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For the last three weeks, Teaching Authors has celebrated the season of gratitude by writing Thanks-Giving Thank U Haiku. And with each offering,
Carmela,
Esther,
April,
Mary Ann, and
JoAnn offer hauntingly beautiful poetry that, as JoAnn stated so eloquently, asks us to add our light to the sum of light.
Now it’s my turn. Alas, I am not a poet. After hours of trying to compose a Thank U Haiku, I concede that I cannot do it. It’s worrisome.
There are many things that I cannot do, of course.
I cannot drive a truck. I’m not talking about the little SUVs, complete with manual five-speed stick shift. I’m talking about those eighteen-wheeler, semi-trailer big rigs. Complete with forward engine, steering axle, two drive axles. Ten forward drive gears and two reverse gears. And a bed.
Vroom, vroom! Wouldn’t it be fun to drive across country, to see this vast and changing landscape? To see those very steps where Martin Luther King said he had a dream? Where on Christmas Day George Washington crossed the river for his own country’s honor? Where Abraham Lincoln spoke about a new birth of freedom? What about to walk the ruins of the Alamo or march across the fields of Gettysburg? Or the hills of San Francisco, where Harvey Milk imagined a righteous world?
Well, true enough I have seen many places. And you don’t really need a truck. As a working writer, I visit the landscape where my characters once walked. I do that to make them more alive. But it’s more than that, too. It’s why I write historical fiction. History is important. As
Penelope J. Corfield said, “All people and peoples are living histories,” and studying those stories that link “past and present is absolutely basic for a good understanding of the condition of being human.” That’s true now more than ever, given recent events. Still, wouldn’t it be fun to be a truck driver?
Vroom, vroom! There are many things I cannot be, of course. I cannot be a worm. How important are worms! Big worms! Small worms! Rain worms! Dew worms! And everyone’s favorite, angleworms! They burrow beneath our feet, sight unseen, churning the inorganic into the organic. Even their poop – I mean, worm casts – are invaluable in enriching soils. Which grows gardens. Which feeds the world.
I am not near as important as a worm. Still, I am a writer, and if I do my job as well as a worm does his, perhaps I might enrich at least one mind.
Speaking of important, I suppose I cannot be a rose either. Even the most imperfect rose is perfect compared to other flowers. Or, so a rose thinks. They are an old, old flower. Maybe that’s why they feel so entitled. Sacred to their Goddess Venus, Romans covered their sofas with roses. Cleopatra covered her floor with roses whenever Marc Antony was about to visit. Roses even have their own language: red rose for love, yellow rose for joy, purple rose for royalty, and white rose for innocence and peace. “A rose by any other name would smell as sweet,” wrote William Shakespeare. In a story that has lasted hundreds of years.
I have wild roses growing like brambles in my back yard. They certainly share the same hoity toity attitude as their hybrid cousins, despite having the nastiest thorns around. Still, bees love them. And in their thorny tangle hide rabbits and wild turkeys with their fledglings. And skunks. There’s nothing sweet smelling about them.
All the same, I prefer the dandelions that blanket my acres every spring. When they bloom, they look like a thousand bright yellow suns, shooing away the last memory of winter. When the blooms turn into puff balls, they look like a thousand moons. And when the puff balls explode, dispersing their seeds, they look like a thousand shooting stars. My galaxy is growing!
Of course, the result of all those shooting stars is a yard full of weeds. But I like weeds. “And, constant stars, in them I read such art as truth and beauty shall together thrive,” as Shakespeare also wrote.
But the question remains, how can I write a haiku? I'll try once more...
My Broken Haiku
Discover your world
Honor what lies beneath
Expand your galaxy Thank U for being a part of my universe.Bobbi Miller (PS: All photos courtesy of morguefile.com)
We are deep into our season of gratitude here on Teaching Authors. The series started off with Carmela giving thanks for insights gained through the loss of her kitchen. Esther thanked the Chicago Cubs for a season of hope, with April appreciating good health. And now it's my turn.
Five years of Thanksgiving posts. here on Teaching Authors. Each year I struggle to write our traditional thanku, our many blessings, in haiku form. Each year I've had to be thankful outside of the five syllables-seven syllables-five syllables structure. So this year (among many other thing)...I'm grateful for mastering the thanku! (You can tell me if I really have when you send your own thanku.)
