Poetry
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A little over a week ago, a dead branch I was cutting knocked me off my extension ladder, causing me to fall seventeen feet to the lawn below. By the grace of God, I broke nothing. Once I got my breath back, I reset the ladder, climbed back up, and finished the cut. I even…
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Before June completely escapes me, let me share one of the many things rumbling about my brain over the past few weeks. I know that as a teacher, summer is supposed to start once school lets out in early June (at least here in Western Pennsylvania). But June brims over with national speech and debate…
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I have been waiting all year to post this one! Although I wrote this poem three years ago, I’ve had it lingering in the digital wings for a variety of reasons. I had big dreams of this being published elsewhere, in some “reputable magazine,” but a few rejection letters later, and I’ve put that thought…
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Two years ago, one of the art teachers where I work approached me about getting a group of students together on Fridays during lunch for a bit of creative synergy we affectionately dubbed Figure Drawing and Freewrite Fridays. Students came after lunch (or during, in some cases) and sketched charcoal drawings of student or teacher…
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Finally! Of all the color poems I’ve written for this series, violet was the most challenging. Admittedly, part of the issue was simply a matter of time. As I’m sure you’ve realized, there never seems to be enough of it! If only Jim Croce could have put time in a bottle… Writer’s block, or that…
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It’s another one of those life seasons. Little time to be creative as I wrap up another school year. I’m working on my violet poem in any spare moments I can carve out of the day, but I must admit disc golf and time building dams in the creek with my younger boys has been…
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Blue or Purple? That is the question. When I sat down to write my poem inspired by indigo, I didn’t know where to start. Looking at a rainbow, can you clearly pull out the color indigo like you can red or green? I can’t even go to a Crayola crayon box to find the color…
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Of all the colors of the rainbow, I fight with blue the most. Ironically, my closet is filled with dress shirts of various shades of blue, and it’s not even my favorite color! (For the record, I do have shirts of other colors, and my favorite color is actually orange.) We associate so many things…
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This poem, posted back on May 3rd by Rev. James E. Laurence, resonated with the deepest places of my soul. Since then, I’ve been returning to it regularly, sharing with friends and loved ones who need the rich encouragement it offers, especially those who have faced difficulty or recently suffered loss. Take up the invitation…
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Green began when I looked out my back windows and saw the new grass pushing up through the straw we laid down in the late fall after our addition was completed: fresh life sprouting on the new contour of our backyard. I then began meditating on the “evergreen” nature of the color – constant through…
the deepening ground 