National Poetry Month

April is National Poetry Month and it's just around the corner! My good blogger friend, Greg Pincus, over at Gotta Book, has put together a wonderful schedule of events to celebrate this annual event and month-long celebration.

In his own words, here's what he'll be showcasing on his blog throughout the month of April:

I'm incredibly excited to announce the first annual 30 Poets/30 Days, a celebration of children's poetry taking place at GottaBook during National Poetry Month.


Every day in April, I'll be posting a previously unpublished poem by a different poet. Here's the alphabetical list of who's participating:

Arnold Adoff, Jaime Adoff, Rebecca Kai Dotlich, Douglas Florian, Betsy Franco, Kristine O'Connell George, Charles Ghigna, Nikki Giovanni, Joan Bransfield Graham, Nikki Grimes, Mary Ann Hoberman, Lee Bennett Hopkins, X. J. Kennedy, Julie Larios, J. Patrick Lewis, Pat Mora, Kenn Nesbitt, Linda Sue Park, Ann Whitford Paul, Gregory K. Pincus, Jack Prelutsky, Adam Rex, Jon Scieszka, Joyce Sidman, Marilyn Singer, April Halprin Wayland, Janet Wong, and Jane Yolen.

We'll launch on Tuesday, April 1, with former Children's Poet Laureate Jack Prelutsky's “A Little Poem for Poetry Month.” We’ll end April 30th with “Books & Me” by Pat Mora to help celebrate El día de los niños/El día de los libros (Children's Day/Book Day). And every day in between will bring something new. You can follow along here and via @30poets30days on Twitter.

There will also be a lot of other poetry related fun going on in the kidlitosphere during April, including

- at the Miss Rumphius Effect, Tricia has a cool series called Poetry Makers, with a highlight being interviews with 36 (!!!) poets.
- at Poetry For Children, Sylvia Vardell will be reviewing a new children's poetry book every day;
- at the Pencil Talk blog, Anastasia Suen will be collecting school poems written by children throughout April... and posting one each day.
- and of course there's Poetry Friday and much, much more, so look for updates all month long.

I want to thank all the poets for their generosity and enthusiasm, and I particularly want to single out J. Patrick Lewis and Kenn Nesbitt for going above and beyond the call in helping me put this event together. Also, special thanks to my brother Jon and all the folks who’ve given me ideas and support along the way. If there has been any frustration in organizing this event at all, it's only that there are so many other wonderfully talented people writing poetry for kids and it was hard not to invite them all. But that's why I plan to make this an annual celebration.

Word Art

As if I don't have enough addictions, I've just discovered the new word art that you can create over at Wordle. Below is a small thumbnail of my tag cloud from this blog. You can select your own words and randomize the colors, font and shape of the word cloud until you're satisfied.

Created at Wordle.

I was very satisfied with my results and can't wait to create more word art.

Love is All Around You

I have been astonished that men could die martyrs for their religion - I have shudder'd at it. I shudder no more. I could be martyr'd for my religion Love is my religion And I could die for that. I could die for you. ~ John Keats ~

And think not you can Direct the course of love, For love, If it finds you worthy, Directs your course. ~ Gibran Kahlil ~

To get the full value of joy You must have someone to divide it with.
~ Mark Twain ~

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, While loving someone deeply gives you courage. ~ Lao Tzu ~

In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others. ~ Andre Maurois ~

Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. ~ James Baldwin ~

A kiss is a lovely trick designed by nature to stop speech when words become superfluous. ~ Ingrid Bergman ~