If you have read this blog for awhile, you know that my year is divided into three seasons--"the holidays" (which now kicks off on Labor Day, chugging relentlessly through to January 6th, the last of the Twelve Days of Christmas, in my religion), post-holiday (January and February are the dreariest months, no matter how many "national holidays" there are.) And then there is Camp Season, which for me, begins in April, when the redbud blooms, and I start planning this year's activities for my Young Author's Camps in June and July.
 |
| Writer up a tree! |
"Camp Season" is checking rosters for returnees, as well as sibs of former campers, and new writers. It's studying the composition of each week's camp. How many girls? How many boys? The campers are (supposedly) ages 9 to 14 (with some birthdate slight-of-hand by some parents on the registration). Is this group mostly rising fourth graders? All sixth graders? Or a lovely balance of ages. (That's happened twice in ten years!) I tailor the weeks to suit the age and gender makeup. In my advanced classes of returnees, I am careful not to repeat activities and exercises (except for the Traditonal Writer's Walk.)
 |
| Our writing HQ (in winter), a converted carriage house. |
Just thinking about those steamy June and July days, full of creative young minds, instant friendships and...juice boxes...excites me on a blue-and-gold-autumn morning, crispy enough to require my cuddly chenille lap robe as I compose this post. I am ever thankful for my students, who inspire me to improve my craft so I can inspire them in return. The days are long and hot, but always fun for us all.
So with that in mind, here is my Thanku 2015.
For Authors Everywhere--
Inspiration glows
Imagination surrounds
A writer matures.
Does anyone suddenly have the urge to draw and color a handprint turkey? Have good one, writers!
Posted by Mary Ann Rodman
.
Howdy, Campers--and Happy Poetry Friday! My poem is below, as is the link to PF.
What are you thankful for? Since 2011, we TeachingAuthors have each written a thanku (a haiku expressing gratitude) every November. Join us--use it as today's writing prompt!
.
Carmela started this round expressing her thanks in a graphically beautiful thanku about being in the middle of a house remodel.
Esther's post followed--she's jumping up and down with gratitude for a particular sports team. Now it's my turn.
I was noodling around last week, thinking about which of my many blessings I wanted to write about here: I'm grateful for monthly hikes with five amazing women; for my best friend who taught me that if I ever think about doing something nice, don't question the thought--just do it; for my husband, who taught me that a fork in the sink does not mean he doesn't love me. It's just a fork in the sink.
That's just the tip of the iceberg, the edge of the forest, a lick of the frosting, the preface in my gratitude book, of course.
Just this weekend I was strutting around like a proud you-know-what,
 |
| from morguefile.com |
congratulating myself that I hadn't gotten a flu shot and grateful that I was just fine, thank you very much, while several of my friends and family who HAD gotten flu shots were sick as dogs. Ha, ha, HA, said the
evil green woman inside me!
And then...well, you know what happened.
 |
| from morguefile.com |
BUT...I'm sure you'll be glad to know that the raging headache has abated and my eyes don't hate bright sunlight this morning. Yay, health, yay, sunlight (especially the glorious slant of morning sun)!
So...here's my...
THANKU FOR GOOD HEALTH
by April Halprin Wayland
Bees stopped stinging my
eyes...raise our curtains! The light
now tastes like honey. poem (c) 2015 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved.(And if you ever want to know anything about REAL haiku, click on over to the wonderful Robyn Hood Black's
bounty of haiku resources.)
So, You, reading this...what are YOU thankful for? Join us in one of FOUR ways:
1. Share a thanku--or simply tell us what you're grateful for--in a comment to any of our blog posts from November 6th through Friday, November 27th.
2. Send them via email to teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com, with "
Thanks-Giving" as the subject. (Depending on the number of emails we receive, we may share some of your gratitiudes in our posts.)
3. Post them on your own blog, on your Facebook page, etc., and then share the link with us via a comment or email. Feel free to include our
Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving image (above) in your post. On Saturday, November 28, Carmela will provide a round-up of all the links we receive.
4. And
NEW THIS YEAR: share them as a comment on our
TeachingAuthors Facebook page. While you're there, we hope you'll also "Like" our page.
posted by April Halprin Wayland, who is grateful she is no longer in bed, but bouncing on her bosu:
If you've followed our TeachingAuthors blog for a year or more, you know about our tradition of setting aside time in November to give thanks. It started in 2011, with our Ten Days of Thanks-Giving, inspired, in part, by Esther's post about thank-you haikus, also known as Thankus. In 2012 we expanded to Two Weeks of Thanks-Giving, which we repeated in 2013. And last year we stretched our Thanks-Giving posts to a full Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving!
