Verse 26: Day 26: Minnewaska

Today's Verse Love Host, Clayton (Boxer) Moon, asks us to consider home. It’s where we’re from, where we belong. He asks us to show this favorite place and then, use line breaks and to create a poem. After a nomadic life, I did live in a home on top of a mountain where my children grew up and there were happy times; yet, the when I go back there now, painful memories overpower any sense of home. 

Yet, there is a place of sanctuary where I have always felt secure and as if I belong. As I look back now, I am not sure how I braved those hikes with little children and their their mountain bikes, but we talked about the very real dangers that come with very magical memories. Perhaps I really do have my roots in Minnewaska, now a state park in NY.

That first hairpin turn out of New Paltz 

A clue of the breathtaking wonder ahead,

The road weaves, clouds envelope you,

Before you set foot or brave mountain

Bikes towards High Peters Kill 

In search of Castle Point, slowing for

Deer, strange tracks, left over ice, 

Dangling markers, higher and higher, 

Switchback where rocks dangle, respecting

That view stretching to the skies where

Prayers are a hop, skip, jump away.

Before descending, respectfully, 

Searching for Awosting Falls in the

Distance before skinny dipping, perhaps,

In frigid Lake Awosting or head to

Gertrude's Nose or Millbrook Mountain

Breathing deeply, making memories, 

Respecting the power of that glacier 

To leave a path to heaven. 

Verse Love 26: Day 25 A Mow Without A Blow!

 Today's Verse Love Host, Ashey Valencia-PateI, invites us to write about a topic you feel you need to speak about. Slam poems often include a performance piece so focus on rich language, emotions, mood and a call to action. My mind was literally exploding with topics I feel very strongly about including the widespread deceptions and blatant lies we are supposed to accept as normal I could also write about the  need to include not just phonics but also to embrace writing time in our elementary classrooms or my concern that fresh fruits and vegetables will soon be the privy of only the upper class. Perhaps it is because they are disturbing the peace even as it rains this afternoon, but I am writing about the incredibly annoying scourge of suburbia in America that has evaded quieter electric versions as well as my hope to return to yards with a more natural, whatever that might be, feel.

They emerge from their burrows, like bears,

On the first of spring, when the earth is still resting

Birds are beginning to plan returns, windows still shut,

To blow everything, spring clean-up they bellow

With 100 decibels of ear-shattering noise blasting 

Sounds of spring, they sing, assured each and every

Week, even when the dry earth screams for water, they will

Return and blow, everything, weekly maintenance they

Bellow through open and shut tight windows 

A noise that can spread like wildfires to 90 homes causing

Permanent hearing loss, while stirring up asthma triggers

Mold, dust, as well as causing serious air pollution with 

Benzene, formaldehyde, with the additional blow of a 

Surcharge for higher gas prices for a suburban standard

Clean, manicured, lawn at any price they bellow even when

I asked about a mow without a blow, this season!

Verse Love 26: Day 24: Lost

Today's Verse Love Host, Scott McCloskey, asks us to think about things that you’ve “lost,”  like that daylight savings time hour that is not saved in spite of our requests! It many be comic or serious or seriocomic or anything “under the sun.”  I have my share of comedic losses like the key chain that did not make it back into my bag from an airport and yet did make it back a year later and all I can think is they somehow searched my library card number, but I will never know!  I'll save that for another time as this poem on loss is April's forever story. 

The usual greeting was met with the tears lurking

Millimeters from the surface as "should be 26," and 

"I don't know why I am so sad" burbled and 

Long repressed miscarriages, moves, hopes, 

Fueled grief, decades old, in one listening

Whose lost child "was just 19," causing her

Eyes to well with the tears of understanding while

I remembered the searing pain of telling my 

Parents of a loss that surpassed pain, as well as

The life-changing call about a beloved grandchild, 

That early morning message about an adored niece, 

That tainted the twinkling tree light, and

That sunny morning destroyed by learning of

Her treasured child, still finding his way are

Moments where you remember nothing but

Their deflected pain that may eased, perhaps, 

If only a wee bit, in remembering.

Verse Love 26 Day 23 Consider Peaceful Coexistence

Today's Verse Love Host, Denise Krebs, asks us to choose a poem and write the first word of each line in a column down the side of your page. Then, write a free verse poem letting the other poet’s words carry you. I am choosing words from a poem I found inspiring in the April 2026 Poetry, won't you celebrate with me, by Lucille Clifton. I am writing my poem as a sort of sequel to Denise's brave and inspiring poem this morning, The Day After We Bombed Iran.

it's time to consider peaceful coexistence

won't you pen a missive, buzz an official, badger a congressperson
what about taking on this cause using your skills, gifts towards
a world where peaceful coexistence is considered a goal? where we are not

born and bred to fight first and settle when

both sides run out of ammunition, or when 

what seemed like a good idea no longer fits,

i will accept strength as deterrent for enemies and disease, yet

here, now, we could end entire civilizations as clearly as 

starshine could provide guidance for enemies to do the same.

my hope rests in our diverse people, brave new leaders, spokespeople,

with history, science, three equal branches of government framing

something based on realities rather than blusters and deceptions

and nurtured, slowly, back to peaceful coexistence in a diverse world. 

Verse Love 26 Day 22 Earth Day

Today's Host at Verse Love is Margaret Simon whose poems about nature have long started my days. She asks us to choose an animal you would like to write about. Find a sample of their sound and write a poem that uses onomatopoeia in a creative way.

It was a dark and dreary morning, but I snuck outside for a bit of springtime and coffee on the porch anyway. I was mesmerized by the questions posed by my Great Horned Owl as if he knew this was Earth Day!

