What could be more dispiriting than a flood?  Nothing that's been under it will be the same, ever, even when the waters recede and the l...

This morning, thinking of this day, and of the Open House at the end of it, I read this essay , about how poet Jill Bialosky started writing...

We're finishing up our first week of school.  I have a fresh batch of seventh graders.  Ah, seventh graders.  I always forget, from year...

Last week I was working in my classroom when someone brought in a new student to introduce to me.  We bonded over the fact that I had a few ...

I had to say goodbye to my daughter yesterday as she went back to college.  This made me think of a poem I wrote back in 2012 and posted her...

Sonnets from the Portuguese 44 Elizabeth Barrett Browning   Beloved, thou hast brought me many flowers   Plucked in the garden, a...

Book #56 of 2017 was Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother and Daughter Journey to the Sacred Places of Greece, Turkey, and France , by Sue...

It's Friday again!  This time last week, I didn't know that today, my daughter would be here visiting.  She studied in England this ...

In just a few months, I will be turning fifty.  Yes, fifty.  That is a big number. I have been aware for a long time of being thought ol...

Book #46 of 2017 was Boys Without Names , by Kashmira Sheth.  My 14 year old son recommended this to me.  It's hard to think about the ...

Happiness by Jane Kenyon There’s just no accounting for happiness, or the way it turns up like a prodigal who comes back to the dust...

Apparently today's Poetry Friday theme is Macaroni and Cheese.  Take a look at Tabatha's roundup.   I looked a bit for something on ...

I was traveling today, and I never got a post written.  Fortunately, lots of other people did post!  Here's today's roundup.

I just got my laptop back from being repaired today.  I've missed it like a limb!  Here's a bright and breezy summertime poem.  I ho...

Last night I dreamed that I was back at school. When I wrote that sentence, I realized two things.  One was that it made me think of Rebec...

Book #41 of the year was Passenger , by Alexandra Bracken, and book #43 was the sequel, Wayfarer .  I found the time travel world-building...

The second week of summer vacation is ending, and I can hardly point to anything I've accomplished.  I keep dozing off in the tropical h...

I've enjoyed the first week of my summer vacation very much.  It has featured naps and times with friends and time to write. Today I w...

Book #37 of the year was The Bride's Farewell , by Meg Rosoff.  The challenges the characters in this book face remind me of Dickens, bu...

Today I finished up my last day at work for the semester, mostly cleaning my classroom (Wednesday was our last day with kids), and then I co...