Over the next three weeks, each of the
TeachingAuthors will blog about 3 (or more!) things we're grateful for in each of our posts. I'm kicking the series off with a Thanks-Giving Thanku poem below. As in the past, we're also inviting you, our readers (and your students!), to join in by sharing your own "gratitudes" with us. And this year you can participate in one of
FOUR ways:
- Share your "gratitudes" in a comment to any of our blog posts from today through Friday, November 27.
- Send them to us via email to teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com, with "Thanks-Giving" as the subject. Depending on the number of emails we receive, we may share some of your gratitiudes in our posts.
- Post them on your own blog and then share the link with us via a comment or email. (Feel free to include the image below in your post.) On Saturday, November 28, I'll provide a round-up of all the links we receive.
- AND NEW THIS YEAR: share them as a comment on our TeachingAuthors Facebook page. While you're there, we hope you'll also "Like" our page.
In an interesting bit of Synchronicity, a friend of mine recently posted a link on her Facebook page to
an article on the science of the benefits of gratitude. The article quoted Dr. Emiliana Simon-Thomas, science director of the Greater Good Science, as saying:
"Speaking of stress, writing thank you notes has been shown to ease stress, reduce depressive symptoms, and encourage people to be more mindful of what makes them happy (just ask Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon), as well as foster better relationships."
I'm definitely in need of some stress relief right now. The past month has been rather nerve-wracking. We're in the midst of a major home remodel project encompassing our family room and kitchen. I'm currently without a working kitchen, and the furniture that used to be in our family room is scattered about the rest of our small house.
In my thank you note for
last year's Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving, I expressed gratitude to my family, my writing friends, and to all our
TeachingAuthors' readers. Of course, I'm still grateful for all three groups of people, but I'd like to add three more groups this year. I'd like to thank:
- The students of my COD class, Beginnings, Middles, and Ends, for their patience with me if I was a bit distracted/frazzled during the last two weeks of class.
- My family members and friends for all their help and support during this time. In particular, for my husband's siblings and their families for providing temporary homes for my father-in-law. (He normally lives with us, but his bedroom is currently storing some of our family room furniture.) And also to the dear friends who allowed my husband and me to stay with them for two nights while our new hardwood floors were stained and finished.
- The wonderful craftspeople carrying out our remodeling project. They've been careful, courteous, and punctual throughout the whole project AND they're doing marvelous work!
The target completion date for the kitchen/family room remodel is Saturday, November 14--the same day I'll be attending the
SCBWI-Illinois Prairie Writer's and Illustrator's Day. We'll still have lots to do afterward, but if all goes well, I should have my kitchen back then. I'm definitely looking forward to that!
The other day, my husband and I were eating dinner in our makeshift kitchen (in our dining room) when the
Passenger song "Let Her Go" came on the radio. In case you're not familiar with the lyrics, the song begins:
Well you only need the light when its burning low
Only miss the sun when it starts to snow
Only know you love her when you let her go . . .
I began singing a revised version that went something like:
Well you only need the kitchen when it's been torn out
Only want to cook when there's no stove about
Only miss the cupboards when you must do without . . .
I thought of turning this into a poem for
Poetry Friday, but decided to go with a
Thanku instead:
I invite all of you to also participate in our
Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving by sharing your "gratitudes" with us in one of the four ways I listed above. And don't forget to also check out this week's
Poetry Friday round-up over at
Write. Sketch. Repeat.
Happy Thanks-Giving to all!
Carmela
It’s our TeachingAuthors Blogiversary 6!!!!!!
Today I'm working out by writing our readers and my fellow TeachingAuthors a heart-felt Thanku².
All of you have kept me writing Sunday to Sunday these past six years.
It bears repeating: thank you!
Esther Hershenhorn
It’s Mutual!
Our true-blue readers
gifting Six TeachingAuthors*
with treasured smarts and hearts.
Six TeachingAuthors*
gifting readers for six years
with their hearts and smarts.
*Carmela, JoAnn, April,
MaryAnn and Jeanne Marie,
Jill and Laura,
Bobbi, Carla -
little ol’ me
Even though today is Wednesday, this isn't a Wednesday Writing Workout post. (We'll be back with more workouts in January.) I just wanted to share a quick update regarding our Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving challenge. This year was the first time we ran a book giveaway in conjunction with our series of posts expressing our gratitude. Last Friday, when I posted my wrap-up linking to posts by other bloggers who joined in our challenge, I didn't realize that a number of our readers had shared their "gratitudes" in their giveaway contest entries. It wasn't until I reviewed all the entries this past Monday that I saw them. Their gratitude was so uplifting I had to share them with you.
