browse these and other topics on Buffy Silverman's bookshelf.

How does poetry fit into the big picture of your writing career?

While I’ve enjoyed having writing assignments and learning many, many interesting tidbits, I’m trying to shift the focus of my writing to more narrative and poetic approaches to nonfiction (and maybe even some fiction, too!) I am drawn to writing about the natural world, which I think is a subject that inspires poetry.

Buffy Silverman

Buffy Silverman

Buffy Silverman

What I love most about On a Snow-Melting Day is your fun, evocative language. Your description of the change of season is factual, yet never trite or dull. Can you tell us more about your process of writing the book?

On a Snow-Melting Day started as an idea for StoryStorm 2018, in response to a blog post that encouraged writers to pay attention to what’s around them. Here’s what I wrote in my notebook:

It was a drip droppy
                        slip sloppy
                        snow melting day

Then I made a few notes about mist rising in the air, boots sinking in the slush, puddles growing on the lake. My notes continued: Is there a story here? Or just a poem? 

Initially I thought the image in my head was more of a poem than a story idea, but about a month later I had a writing day with my critique group and decided to explore the idea more fully. I thought about what different animals might be doing on a series of snow-melting days and tried to paint a picture of the landscape getting closer and closer to spring. I pictured the woods, lake, and marshy areas that are outside my door.

Buffy Silverman
(featured in On a Snow-Melting Day)

Buffy Silverman
(featured in On a Snow-Melting Day)

I managed to finish a draft in one day (which is not usual for me. Peer pressure is wonderful! Go write with your friends!) Of course, I revised that draft many times.


The photographs complement your spare text so perfectly. Considering that this book is not traditionally illustrated, were you involved in the process of selecting the photos or was your expressive writing all the in-house designers needed?

Allison Juda, the Millbrook editor assigned to my manuscript, chose the photographs and masterfully designed the book with little input from me. I offered Allison several of my own photographs that I thought might work with my manuscript and was thrilled when she decided to include three of them. There was one part of my text that Allison didn’t understand and she wondered if I should change: Icicles drip. Chickadees sip.

From On a Snow-Melting Day: Seeking Signs of Spring (Milbrook Press, 2020)

But she was fine about keeping that couplet once I sent her links to photos of chickadees sipping icicles. (Who knew they did this? Not me until I started searching for an animal that drinks from icicles.) I believe the chickadee-sipping photo used in the book was one that I had sent to Allison. I also suggested which flowers to include in the final spread (hepatica) to make sure we had one of the earliest blooming wildflowers.


Please share a favorite spread from On a Snow-Melting Day and tell us why it's a favorite.

How can I decide on only one?! If I must choose, I’ll go with this one: On a plink-plonking, marsh-mucking, duck-dabbling day.

From On a Snow-Melting Day: Seeking Signs of Spring (Milbrook Press, 2020)

Those phrases are fun to say, I love pussy willows, and I have a nice memory of walking with my daughter at the Kellogg Bird Sanctuary when I took the photo of the handsome pair of mallards.


Let’s imagine for the moment that On a Snow-Melting Day is part of a four-book series (which it should be!) describing each of the seasonal transitions in a similar fashion. What is one thing you might have observed for each of the other books in the series?

There’s so much wonder in the world as the seasons change. Here are a few favorite sights: frogs staking out their territories and serenading their sweethearts as spring turns to summer; praying mantises laying their foamy egg cases on tall grasses when summer turns to fall; huge flocks of sandhill cranes gathering to dance and raise a ruckus as fall turns to winter. Whether or not those critters would fit neatly into a rhyme scheme is another question! 

Buffy Silverman in her childhood happy place

If you had all the world's children in one room, what would you tell them?

Go outside (every day if you can!) Look, listen, feel, and smell nature. Let yourself fall in love with our world.















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

I had great fun combining and inventing words when writing On a Snow-Melting Day. I think TLD readers would enjoy this too. Here’s a recipe to follow, or strike out on your own.

INGREDIENTS:

Five or more nouns (choose plants/animals/weather-related nouns, or anything else you observe outside.)

Five or more verbs that are actions your nouns might take and/or sounds that your nouns might make.

INSTRUCTIONS: 

1.    Take a walk or look out a window to gather the ingredients listed above.  

2.    Combine each noun-verb pair to create an adjective. (These are some that I used in Snow-Melting Day: hawk-squawking, marsh-mucking, paw-sinking, duck-dabbling.)

3.    Play with your combinations to create different adjectives (paw-dabbling? duck-squawking? marsh-sinking?)

4.    Write a poem that celebrates the place you observed, using at least two of your noun-verb combinations or other invented words.


Grab your notebook and trail mix, my friends—

we're going word-wandering!

Buffy's woods-walking companion Dakota is expert at sniffing out new words!

But before setting off, please help me thank Buffy—and Dakota—for being here today (though I've been told Dakota is only in it for the kibble). Buffy, on the other hand, is looking forward to reading your poems and is offering a personalized copy of On a Snow-Melting Day: Seeking Signs of Spring to one lucky DMC participant! 

(Winner to be selected randomly at the end of the month.)

HOW TO PARTICIPATE:

Post your poem with invented words on our February 2020 padlet. Stop by any time during the month to add your work or to check out what others are contributing.

By posting on the padlet, you are granting me permission to share your poem on Today's Little Ditty.  Some poems will be featured as daily ditties. I don't typically give authors advance notice, so subscribe to the blog if you'd like to keep tabs. You can do that in the sidebar to the right where it says "Follow TLD by Email." All of the poems will be included in a wrap-up celebration on the last Friday of the month—February 28th for our current challenge.

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.

FIRST-TIMERS (those who have never contributed to a ditty challenge before), in addition to posting your work on the padlet, please send your name and email address to TodaysLittleDitty (at) gmail (dot) com. That way I'll be able to contact you if necessary.

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 in order to be included in the wrap-up celebration and end-of-month giveaway.

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

Thanks to Laura Purdie Salas for hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup. She is writing poems in a variety of unusual places this year and today shares a poem written at the orchestra.

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!