Mother’s Day, Part 1

Hi everyone,

Our thanks to ROBIN and TIM for having us over for Mother’s Day dinner last night. Wonderful food and loving company. Before and after the meal, we sat on their porch around their fire pit. Grandson KRIS was there and grandson TYLER with JOSIE came by for a visit. A delightful evening. And next weekend we get to do it again when JEFF will be here to join us.

Link to guest column by Ellen Hopkins

Hi everyone,

I’m pleased to provide the link to this week’s featured guest on Poetry from Daily Life, ELLEN HOPKINS. My thanks to Ellen for provided so much thoughtful and helpful advice on our theme subject. As each week passes, I am enjoying the conversation more and more.

https://www.news-leader.com/story/entertainment/2024/05/11/poetry-from-daily-life-only-you-can-write-a-poem-in-your-voice/73621187007/

We need to add more newspapers so please keep thinking about possibilities and let me know. Thanks to all for your continued support of Poetry from Daily Life and the dozens of immensely talented guests who are appearing in it.

A Tree is a Community

Hi everyone,

Yesterday I learned that the first review of my upcoming book with Holiday House, A Tree is a Community, is a starred review from Kirkus. “Writing in animated free verse that calls urgently to be read aloud…An effervescent appreciation of all that trees do and are.” “And best of all, the poem ends, when spring comes round again, new seeds will drop so that ‘very soon / we will have / a fine new tree. / OH YES!’”

KATE COSGROVE illustrated the book, our third title together, and Kirkus loves her work too. “As small creatures crawl or flit through leafy boughs above in Cosgrove’s bustling, populous illustrations, two brown-skinned children below blow bubbles or peaceably share a rope swing in the cool shade.” Kate is the #1 New York Times bestselling illustrator of A Day With No Words by TIFFANY HAMMOND.

A Tree is a Community will be released on September 17, ten days after Charlesbridge publishes Wild Brunch, illustrated by GILES LAROCHE. Both books are on Amazon and can now be pre-ordered. Come on September!

Ellen Hopkins coming to Poetry from Daily Life

Hi everyone,

It’s my pleasure to tell you that my guest on Poetry from Daily Life this weekend will be ELLEN HOPKINS, who lives in Cape Girardeau, Missouri. Ellen, a writer for more than thirty years, is a poet, former freelance journalist, and the award-winning author of fourteen NY Times bestselling young adult novels-in-verse, two middle grade novels-in-verse, and four novels (two in verse) for adult readers. She has visited every state in the union.

Poetry from Daily Life is carried in five newspapers in Missouri, Kansas, and South Dakota. It’s hosted by Springfield News-Leader where it appear in print each Saturday and online each Sunday. On Sunday, I post the link that takes you directly to the column. As always, I hope you will enjoy the column and share it with others.

My Missouri poem on video

Hi everyone,

The other day someone asked where they could find a copy of my poem, “Missouri,” which I wrote when I became Missouri’s Poet Laureate. It’s in print in the second edition of Bards of Moon City and available at Bookmarx and Waverly House in Springfield as well as on Amazon.

If you would like to hear me read the poem, you can use this link to Tishomingo Arts Council in Mississippi for this year’s Smartphone Recital Series. Click here, https://www.facebook.com/TishCoArts/ , and scroll down a few spots until you get to me. It’s a five-minute recording during which I read “Missouri” and two other poems.