When asked to "Tell us three things you're grateful for," here's what they said:
- Family, children's books, great blogs to follow!
- I'm grateful for my family, my awesome poetry friends, and for my wonderful life. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to see if it all is real.
- I am grateful for my family, friends and God for my life.
- Health, loved ones and faith top the list today!
- My job, my friends, and my family
- Wonderful family, immediate and extended, fabulous friends from way back and from recently, and writing for the sake of writing. Thankful, happy, humbled.
- I'm thankful for: the cornucopia of rich SCBWI IL and beyond authors and Illustrators sharing their skills and knowledge with us; my family that perpetually allows me to pour myself into my writing and art; and nature that is a constant well of inspiration for all that I create!
- Thankful for family and thankful for the snow
- I'm grateful for 1. my hubby, 2. currently having no obstacle, be it physical, mental, emotional, or practical, to enjoying every simple joy in life that I could wish for, and 3. having no obstacles (except for my own inefficiencies) to exercising creativity in many ways every day.
- I am filled with gratitude for my loving home and family, more than five years of being cancer free, and my opportunities to make a difference.
- I am grateful for: A wonderful network of writers through SCBWI. My two challenging, supportive writers groups: one in Illinois and one in Virginia. My family, who provide inspiration, encouragement, ideas, and yes--distractions.
- I'm grateful for health, happiness and heaps of good books to read--and WRITE!
WE'RE grateful so many of our readers took time to share their "gratitudes" with us!
Congratulations to our giveaway winner,
Margaret Simon, who shared her wonderful "Thanku to Roux" along with a student Thanku at her blog,
Reflections on the Teche on November 8.
Thanks again to everyone who participated.
Happy writing!
Carmela
Today closes out our Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving. See below for my round-up of posts and thank-you notes. If you haven't shared your link/comment yet, you can still do so. I'll update this post later with any additional links/emails we receive. And don't forget--today's the last day to enter for a chance to win a copy of the 2015 Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market (CWIM) containing my interview roundup article, "Writing for Boys (and other 'Reluctant Readers')." See my November 7 post for all the details.
Thanksgiving is over for most people (and many are busy celebrating the more recent American ritual of "Black Friday"). However, I'm getting ready to celebrate our second Thanksgiving this week, this one with my husband's family gathering here in our home. This two-Thanksgivings-in-one-week tradition started years ago when my son was young. When my husband and I were first married, we actually spent Thanksgiving day with both our families, eating an early meal at one home and then driving to eat a second Thanksgiving dinner at another. After our son was born, we realized that was no longer practical. My in-laws came up with a simple solution: scheduling their family gathering on a different day, usually the weekend before or after Thanksgiving. Over the years, I've been very grateful to be able to celebrate fully with both sides of the family. So, while some of you may be gearing up for the December holidays, I'll be cleaning and cooking in preparation for Thanksgiving #2. That's why I'm keeping this post short.
J Here are the links to the Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving blog posts:
Also, I want to thank the two readers who were unable to post their Thanks-Giving comments but took the time to email them to us:
- Wendy, who blogs at An Education in Books, who wrote: "I am thankful for my family and for the unexpected snow!"
- And Julie Phend, who said, "I am grateful for:
A wonderful network of writers through SCBWI.
My two challenging, supportive writers groups: one in Illinois and one in Virginia.
My family, who provide inspiration, encouragement, ideas, and yes--distractions."
Don't forget to check out today's
Poetry Friday round-up over at
Carol's Corner.
Happy writing!
Carmela
Finally it’s my turn to join my fellow TeachingAuthors in sharing Three Things for Which I Am Grateful and my 2014 Thanku.(And oh, how I delight in how we've kept alive this original poetic form - a Haiku that expresses thanks.)
When folks ask me how I am, I often borrow the three-word response of former Ambassador Walter Annenberg, philanthropist and founder of the School of Communication I attended - i.e. “hopeful and grateful.”Each day I awake - grateful I’m here, alive and well,
- grateful I’m loved by treasured family and friends,
- especially grateful for the chance to love them back.
I also offer thanks for the joy my life’s work brings me and the non-stop opportunities the Universe delivers which I gladly pay forward.
As for that second adjective “hopeful,” like all Cubs fans, I always believe “Next year’s The Year!” (And this time it really could be!)
