‘Ginia

‘Ginia is my daughter Kelly’s son Benny’s word for where he lives…Virginia. Young kids always seem to provide the family with an entire new lexicon for communication. For a few weeks in her second summer my daughter Katie’s daughter Stephie pronounced bathing suit, “baby suit.” Now, everytime we go to the gym,

Canfield, OH

Canfield is about as close to Pennsylvania as you can get without entering. First I visited Woodside Elementary which has a very cool principal, Tony Russo — I could tell he was a special guy right away. He sat through both of my assemblies, very welcome but unusual behavior for a principal!

On the beach with my daughters. 

My latest title. 

Carthage TX

March 8, 2005Today I visited the Bulldogs at Carthage Jr. High in Carthage TX. The kids there were so cool and had great questions about writing and poetry. I think this is because they had all read some of my poems before I got there and many had written their own poetry. Even though everybody

On the road again

March 7, 2005Today was a race around travel day that took me from Cleveland to Cincinnati to Shreveport, LA and then Carthage, TX. The man next to me on the airplane from Cleveland to Cincinnati was quiet while we were in the air, looking out the window. Then as we taxied to the gate, he

First Post

I am so excited to be setting up this blog. Already I wish I had done this years (and hundreds of schools) ago. This is the place where I can keep notes about all my poetry travels and hopefully, some of the students I meet can post their reflections. Writing about events make them more