candy shop poems in my traveling poetry class in early may 2017.

in early may, we had a smaller traveling poetry class than usual but still enjoyed our afternoon plenty because, well, it involved a candy shop. we sat in the red-painted chairs at the front of the peppermint stick candy store in boyertown. my niece, lillee grace hetrick, joined us and tested out reading some poems which we had with us. she also tested out salted black licorice from holland. you can see her squirming-faced reaction to it below. it is not necessarily palatable to everyone, many of us know. but there are people out there who love it, i'm sure, or at least like it a bit, including one of my students who purchased some to take home.

lillee grace also assisted with a good amount of the photography, as i am one to use savoring-heart moments to encourage my youngest nieces to see their own abilities with what a good camera can do when a slyly curious mind is behind its lens.

and we did read a non-candy shop poem, one by marilyn klimcho of berks bards, for my community poetry feature. it just seemed very worth sharing, and thankfully, she gave us permission to let everyone have a copy to read in the summer talk of flower-thinking.

celebrating national poetry month at brookeside montessori in bechtelsville, berks county.

in april, i visited several classrooms at brookeside montessori in bechtelsville, berks county, to teach animal poems for national poetry month. 

working from my animal poems to help students remember their own stories worth shaping into original poems, some creatures in the kids' writings were foxes, birds, dogs, butterflies, and even water-loving whales.

you can eye-peruse photography of me with the students on the school's website here.

below is a collaborative preschool poem about worms. all of the preschoolers signed it. i wish the colored pencil pressings had scanned a bit better. but this multi-author poem became one of the most fun pieces of of writing of the morning. 

and then there are some more scenes of other freshly crafted poems by students. their enthusiasm to share stories from their minds kept plenty of zeal moving in celebrating what we know and combining it with poetry and matching drawings, too.

hair haiku.

( hair haiku in early may, mid-earthing )

pennies in strand-form

sprawl across cut-edged green blades,

take in sun and sky

*

horse haiku.

this morning, i interviewed a woman named betty seifrit about her job at boyertown auto body works for my poetry project on manufacturing history of berks county. her eventual poem will be a in my third and final book in my volumes which are funded in part by grants from the pennsylvania council on the arts and berks arts council. betty built left-hand side doors of army trucks and later did electrical work with wires and bulbs for trolleys, mail trucks, and other kinds of vehicles.

while interviewing betty, i noticed she had horses in the backyard. she said we could go visit them, and of course, i brought my camera along for that. she has a newly born colt. its momma is eight-years-old. i wrote a haiku for them, grateful for their beautiful contribution in my day. you might smile and let out a light laugh when you find out the baby horse's name.

*

john wayne the colt stands

with his momma, his bones new

to red corner road