You can share your Thanku’s by commenting on any of our TeachingAuthors blog posts through November 28.
You can also send them via email to [email protected], with “Thanks-Giving” as the subject, and even post them on your own blog, sharing the link with us via a comment or email. Carmela will list the links in a later post. And don’t forget our Book Giveaway of the 2015 Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market! And now for my Thanku to my soon-to-be-five bi-lingual (Brazilian Portuguese and English) lindo grandson who, though Rio-born, lives in my heart para sempre*.
Obrigado to my Grandson Gabe
My Cariocawho snuggles up to tell me,“I love you, Vovo!”
Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow TeachingAuthors and our TeachingAuthors readers!
Esther Hershenhorn
P.S.
*beautiful
**forever***Thank You****a native of Brazil*****endearing Portuguese name for Grandmother
.
Howdy, Campers!
Happy Almost-Thanksgiving and Happy Poetry Friday (original poem and link to Poetry Friday below)
To enter our latest giveaway, a copy of Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market, check out Carmela's post.
I'm the third TeachingAuthor to chime in on our annual Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving--woo woo!
Carmela thanked three times three, topping it off with an original Thanku Haiku,
Mary Ann succinctly thanked three writing-related groups and I'd like to thank...
I'd like to thank...
Oh, geez, gang. Our host for Poetry Friday, Keri, just lost her grandfather.
It all comes down to love, doesn't it?
Not good looks. (When you're young your skin looks, well, young. When you're old it doesn't.)
Not rushing around. ("Is there anything that you regret", I asked my nearly-92-year-old mother, recently. "Rushing," she said.)
Just goodness.
Here's who I'm grateful for this very minute (how can one edit it down to just
three?!?):
- my husband, Gary Wayland, who accompanies me deep into the jungles of my darkest thoughts and who always, always, always has my back;
- my friend, "folksinger and songfighter" Ross Altman, who landed like an angel on the front steps of our house today, and walked twice around the block with me, listening as I poured out my troubles;
- my three best friends--Elizabeth Forrest, who will move heaven and earth to help anyone anytime, anywhere; author and SCBWI 's regional events editor Rebecca Gold, who moved all the way across the country (how dare she?) but still wraps her long arm around me when I need her most--and I needed her this morning...and author Bruce Balan (all the way over in Thailand, for heaven's sake!) who immediately offered to jump on a plane and be by my side when my husband was ill.
So many. And so many more, of course.
I'll bet you thought I was going to write a Thanku for one of them, right? Surprise!
Here's my Thanku:
For the way you play
those black and whites; for the way
you brush my hair, Mom.
Don't forget to enter to win a copy of
Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market, check out
Carmela's post. Good luck!
Poetry Friday's at
Kerry's this week. Thank you for hosting, Keri! And Happy Thanksgiving to All!
With an open heart,
April Halprin Wayland, who deeply appreciates you reading all the way to the bottom.
Poem and photo (c) 2014 April Halprin Wayland. All rights reserved.
If your name wasn't selected in the drawing for our 2015 Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Market (CWIM) giveaway, I have good news for you: Writer's Digest Books, publisher of the CWIM, has generously donated a SECOND COPY for us to give away! See details at the end of this post. And congratulations to Sue H, who won the first copy.
If you're a long-time TeachingAuthors follower, you know about our tradition of setting aside time in November to give thanks. It started in 2011, with our Ten Days of Thanks-Giving, inspired, in part, by Esther post about thank-you haikus, also known as Thankus. In 2012 we expanded to Two Weeks of Thanks-Giving, which we repeated in 2013. This year, we've decided to stretch our Thanks-Giving posts to a full Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving!
We're going to keep our Thanks-Giving simple this year. Each of the
TeachingAuthors will share 3 things we're grateful for. As in years past, we're also inviting you, our readers (and your students!), to join in by sharing your own "gratitudes" with us in one of three ways:
- Share them in a comment to any of our blog posts from today through Nov. 28.
- Send them to us via email to teachingauthors [at] gmail [dot] com, with "Thanks-Giving" as the subject. Depending on the number of emails we receive, we may share some of your gratitiudes in our posts.
- Post them on your own blog and then share the link with us via a comment or email. (Feel free to include the above image in your post.) On November 28, I'll provide a round-up of all the links we receive.
