Tag: living poets

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Celebrating Living Poets: Clint Smith

This is the tenth day of the 2026 Slice of Life Challenge, and we are 1/3 of the way through the month of March’s daily blogging challenge. I’m celebrating some of my favorite living poets this month by sharing a Cento poem I’ve created from one of their poetry collections. I was introduced to Clint Smith through a Book Love Summer Reading Club I participated in through Penny Kittle’s group several years ago when we all read Counting Descent. I hung on every.single.line and marveled in the raw truths of exposed feelings. With poetry this rich and moving, the way it made my soul quiver with such ability to see things more clearly, I could not understand why everyone wasn’t rushing to devour more poetry and make it a main course of their reading diets. I understood why all the holiest books of this world are all in verse. I love the way Clint Smith uses lower case letters in titles and lines, and how he takes a perspective of what was said by many voices to a black boy. He writes prose poetry beautifully, too. Here is a poet who will take a reader of other genres and make them a reader who craves more poetry.

You can read about Clint Smith here. He won the 2014 National Slam Championship, and if I were picking a poet to have lunch with, I’d want my table with Clint Smith.

Invisible

You are invisible until

long after the song has stopped

until there’s nothing left inside

those stained glass shadows

maybe the poem is a cry for help

Taken from: Ode to the only black kid in the class; When Maze and Franie Beverly Come on in my House; what the fire hydrant said to the black boy; what the cathedral said to the black boy; Queries of Unrest.

The first ten poets, in order from bottom to top
A sneak peek of the poets I’m reading the next ten days

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Celebrating Living Poets: Nicole Stellon O’Donnell

It’s Day 5 of the Slice of Life Challenge at Twowritingteachers.org, and as I move through the month of March celebrating living poets, I think back to the summer that Penny Kittle invited readers to engage with You are No Longer in Trouble during the Book Love Summer Reading Club. I was mesmerized by the prose poems that Nicole Stellon O’Donnell wrote as she told of her life growing up a Principal’s kid and later becoming a teacher herself. This book is a treasure, and one in which I believe we can all see ourselves at some point of our lives. For me, it’s the poem Marriage, about second graders getting married in “a rash of weddings” at recess with flowers pressed into aluminum foil bouquets. Sheer treasure!

Nicole Stellon O’Donnell of Alaska is a master of prose poems! You can read more about her at this link.

I’ve used this collection to write a Cento by taking lines of her existing poetry and rearranging them into a new poem.

Tips for Not Sagging

Even the waitress at the post-funeral reception noticed

nothing about me sags.

Bag sagging between her hands,

it’s in the steps, in the motion of go, in the bent knees, the swing of an arm.

Never forget that.

Taken from these poems, in this order: Excuses for the Pilgrimage; A Teacher Playing a Movie Star Playing a Teacher; At Least Name What it Is; No One Takes Attendance at Commencement; What Not to Say to Your Students at the Juvenile Detention Center.

This month’s first ten days of Living Poets: A Sneak Peek of what is to come

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Celebrating Living Poets: Amy Nemecek

The third day of the 19th Annual Slice of Life Challenge is well underway at Two Writing Teachers’ website, and I invite you to visit and read the posts shared by writers across the globe, who give us a glimpse into their daily lives. This month, I’m featuring a living poet each day and creating a Cento poem from the poems in their collections. You can read more about Cento poetry here.

A few years ago, Fran Haley of North Carolina (blog: Lit Bits and Pieces) sent me a copy of The Language of the Birds by Amy Nemecek one spring when we were both participating in The Great Backyard Bird Count. I’m thanking Fran for this gift of poetry, and I’m celebrating Amy Nemecek today!

Amy Nemecek is a violinist and poet who lives in Michigan, and you can read more about her on this link that features a few other poets as well (scroll down on the post to read about Amy). Here is an additional link about Amy.

Choosing Tunes

Just when I think it’s over

I feed the jukebox quarters

As you slow dance around me

Lulled by the rhythm of pewter waves

I join you in its convex solitude

reminding you, reminding myself

our imperfect submission affords no rest.

My Cento lines are taken from these poems, in order: Larch Song; Acedia; Light Fantastic; Back to School; Companion; Beloved; and Vigil.

A sneak peek of the living poets featured the first ten days of March

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Celebrating Living Poets: Sophie Diener

This month’s Slices of Life are dedicated to the love of poetry. Each day of March, I’ll be celebrating a living poet by creating a Cento poem from the lines of their poetry, along with links to more information about each poet as three of my writing circles intersect this month: The Slice of Life Challenge with Two Writing Teachers, Open Write with EthicalELA, and The Stafford Challenge.