Whoo, whoo?

Is caring for these magnificent old trees I love?

Is watching what landscapers put on the lawns?

Whoo, whoo?

Really needs those massive SUVs and pick-ups to get to work?

Really must water their lawns when it is going to rain?

Whoo, whoo?

Ran left that light on all night long wasting electricity?

Ran their car for 5 minutes before driving off to work?

Whoo, whoo?

Was riding that new electric bike to school yesterday?

Was looking for drought and deer resistant plantings?

Whoo, whoo?

Remembers the potential of wind power to save our planet?

Remembers the value of mass transit, electric vehicles, composting?

Whoo, whoo? 

Is thinking about the future of our planet on this Earth Day?

Verse Love 26: Day 21: Deny

Today's Verse Love Host, Sharon Roy, is rereading War and Peace and writing a haiku for every chapter. This is incredible and I really look forward to her finished, published work. Today, she is asking us to take a favorite/valued text or image and rewrite it in a haiku. I have recently read incredible, motivating books like Theo of Golden and others that leave me shaking my head with questions and contradictions, like Hillbilly Elegy. 

“I don't know what the answer is, precisely, but I know it starts when we stop blaming Obama or Bush or faceless companies and ask ourselves what we can do to make things better.” J.D Vance (James Bowman)

You made it to the

Inner circle access where 

Every decision

Could be questioned, why?

Yet you sell out beliefs for 

Power, prestige, wealth?

You question those who

Talk of peace, making a world

Safer, better, more peaceful.

Deny roots, the gift

Education, prejudice, 

Hopelessness, create 

Incongruity

Abandonment, falsehoods,

Inconsistency

Why can't we learn that 

People will lie, deceive for

Moments of glory?

SOL26 April 21 Wacky Weather

I am writing with Two Writing Teachers Slice of Life Community.  I do this every week as a reminder to remember the small moments of this life.  My landscaper is coming today and he says he can plant as long as it is above freezing? This is his only day to plant in my area until June. So, yesterday,

Wearing winter wear, I wandered

Around agreeable arborvitae,

Jumped over just-right junipers, 

Hitched-close to handsome hydrangea, 

Stood next to superb spirea

Wondered if they 

Would be worth wrecking my back, 

Would weather wayward watering,

Would welcome weary ones,

After wacky weather?

 

Verse Love 26: Day 20: Research in Context

Today's Verse Love Host, Corinne is focused on the ways research is "voiced" in schools. I was absolutely thrilled to read this invitation to think and write about a topic, near and dear to my heart. I am an advocate for best practices grounded in research and have been concerned about a reduced focus on writing in elementary schools. I am using recent research from Gary Troia, Michigan State, who considered how teachers varied in teaching writing practices and comparing his findings to my practice in this community.

Whole-class instruction, individual practice (93%); small groups used very infrequently. 

Who comments on their ideas?

How do they talk about and get ideas?

When is there time to share in a small, trusted group? 

Where do struggling readers get their scaffolded support?

Focus on planning, drafting; teachers avoid conventions where they feel less competence. 

                    How do they learn to make their own work better?

                    Who holds them responsible for spelling, grammar?

                    Are we expecting spell check to be everyone’s editor?

Teachers with higher writing skills gave less consistent writing instruction.

    This does not make sense to me!

    Do they expect too much ?

    Do they need reminders to scaffold, support?

    Do the teachers write every day?

    Can we make them join this group?

            This may just be a reminder that taking research

            Out of context yields squirrelly answers!

Verse Love 26: Day 19 Thank Your Wardle

Today's Verse Love Host, Stefani Boutelier, like one of my own former students, is focused on the power of games and games in education. Today we are asked to write about games (board games, puzzles, role-playing games, game shows, sporting events, riddles, etc.) and encouraged to consider a Wordle-inspired poem or a double nonet (1-9+9-1) or a new for me 4X4 similar to Connections with four words, four syllables, up to four stanzas, or just four lines. 

Below is my Wordle Gift. a thank you for a game I started as week two of the Pandemic began. This poem, full of numbers, is a 4x4 with 4 stanzas, with 4 lines because most of the time, I solve my puzzle in 4!

On day seven,

Hesitantly,

Solved my very first

Game in four tries

In six around

The sun, perhaps

Three not solved in

Five or less, once

One, never two,

Once late and she

Called to check if

Alive, forgot?

We compare our

Scores, frustrations,

Thank you Wardle

Daily, Wordle!

Ethical ELA 26: Day 18 Possible

 Today's Ethical ELA Host, Angie Braaten, asks us to consider a wonderful format, the golden hinge where the first line of your text becomes the first word in each successive line.  As I was swimming this morning, my mind wandered to worries and even hopelessness. I kept swimming thinking of this Audrey Hepburn's message: Nothing is impossible, the word itself says I'm possible.

THIS as a crazy imaginary conversation between the leader of the free world and me! 

Nothing is impossible, the word itself says I'm possible. 

Is it really possible for this hate and anger to dissipate and to live in peace? I ask

Impossible for us to lose as we are most powerful and on the side of good and right! He says

The devastation is impacting not just us but people around the globe! I say

Word from the ground says it will be over very, very soon. Maybe a week or less! He yells

Itself, just a blip in the world's history so far, we're making long-term enemies everywhere! I say

Says who? Everyone loves what we are doing!  We are saving the world from terrorism! He promises

I'm really afraid we encouraging others to  not trust us! I say

Possible ways out of this mess, I mean situation, are on my mind, too, he sighs checking is 401K