To get us started, here are my three "gratitudes":
- My loving and supportive family. First and foremost, I'm grateful for the three very special men in my life: my husband, my son, and my father-in-law (who now occupies my son's old room). But I'm also blessed to have a wonderful extended family--being Italian means that includes A LOT of people. J
- My wonderful writing friends. Three groups, in particular, support and nurture me on a regular basis: my fellow TeachingAuthors, my Vermont College classmates (known as The Hive), and my critique group. Without them, I would have quit writing a long time ago. Thanks for helping me stick with it, Ladies!
- Our amazing TeachingAuthor readers. This blog wouldn't be here if not for the feedback and affirmation we receive from you, our readers. I'm especially grateful for three lovely ladies I've never met who often comment on my posts, so I know someone is reading them: Linda Baie, Jan Godown Annino, and Rosi.
Hmm. I'm sensing a theme here. It inspired me to write this
Thanku:
Thanks-Giving
Three times three times three . . . . .
My thanks keep multiplying,
to infinity.
© 2014 Carmela Martino, All Rights Reserved
I invite all of you to also participate in our
Three Weeks of Thanks-Giving and share your "gratitudes" with us!
To my above "gratitudes," I'd like to add a huge
THANK YOU! to Writer's Digest Books for donating a second copy of the
2015 Children’s Writer’s and Illustrator’s Market (CWIM) for us to give away.
Readers, use the Rafflecopter widget at the end of this post to enter our giveaway drawing. You may enter via 1, 2, or all 3 options. The giveaway
ends on Nov. 28. When you're done here, check out the terrific
Poetry Friday roundup over at Diane Mayr's
Random Noodling.
Good luck and happy writing!
Carmela
P.S. If you've never entered a Rafflecopter giveaway, here's info on
how to enter a Rafflecopter giveaway and the
difference between signing in with Facebook vs. with an email address. Email subscribers: if you received this post via email, you can click on the Rafflecopter link at the end of this message to access the entry form.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Our thoughts and prayers go out to all in the path of Hurricane Sandy, including our own Jeanne Marie. As a last-minute sub for her, I'm posting a quick preview of a special event we'll be sponsoring in November. We've decided to expand last year's Ten Days of Thanks-Giving into a full Two Weeks of Thanks-Giving, and we're hoping many of you will again join in the celebration, especially if you're a teacher or fellow blogger. This post includes an invitation to teachers who'd like to incorporate the event into their November lesson plans.
Before I explain how to participate, let me share some background: In October, 2011 Esther blogged about a poetry form called a Thanku--a thank you note written in the from of a haiku. Her post inspired the TeachingAuthors team to sponsor our first ever Ten Days of Thanks-Giving last November. During those ten days, all our posts included thank you notes to someone special. In my post, I shared the following Thanku addressed to my teacher and mentor, Sharon Darrow:
Your encouragement
yielded a harvest beyond
my expectations.
We also invited readers and fellow bloggers to share their own thank yous via comments, emails, or blog posts. At the end of the ten days, we posted some of those thank you notes on our blog, along with a round up of links to other blogs that had participated in the event.
We plan to do the same this year, with some minor modifications. As I mentioned, we're expanding the event so that it will run for two full weeks. This year's
Two Weeks of Thanks-Giving will take place
November 16-November 30. We will again invite our readers and fellow bloggers to participate by writing a
thank you note of no more than 25 words via prose or a poetry form of your choice. (We'd love to see more Thankus!) But this year,
we ask that your thank yous be writing-related,
expressing your gratitude to a writing teacher who helped you or to a writer you admire. You may consider following Sherman Alexie's #1 bit of advice in his
Top 10 Pieces of Writing Advice:
[1] When you read a piece of writing that you admire, send a note of thanks to the author. Be effusive with your praise. Writing is a lonely business. Do your best to make it a little less lonely.
Now, to all the classroom teachers out there: We invite you to give your students the same assignment-- to compose a thank you note to an author of their choosing. Please limit the assignment to 25 words of prose or poetry. (If you're planning to have them write their notes as Thankus,
see Esther's original post for inspiration.) We'd love for you to share some of your students' notes with us, either via a comment, email, or your own blog posts. We'll then include some of their work (or a link to your blog post) in our final round-up on November 30. The kick-off post on November 16 will include complete details on how to submit to us.
For all our readers: We hope you'll also participate in our
Two Weeks of Thanks-Giving. Again, watch for our November 16 kick-off post for complete details. And if you know any teachers who may be interested in participating, please share this information with them as soon as possible.
Finally, for those participating in
National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) or
Picture Book Idea Month (PiBoIdMo), good luck!
Happy writing!
