National Poetry Month

Last April I posted a golden shovel poem based on Robert Frost's "Ghost House." Now, a year later, almost to the day, I'm posting about poetry again, with yet another nod to Robert Frost.

It's been a poetic year for me. It's also been a year with limited time for writing. Perhaps that's why, since writing that poem last April, I've been spending more and more time in poetry. I've discovered new favorite poems, and new favorite poets. New poetry is becoming a part of my DNA, the words and phrases coming to mind spontaneously as they resonate on the same frequency as my life.

Yesterday, walking in the park, I saw this fellow standing in the stream.

duck standing in a stream divided in two by a small patch of land

As soon as I saw him standing there, the opening lines of Robert Frost's poem "The Road Not Taken" sprang to mind:

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

I carried Frost's words with me as we walked home, their cadence rolling through my mind, calling up memories of my own diverging paths, and interjecting mindful, reflective moments into an otherwise ordinary day.

I've written more poetry in the last year than in the past several years combined. Most of the poems are not for kids, but lyrical language has also become my focus in the writing I'm doing for young readers. I'm working on picture books, some rhyming, some not, but all of them written with lyrical language.

I love the process of carefully considering words - their meaning, their shape, their sound.
I love how good it feels when you know you've discovered just the right one.
I love the patterns they form on the page.
I love the rise and fall of their syllables in my ear.

In the US, it's the 25th annual National Poetry Month.

If you're feeling poetic, you can discover new poems and poets here and here. You can even get a new poem sent to your inbox every day. And if you want to follow along during the month of April, poet and writer Bridget Magee is writing a poem a day as part of National Poetry Month. You can check out her fun and funny poems on her website.

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