I’m kicking off the celebration with Sophie Diener, who wrote Someone Somewhere Maybe. She’s a poet who teaches and resides in Ohio, and she started writing in journals from the age of five or six. She’s the friend so many of us would have had in grade school and kept for life. She keeps a strong social media presence on Tik Tok and Instagram. You can follow her on Instagram: @sophiediener and on Tiktok: @sophiediener.

You can read more by and about Sophie here and here.

Cento poems feature lines of existing poetry that are put together in new ways to create a whole new poem, a lot like a quilt. Or Frankenstein. Or one of those photography montages where all the photos are put together to look like Abraham Lincoln or something. As I create a Cento from each collection of poetry this month, I’ll add the titles of each poem in line order beneath the poem. If you’ve never written a Cento, you may wish to challenge yourself to try this form this month and see how fun it is to write! Here is a Cento I’ve created from several of the poems in Sophie Diener’s book Someone Somewhere Maybe:

Becoming

Things take time to fall into place

in this precious part of your life.

There are parts of you that fade with time

But oh, how beautiful.

Recognize how far you’ve come.

Lines taken from these poems, in this order: Have Hope; Don’t be a Stranger; Blue; A Heart with Legs; You are Safe.

First Ten Days of Living Poets
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Poetic Valentines…and a SOLC Plan

First, huge thanks and a hug. Second, I’m sharing my plan for March slicing.

I was sitting with my schnoodle Boo Radley in my favorite chair in the living room when the text notification came on Valentine’s Day. My friend, fellow Slice of Life blogger, travel advice guru, fellow Schnoodle Mom, and Stafford Challenge small group buddy Glenda Funk of Idaho sent a Valentine full of smiles and hugs to our writing group that meets the first of each month to catch up and write! One of the greatest blessings of a writing community is finding common interests among those with whom we share some of our deepest feelings and so much of our day-to-day lives. A huge thanks to Glenda today, to all the writers here at Slice of Life, and others in writing group crossroads for making life more friendly and for helping me find the smiles in unexpected places.

Valentine’s Day hugs

arrive from across the miles

arms wide as friendship!

A plan has been brewing. It’s been in my bones, and it has finally taken root. I find that if I have a plan for the Slice of Life Challenge, I’m more successful at completing the challenge ~ and not just finishing it, but actually enjoying it the same way some marathon runners are actually smiling when they cross the finish line.

My Plan

Living poets are near and dear to my heart. I want to not only read and celebrate them, but also have an opportunity to share their work. That will be my own personal March Slice of Life Challenge plan. Each day, I’ll feature a collection of poems by a living poet, and I’ll compose a short Cento poem each day from that collection. Cento poems are some of my favorites – they’re a form of found poetry where lines of existing poems are arranged to create new poems. I’m still curating my featured list, but I wanted to share this idea in case there is anyone reading who is struggling with an idea and needs a place to start. Perhaps there are seeds in this idea. Some of my favorite reading is about books and how they have changed lives – poetry collections included.

I’ll see you at the starting line on Sunday, ready for the journey!

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A Sunday Well-Spent and a Poetry Invitation – Slice of Life Challenge Day 12, Stafford Challenge Day 56

Special thanks to Two Writing Teachers for inspiring writers!

Sunday was a day well-spent! We watched my dad preach in my childhood church via YouTube, and I texted my brother and his fiancee to check on them as they travel to New Orleans for the week. We had breakfast with our schnoodles by the fire, and then I painted 18 canvases to dress the Chamber of Commerce windows for National Poetry Month. Finally, we had a wonderful Zoom gathering arranged by Lainie Levin to meet other slicers face to face and enjoy conversation.

Part of my role in my school system is to oversee the L4GA Literacy grant, which offers funding for literacy events in the community. National Poetry Month is a fabulous time to plan some Open Mic nights, author poetry readings, and writing workshops. Last year, we created a progressive poetry walk around our town square, featuring a local poet’s poem he’d written about our rural town to the theme of Bloom!

For this year’s theme, Awakenings (our local Arts Council chose this year’s theme), we’re switching from a progressive poetry walk to a window dressing, thanks to our sensational Chamber of Commerce team, who has agreed to allow us to decorate the windows as a town square feature this year. These canvases will have poetry written on them in black letters.

If you are looking for a slice topic sometime this week and enjoy writing poetry, I would love to have some short poems (4-6 lines) on the theme of Awakenings. I’m curating a collection of poems on this theme by living poets to feature in our window. Some will be local poets who share readings in our coffee shop, while others will be from right here in the Slice of Life or another writing group….maybe you! I’ll change them out from week to week, so if yours is featured, I’ll share a photo of your poem on display sometime at the end of May on a Tuesday slicing day. You can add your poem in the comments on any day of my blog throughout March.

I’m sharing our palette color scheme below. 

Poetry Invitation Elfchen 

painting
bright canvases
National Poetry Month
local business window dressings
~ awakenings ~