Carmela
Howdy Campers!
Carmela did a fine job of wrapping up our First Annual Ten Days of Thanks-Giving this week. Yay, Carmela!
Today was my monthly hike with the women I've fallen in love with as we leaped from rock to rock to cross creeks, dripped sweat up impossible hills, walked quietly under arched tree ceilings, and been photographed with in front of waterfalls, oceans and boulders. So today I write a thanku to the universe for giving me my hiking buds:
THANK YOU...
...for hard trails up to
egg-blue skies, for red leaves, for
six sweaty friends.
~ April Halprin Wayland
Here the last few thankus or simple thank yous:
From Joyce Ray:
I'm pretty late, but want to share my Thanku to my granddaughter Lindsay for terrific help in revising a poem recently.~you oiled mired wheelspushed my poem from its rutyour words, my words - WOW BEAUTIFUL, Joyce.
And Jan Godown Annino is the last in with this fitting contribution to our First Annual Ten Days of Thanks-Giving:
~Grateful to the 10 Days (catching it at the tail end. was in a cave of thesis-writing.)Grateful to be able to try to learn to say Thank You in many languages.
This includes some of the
Today is the last day of our Ten Days of Thanks-Giving. The event was inspired by Esther's post about a poetry form called the THANKU, a thank-you note in haiku form. We TeachingAuthors decided to sponsor the Ten Days of Thanks-Giving as an opportunity for our readers, students, and everyone in the Kidlitosphere to share their own thank-yous. We hope to make this an annual event taking place every November 20-30.
Today, I'll share some of the thank you notes we received, and a roundup of links to sites where fellow bloggers posted their thank-yous. But first, I want to share my own THANKU.
On Monday, Mary Ann wrote about being thankful for the Hive, a group of Vermont College alumni that we're both blessed to be part of. My thank you today is an appropriate follow-up to that post because it's to the woman responsible for my attending Vermont College: my teacher, mentor, and friend, Sharon Darrow. I've known Sharon for so long now that I can't even recall how we first met. However, I do remember the fateful day when we had lunch together and I mentioned my desire to take some advanced writing classes. Sharon encouraged me to apply to the Vermont College MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults instead. The idea terrified me. Who was I to try to get an MFA in writing? My undergraduate degree was in Math and Computer Science! But Sharon had such faith in me that I decided to take the plunge and apply. Little did I know then all the wonderful things my acceptance to VC would lead to.
Your encouragement
yielded a harvest beyond
my expectations.
Thank you, Sharon. And thank you to all the wonderful writing teachers I worked with at Vermont College as a result of following Sharon's advice.
Now, to share some of the thank you notes and comments we received during our
Ten Days of Thanks-Giving. As it happens, just this morning Bobby Miller, a terrific writer I met when we were both students at Vermont College, posted a Vermont College-related thank-you comment on
Mary Ann's post of yesterday:I share my big Thank You to the MFA/Writing for Children program. It changed my life, personally and professionally. It brought my life's goal into focus, gave it purpose. And I walked away with treasured friendships.
Yesterday, Linda at
Teacherdance posted a beautiful 25-word thank-you note to her w
Say the word Thanksgiving and right away, I’m gathering my favorite newspaper recipes – Mom’s Foolproof Turkey from a 1989 Chicago Tribune, Do-ahead Mashed Potatoes that are the stuff of any cardiologist’s dream, Cooked Cranberry Orange Relish that always surprises.
But now I have a new favorite holiday recipe, non-fat and non-caloric, yet nevertheless delicious: a Thanksgiving
Thanku, a thank you note in the form of a haiku.
Expressing gratitude has never been easier.
Between now and November 30, come join our TeachingAuthors Ten Days of Thanks-giving Celebration by writing a Thanku or any kind of thank you note, 25 words or less, to express your gratitude – to a friend, relative, neighbor, teacher, stranger, Little-known Hero, character, pet, author, artist, you-name-him/her/it – the choice is yours. Simply leave your Thankus or thank you notes in the comments below or email us at
[email protected]The recipient of my Thank You Note today?
One Barbara Lucas, Writer, Teacher, Editor, Publisher and Mentor Extraordinaire, Founder in 1983 of the one-week summer Vassar College Institute of Children’s Book Publishing and Writing that changed my Life.
I (bravely) attended the Institute in 1989, 1990, 1991, then again in 1993 (as a presenter) and finally in 1995, as a celebrant of the Institute’s 15th Anniversary. I’d be neither an Author or a Writing Teacher had Barbara’s path and mine not crossed.
