Hello, dear blog friends. It's #TankaTuesday, and I've another poem to share. Writer Colleen Chesebro invites us to write an Ekphrastic poem, using Claude Monet's beautiful painting below. As always, the poems need to be in a syllabic form.

Imagining Spring and with Monet's painting in mind, I've crafted a Butterfly Cinquain with the pattern of 2-4-6-8-2-8-6-4-2. I hope you enjoy it. I also hope signs of Spring are everywhere present in your part of the world. 💚

Hello blog friends, it's #TankaTuesday, and I've another poem to share. 

Writer Colleen Chesebro's prompt for this week is to use synonyms for the words spring and green. She asks that we create a syllabic poem according to the Word Craft guidelines. My response is a tanka, 5-7-5-7-7 syllables. I hope you enjoy it, and also hope you'll share your spring poem. 

Have a wonderful week and stay warm, laugh much. ❤️

Hello blog friends. 

Of recent I've thought about how writing changes us - the word-crafting, the research, the humbling process of marketing. I hope you'll walk with me as I try to explain. 
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If we look back through the years, I suspect we'll all discover a naiver version of ourselves. We've grown because we've dared to share our imaginations and aspirations. 

Some, like my sons, climb mountains. Others embark on a pilgrimage. My friend hikes the Camino de Santiago, and he's on his sixth journey now. Whatever our path, life draws us forward. It is for this reason, that I read with a sense of awe for all the hours upon hours writers put into their books. 

I'm much behind on my Kindle, but I've committed to dive deep and lighten its weight. Presently, I'm focused on the Wake Robin Ridge series. Marcia Meara is a gifted writer, and I'm entranced by her stories. 

I'm also reading a nonfiction book -- Secrets of the Light. Brinkley writes of his realizations after three Near Death Experiences. Though most of us have not had a NDE, there's a good chance we've come close. Many of us have touched mystery through our personal struggles and wondered why. Why me? Why now? Why … ?

Doesn't that question, why, in all its various forms, drive many of us to write? Reading Meara's series, I'm mindful of her characters' questions and answers, and as I read, I discover my own. Do you have a similar experience? 

Have a wonderful week, my friends. I hope to focus on your books soon, if I haven't already done so. Happy reading and writing! ❤️

Hello blog friends,

I'm hosting a Goodreads book giveaway for my award-winning memoir. If you live in the U.S. and you'd like to participate, just click on this link or the image ​​below. At the close of the giveaway, the Goodreads staff will select ten winners for the signed copies. I hope you are one of the winners.

Please check out Amazon before you make your decision. You'll find 87 reviews with an average of 4.7 stars, which warms my heart immensely. If non-fiction, and especially memoirs, is of interest, I suspect you'll like this read.

I hope you have a wonderful sunny day. 🌞

Hello blog friends,

This week poet Colleen Chesebro has a special prompt for all interested poets. She asks that we choose a spice from our kitchen cabinet and create a poem related to a recent happening. 

A favorite spice in my household is cinnamon. It's sprinkled on morning oatmeal, applesauce treats, and special desserts. But -- I can think of no recent spice-related and poetry-worthy incident. So, I'm deviating slightly from the instructions and traveling back in time when my kids were young. With three sons and a mischievous daughter, there was always a ruckus about something. Rules were regularly ignored. And one of those rules included the refrigerator. 

I hope you enjoy my tanka (5-7-5-7-7 syllables).  😊