Thank you, Linda

Hi everyone,

I had lunch yesterday with a dear friend, LINDA BENSON, a professor emeritus from Missouri State University English Department and always a great companion for a lively, wide-ranging conversation. Among out topics yesterday over burgers and drinks was the Ken Burns documentary in two parts about Mark Twain that Sandy and I watched this week.

Samuel Langhorne Clemens (1835-1910) lies in his bed and writes. (Photo by © CORBIS/Corbis via Getty Images)

We got to talking about how Clemens drew material from his youth as inspiration for his work. We agreed that mining material from childhood comes more naturally to some than to others, and that reminded me of something I sometimes do with students during school visits. It’s the think about it, talk about it, write about it process. Some writers can skip the middle step and go from remembering something to writing about it, but the point of the exercise is that it is easier to write about something once it becomes clearly pictured in the mind. Recalling something that may have happened long ago doesn’t necessarily spring to life all in one piece. That’s why it helps to talk about it, maybe tell it to someone. What first may center on sitting before a bonfire will develop into a fuller picture: the smell of the wood, spiraling smoke, surrounding forest, glimpse of water, boat tied to the dock, mosquitoes, strange noise in the dark, favorite good-luck shirt, marshmallows on a stick, and so on.

For me, by the time I start writing, the memory is clear in my mind. I’m looking at and experiencing what I’m describing. I’ve read some wonderful pieces by kids in school after they thought about and talked about a special memory. Naturally, this technique is not limited to writing about memories. Good writers can see what they are feeling and describing. Sometimes it takes longer to put down that first word than it does to prepare for it in our minds.

Constance Levy featured on Poetry from Daily Life

Hi everyone,

I’m delighted to feature CONSTANCE (CONNIE) LEVY this week in Poetry from Daily Life. Here’s the link to her guest column. https://www.news-leader.com/story/entertainment/2025/02/02/poetry-from-daily-life-dont-talk-just-do-poems/78035177007/

Connie has never gone after volume. She waits until she has something she wants to say and then says it well. One of my favorite of her poems is about a seagull at the beach, checking out a sandwich, planning how to swipe it from its unsuspecting owner. One year I wrote an article for Missouri Reader and Connie provided a poem and brief piece about her writing. I loved it.

Connie has won numerous awards for her work. She brings to it her experiences as a teacher, parent, lecturer, writer, poet, and lifelong observer. I hope you will share her column with others. During the course of this week the column will appear in half a dozen papers in three states, starting with our host paper, Springfield News-Leader. More than 100,000 readers will have access to her thoughts. I’d like to double that.

The Missouri Reader

Hi everyone,

Yesterday I received a reminder that the Winter issue of The Missouri Reader is out and has been for a while. This is a juried journal published by Missouri Literacy Association, an affiliate of International Literacy Association. The Reader describes itself this way:

The Missouri Reader is the MLA's scholarly journal.

It is published quarterly as a resource for our members.

The articles are written by nationally recognized authors, literacy researchers and instructional leaders as well as by local literacy researchers, veteran classroom teachers, beginning classroom teachers and graduate students.

The Winter issue contains a number of articles about poetry in the classroom as well as a podcast interview by SAM BOMMARITO of GEORGIA HEARD and me on the subject of poetry.https://viewer.joomag.com/winter-2024-edition/0050255001732049566/p38?short=

It also includes a link to the 2019 Winter issue, which was dedicated entirely to poetry. That issue set the all-time record for number of readers. The Spring issue of The Missouri Reader will also feature a lot about poetry and I see that it is being dedicated in my honor as state poet laureate. I am very grateful to Sam, his co-editor for many years, GLENDA NUGENT, and all others who have made room for poetry on the pages of this dynamic journal.

Is my blog worth your time?

Hi everyone,

I started posting on my blog in October, 2009, nearly 15 1/2 years ago. I had no idea at the time what a blog was or how to run one. KATHY TEMEAN, designer of my website, urged me to add a blog and Kathy can be persuasive. As I was puzzling over content and approach, here’s a list I sent her of some activities I might want to try and questions I thought should be responded to in one way or another.

LIST OF BLOG ACTIVITIES
Questions asked by kids
1	What inspires you to write a poem?
2	What advice do you have for kids to write poems?
3	How long does it take to write a poem?
4	How long does it take to write a book?
5	How long does it take to get a book published?
6	Who draws the pictures?
7	Do you choose the artist?
8	How many books have you had published?
9	Is it hard to be a writer?
10	What do you like about being a writer?
11	What is your favorite book of yours?
12	What is your favorite author?
13	What is your best selling book?
14	How old were you when you wrote your first book?
15	Where do you get your ideas?
16	Why did you become a writer?
17	Was it hard to get to be an author?
18	Do you still get rejected?
19	Does anyone else in your family write?
20	Why do you write about animals?
21	Are all of your books fiction?
22	What is your favorite genre to write?
23	Have you ever done a chapter book?
24	Have you won any awards?
Establish a word of the month to inspire poems
Talk about finding ideas
Talk about starting stories
Talk about picture books
Establish guests on my blog: poets, authors, editors, agents, etc.

For those of you who have followed the blog for a while, I leave it to you to decide if my original thinking has remained evident in my posts. I know I’ve written often about where I live and the ideas that come from observation of place. I spot a number of items on the q/a list that have received attention. I got the Word of the Month Challenge up and running soon after I made the list. But I’ve also talked about myself more than I had imagined, my books, occasional recognitions, places where I speak, etc. I worry a lot about the me-me-me aspect. It’s my blog and it’s supposed to be about the life of a writer, but too much of that sort of thing becomes tedious and self serving.

I’m glad I found this old list. This is a good time to evaluate what I present on the blog. Since 2009 I’ve posted almost 4,800 times and have averaged about one hour per post. That’s a lot of my time, and yours to read what I choose to say, and I don’t want to waste time for any of us. I’m going to give this some serious thought and I welcome your comments and suggestions while I do. Thank you very much.