Category: Experience

Posted on

VerseLove Day 23 with Barb Edler of Iowa – Things to Do: Write a Poem

Our host today for the 23rd day of VerseLove 2025 is Barb Edler of Iowa. You can read Barb’s full prompt here. Today, she inspires us to create list poems.

Things You Might See in FDR State Park in Georgia on a Springtime Weekend

a trio of Segwayers gliding over the Delanor Lake bridge

a pair of kayakers paddling in the late morning sunshine

a young barefoot boy running up a hill with a shovelful of something to dump in his bucket

a family fishing off the dock

a couple on bikes, one pulling a child seat, with a Collie running between them

a man paddling a jon boat with a woman fishing off the back

a lone female with worn boots and a tent backpack and hiking poles entering a trailhead

two squirrels flipping through the hardwood canopy like Cirque du Soleil gymnasts

a hammock strung between two trees with a reader flipping pages

a Brown Thrasher, the State Bird, breakfasting on worms on the mountaintop

a Magnolia tree with shiny leaves reflecting the sunlight like mirrors

campers and tents of every size and color nestled beneath the trees along the lake

a wooden footbridge with a mysterious cave entrance….a possum’s cottage?

a group of kids circling a table, working on a camp craft

me, raising a Mason jar of sweet tea, offering you a chair

come sit with me and watch the happy world for a while!

Posted on

#VerseLove Day 22 with Margaret Simon of Louisiana – Prose Poems

Margaret Simon, our host for VerseLove Day 22, lives in Louisiana. 

Margaret inspires us to write prose poems of emotion today. She explains, “A prose poem looks like prose; however, there are poetic elements that set it apart from a paragraph. There is a rhythm of poetry within the prose-like lines. Contemplate an invitation to an emotion. Write it out in prose. Let your words flow out like the water from a teapot.”

Click, Click, Click, Ding

….at the table with The Poetry Fox ~ his vintage typewriter clicks like my mind, wondering how he works this magic. Writing poems in a minute, pounding out letters, words, thoughts, feelings. Bringing tears of sentiment, laughter of imaginings, words and images to life. Like a heartbeat, rhythmic and steady, not skipping a beat until the poem is complete and he stamps his paw print, reads the gift aloud, winding my joy-filled heart right into the ribbon of those keys I can still clearly hear…..

click, click, click,

ding,

click, click, click, click, click

ding

click, click-click, click

Posted on

#VerseLove Day 21 with Glenda Funk of Idaho – What Did You Do Last Week?

Glenda Funk of Idaho is our host today for the 21st day of VerseLove2025 at http://www.ethicalela.com. You can read her full prompt here, asking us to write poems about five things we did last week in response to a recent federal memo. I chose to think of the sacrifices I made.

Sacrifices I Made Last Week

I didn’t have chocolate (I gave it up for Lent).

I didn’t have coffee (same as above).

I didn’t buy the shoes (I might this week).

I didn’t get mean (I might do that this week, too).

I gave the heart of my days to my work when I could have

tended the plants

stitched a quilt

napped in the hammock

walked the dogs

shopped for shoes

read books all day

written books all day

strolled Gibbs Gardens

tanned on the beach

sipped a latte at Starbucks

visited grandchildren

birdwatched on my favorite mountain

planned a trip in the camper

polished houseplants

played solitaire all day

binged on Netflix

taken a pottery class

accomplished Pinterest projects

painted furniture

written poems on the front porch

stayed home in my sweats and slippers

planned a writing retreat in Telluride, Colorado

.

……but here I am, killing it.

Posted on

#VerseLove Day 19 with Jordan Stamper of Virginia- Bon Appetit! Food Poems

Jordan, our host for this 19th day of #VerseLove 2025, lives in Suffolk, VA.

She inspires us today to write poems about food.

lots of things I don’t do right in this world

but making a fresh sprout and kale wrap

with beets and a half dollop of

mayonnaise is not one of

them, fortunately ~ and

the difference is

right outside on

the porch where

it grows

fresh

Posted on

VerseLove Day 16: Etheree Poems with Katrina Morrison

Our host for Day 16 of VerseLove at http://www.ethicalela.com is Katrina Morrison, who teaches English and German in a rural community in Osage County, Oklahoma.

Katrina inspires us to write etheree poems and shares her process: “Etheree Taylor Armstong, an Arkansas poet, created the simple eponymous Etheree. An etheree consists of ten lines with each line’s syllabication increasing by one. Line 1 begins with one syllable, line two has two syllables, line three has three syllables, etc. Proceed this way until you have composed a poem with ten lines.” You can read her full prompt here.

The Poetry Fox

have you ever seen a fox type poems

on a classic vintage typewriter

pecking with his paws at the keys

pounding out on-demand verse

for people offering

their favorite words,

then reading each

aloud to

human

hearts?

Posted on

#VerseLove Day 15 with Brittany Saulnier – Colors in Nature

Brittany Saulnier, our host for Day 15 of VerseLove2025, is the author of the short story LIGHT OUT in the anthology Just YA: Short Stories, Poems, Essays & Fiction for grades 7 -12. She is the co-creator of Read to Write Kidlit, a podcast dedicated to improving writing craft by talking with authors about their books.

