A weekend away is made evermore potent if palm trees are involved.
Don't you think?

Haiku 6

Palm tree as symbol:
Nothing that I have to do
except write haiku

To me, hiking is the ultimate in multi-tasking:
Take in fresh air? Check.
Get exercise? Check.
Absorb beauty? Roger that.
Mediate? Ooom.
Commune with companions? Yep.
And on and on.
I love how it both grounds me and sets me free.
Today was no exception.

Haiku 5

Saguaro reaching
for the available sky.
No need for deep roots.

This morning I flew to Phoenix for a little work and a little pleasure.
It was dark when I left Austin and brightening when the high desert came into view.
To me, there is nothing like an airplane ride (even an airplane ride in a cramped regional jet after a long slog through security) to give a gal a fresh perspective.

Haiku 4

Sunrise over wing
World wakes up to day down there
Clear from way up here

We wait and wait and wait for rain around here.
Last night, it came.

Haiku 3

The dry creekbed floods —
one rain changes everything!
A surprised dog swims.

I traveled by bus to Houston today with my daughter and her entire 6th grade.
It was a long and noisy trip, but also a heavy one — we were visiting the Holocaust Museum there.
The students were amazing in the museum — quiet, wide-open, receptive, empathic.
It was a lot to take in, even for the adults in the group, and they did so beautifully.

So, at the end of the day when morning rain had cleared and the doors swung open, it was no wonder that the kids exploded into a nearby park like a flock of birds. It was a sweet and beautiful thing…

Haiku 2

Hundreds of students
School's out and the rain's stopped
Here's spring's candy cane!

It's been a good long while since I've posted here,
but I'm so excited to share that my newest picture book releases today!

THINK BIG, illustrated by the vivid and imaginative Vanessa Brantley Newton,
is a celebration of all things art. And when I say all things I mean all things.

(Including cooking? Yep.
Knitting? Yep.
Photography? Yep.
Pottery, writing, drawing, song? Yep yep yep yep.)

If you want to know more about the how's and why's of that, here's a guest post I did at Cynsations today, thanks to the graciousness of author extraordinaire Cynthia Leitich Smith!

(And you should definitely pop over there if you'd like a copy of THINK BIG because there's a giveway!!! Wahoo!)

And if you'd like to know what the kind folks at Kirkus think of the book, you can have a look here. (That mention of Glee is, surely, the closest I'll ever get to having a TV show of my own so yay for that!)

But, blah blah blah and linkety link.
What I REALLY want to say is this.
It is summer. There are kids on vacation all over, at least, the northern hemisphere.
And there is a lot of competition for their attention.
Video games, blockbuster matinees, swimming and sleeping in and reading for pleasure.
There are also just an endless array of fun, creative, self-inspired artistic opportunities at their fingertips.

Maybe they'll make a pinata! 
Or learn how to finger-knit!
Or write and direct and perform a play (like the truly renown Mystery at Palm Hotel I did with my cousins about 35 years ago).

Whatever it is, I hope you'll let them make a mess, make some noise and THINK BIG!!!

Well, it's been awhile since my beloved Poetry Sisters and I
have banded together to make merry.
Life, as you know, interferes. 
But as we chatted during National Poetry Month,
we thought of an easy way to rectify that:
haiku!

We worked together on a renku — a string of haiku and 2-lined stanzas — linked seasonally and semantically.
Andromeda debuted it on her blog this morning and I'm going to share it here, too:

The Poetry Sisters' Daisy Chain

fall leaf in April
wearing last season's fashions–
shunned by the green crowd                           lps

nature’s first green is gold
progeny emerge in flame                                aj    

white melts into green
gardens blush Crayola proud  
blooming shades of spring                              tsh

strolling down the pebble path
rose-cheeked dreamer lost in thought            aj

palest pink dogwood
April breezes whisper by
petals flutter down                                          kf

ink dries on palest pages
garden rows plow down sillion                       aj

Brash green garter snake
Hoe laid beside June daisies
Book and tart limeade                                   sh

serpent jewel, puckered words,
work abandoned, glory claimed                    aj

afternoon drifts by                                       
wispy clouds, half-closed eyelids
distant playground sounds                              lps

cloud congestion, dully pewter
petrichor from distant patters                       td

tapped on leaden skies                                td
rain’s persistent percussion
arrhythmic ad lib    

a morse-code chicken scratch                     lgs
a fresh start too hard to resist

the rain leaves its mark —                             lgs
such an inscrutable plot
begs to be re-read

red again so soon and down
persimmon fingers shiver                             aj

(Much love and credit to Laura Purdie Salas, Andromeda Jazmon, Tricia Stohr-Hunt, Kelly Fineman, Sara Lewis Holmes and Laura Purdie Salas…)

Visit Wild Rose Reader for Poetry Friday today. 

On Friday, I left home at 5:00 a.m., drove to Houston,
did a full day's school visit and drove home again. 
It was not the most haiku-ish day, if you know what I mean. 
Which is why my piece for that day is about … coffee.

Haiku 27
4/27/2012

First sip burns bitter
and still I take another.
Black sky grows milky.

And then it was the weekend.
I just love weekends.
And spring break.
And summer break.
I would rather have my kids knocking around here a bit than rushing off every morning like the world's a'fire.

Haiku 28
4/28/2012

A bare foot dangles,
feather duvets swell, settle.
Who says it's morning?

Haiku 29
4/29/2012

girl with basketball
dad with good time on his hands
unbeatable team

And today?
Today is Monday, in case you hadn't heard….

Haiku 30
4/30/2012

like swimming cross-wise
each stroke long, effortful
until I give in

Haiku 26
4/26/2012

Each turn of the wheel
spokes fly and land, fly and land.
Am I bird or boot?