Welcome to the Blog World!

This week I am facilitating and learning side by side with a group of teachers at the Northwest Inland Writing Project. Each participant today decided to start a blog as a form to show thinking, share writing, and provide a way for the rest of us to experience their words plus add comments. As we listened to class members share original poetry today it was a treat to return later and read the words again on a blog. My new blog can be found here.

I have loved blogging for a few years now, but this way of communicating with other teachers and learners is exciting. I am sharing a poem I composed a year ago.

Filling the Vase

Writing is wandering through the

garden path harvesting morning flowers.

Gathering leaves, finding fillers,

snipping blossoms as they begin to open.

Pausing to reflect and even observe

while paying attention to the smells.

Gold, chartreuse, and deep red become the wondrous words,

thorny stems phrases which cut too deep.

The combination of textures sort the sentence variety

overpowered by the sweet scent of similes.

The violet vase is the vessel of form

Aligning the sentences, arranging the words,

Taming texture with attention to audience.

Place the bouquet on the farmhouse table,

or away for a spell to let the contents settle.

June 24, 2008