She invites us to think of a recent memory where we were “in nature” and write a poem that highlights the three colors from our memory. You can read Brittany’s full prompt here.

All the Colors of Sunset

what do you call the shade of sunset?

sometimes it’s 14-carat gold

other times, it’s tangerine

or pink cotton candy

sunflower yellow

or lilac storm

….the best nights,

ruby

red

Posted on

#VerseLove Day 14 with Padma Venkatraman – Safe Spaces

Padma Venkatraman, our host for Day 14 of VerseLove 2025, is the author of The Bridge Home, Born Behind Bars, A Time to Dance, Island’s End and Climbing the Stairs. Her books have sold over ¼ million copies, received over 20 starred reviews, and won numerous awards: Walter Dean Myers Award, South Asia Book Award, Golden Kite, ALA Notable etc.

Today, she inspires us to read her poem entitled Safe Spaces and think about a place that feels like a safe harbor – and bring that space alive in a poem.  You can read her full prompt here.

My friend Margaret Simon, host of Poetry Friday, introduced me to a Shadorma form. I love the short forms, and this one contains six lines with this syllable pattern: 3-5-3-3-7-5. I’m trying this for my safe space poem today.

Safe Harbor Shadorma

safe harbors

places we can breathe

without fear

but tell me ~

do they exist anymore

in this mess of now?

Posted on

#VerseLove Day 13 with Dr. Sarah J. Donovan of Oklahoma – Witnessing

Dr. Sarah J. Donovan is the founder of Ethical ELA, a community for teacher-writers, and a 2024 Fellow for the Genocide Education Project. A former middle school English teacher and author, she advocates for humanizing literacy practices, genocide education, and poetry as witness. Her work bridges pedagogy, justice, and storytelling.

Sarah inspires us to write poems in recognition of the past and in celebration of the Armenian people, their voices, and their enduring culture. You can read her full prompt here. I’m sharing a celebration pantoum.

Armenian Culture Pantoum

elders are respected

children are revered

Hellenistic temples

intricate khachkars

children are revered

strong family values

intricate khachkars

lavash and harissa

strong family values

Yarkhushta marriage dance

lavash and harissa

Artsakh carpets

Yarkhushta marriage dance

Hellenistic temples

Artsakh carpets

elders are respected

Posted on

#VerseLove Day 12 with Kate Sjostrom of Illinois – Literacy Memories

Our host for the 12th day of VerseLove2025 is Kate Sjostrom, a teacher educator at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

She inspires us to write our favorite literacy memory in a poem. You can read her full prompt here.

I’m sharing a pantoum today – – of the poem that started it all for me…..my deep love of poetry comes down to one poem that mesmerized me and wouldn’t turn loose. It still holds me captive, and it’s the reason I often wear green glass beads…….Overheard on a Salt Marsh, by Harold Monro!

Falling in Love with Harold Monroe

in my closet with a flashlight

reading Childcraft Volume 1: Poems and Rhymes

I fell in love with Harold

when I was 8

reading Childcraft Volume 1: Poems and Rhymes

Nymph, nymph, what are your beads?

when I was 8

Give them me. / No.

Nymph, nymph, what are your beads?

Your green glass beads on a silver ring

Give them me. / NO!

Hush, I stole them out of the moon.

Your green glass beads on a silver ring

I fell in love with Harold

Hush, I stole them out of the moon

in my closet with a flashlight

Water nymph with green glass beads, image generated with AI
Posted on

#VerseLove Day 9 – with Britt Decker of Texas – Depending on When You Met Me

Our host for the 9th day of #VerseLove2025 is Britt Decker of Houston, Texas, who inspires us to write. a poem about who we were at various times in our lives. You can read her full prompt here. Maybe you’ll come write with us today! I’ve chosen a list poem for today’s poem.

Depending on when you met me, you would have known

I was a wild preacher’s kid running amok with a

cast of characters that weren’t Southern Baptists ~

that I became them in my closet with a flashlight

obsessed with the words, the characters, the places

in Childcraft Volume 1: Poems and Rhymes

the book with the gold and pink banded spine

where they lived on pages but came alive

in me ~ and stay with me still

I’m Pirate Don Durk of Dowdee

I’m a sugar plum tree at the Lollipop Sea

I’m a little turtle climbing on the rocks

I’m Wee Willie Winkie, crying through the locks

I’m a water nymph with green glass beads

I’m a goblin in the marsh, howling in the reeds

I’m Mary, Mary, quite contrary

I’m a little puffin on an island in the sea

I’m a gypsy, a gypsy, earrings in my ears

I’m a cave boy with a spear hunting prehistoric deer

I’m the Raggedy Man with a wobble-ly calf

I’m the Ice Cream man with a cart full of laughs

I’m Young Melissa sweeping a room

I’m an astronaut….3, ….2,…..1……BOOM!