(Barbara Lucas, front row, far right)
Barbara got her start in publishing at Harper and Row, as assistant to the legendary Ursula Nordstrom. She was Editor-in-Chief at Putnam and then at Harcourt, Brace and Jovanovich, when the publisher had all 3 names. She and Artist’s Representative Dilys Evans began and oversee Lucas-Evans Books, a book packager.
0 Comments on Of Thanks and Thankus! as of 1/1/1900
Today is the official start of our
Ten Days of Thanks-Giving! As
JoAnn explained on Friday, this is the first of what we hope will be an annual event, taking place
November 20-30.
It all started with Esther's post about a new poetry form she invented: the
THANKU, a thank-you note in haiku form. After her post, we talked about how there's so much negativitiy and bad news in the world, and how it might be uplifting to do a series of thank-you posts about people and things for which we're grateful. We'll start that series tomorrow. Meanwhile, we came up with the idea for sponsoring the
Ten Days of Thanks-Giving: an opportunity for our readers and everyone in the Kidlitosphere to share their own thank-yous. We encourage you to write a thank-you note of 25 words or less, as a poem or prose, and then post it as a comment or send it to us via email to teachingauthors at gmail dot com any time from now through November 30. Or, if you post a thank-you note on your blog, share the link with us and I'll post a round-up of all the links on or after our last day, Nov. 30.
If you're feeling creative, try your hand at writing a THANKU. She first wrote about the form
here. And
Lori Degman used the form to write a lovely reply in the comments:
Thank you Esther H.
for sharing yourself with us.
You've touched countless lives!!
Or just write a simple thank-you note.
I'll be sharing my thank-you when I post next week. Meanwhile, know that I'm especially thankful for my five amazingly talented co-bloggers, for all our wonderful readers, and for all the fantastic Kidlit bloggers I've come to know since we started this blog.
Happy writing,
Carmela
Inspired by
Esther’s invention of the thanku (a thank you note in haiku form), we
Teaching Authors are celebrating our first annual
Ten Days of Thanks-Giving with poems in that form and others.
When I thought about writing a Thanksgiving thanku, I started by brainstorming a list of possible topics—people, places, and things I'm grateful for. My gratitude list was impossibly long, so I decided to focus on that moment.
stillness before dawn—
recliner, cozy blanket,
coffee, notebook, pen
Although it fits the syllable count and describes something I'm grateful for, this one doesn't feel like a thank you note. I went back to my list. In my poetry class this week, two students introduced me to new forms, so I decided to try them.
The etheree has ten lines of 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 syllables—or in reverse, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. An etheree with more than one stanza can include both.
This form seemed to suit my long list of things I’m grateful for, so I chose some that fit the pattern.
luck
coffee
purple pens
soft yellow yarn
dogs with wagging tails
chances to start over
sunlight streaking through dense woods
crossing chores off my to-do list
kicking up crunchy leaves on my walk
old family photo albums, labeled
Notice how coffee appears in both poems? I like to write first thing in the morning. But not only did this feel more like a list poem than a thank you note, using the etheree form forced me to leave out some of the most obvious things I’m grateful for. I could certainly add more stanzas with the number of syllables counting back down and up again. And again and again. (As I said, I have a long list!)
The lanturne is shaped like a Japanese lantern: it has five lines with 1, 2, 3, 4, and 1 syllables. Mine, like the thanku above, focuses on a moment.
long
drive home
from night class
open the door
sniff
fresh
spicy
aroma
what’s in the pot?
look
warm
kitchen
windows steamed
homemade chili
taste
beans
(two kinds)
tomatoes
from your garden
yum
sweet
welcome
(comfort food)
how you show your
love
This one hits the spot for me because it feels more like a thank you note. The end came as a surprise, which is one of my favorite things about writing. Sometimes I don't know what I'm writing about until it comes out of my pen.
: Write a Thanks-Giving poem. Teachers, invite your classes to join in! Try a thanku, an etheree, a lanturne, or another new form. See if you can express your thanks in 25 words or less. Then post your poems here or on any of our posts during our
Ten Days of Thanks-Giving, November 20-30. Or
Lots of things going on in November, Carmela. I think I will be so busy with still preparing to move, but certainly I'll pass this on, and will participate in your Thanks-giving. It is special to do and to share with others. Best to Jeanne Marie, and everyone else of course.
Thanks for the help spreading the word, Linda. And good luck with all the moving preparations!