poem

  • Just Words

    I haven’t blogged in so long. And certainly not like I used to. Years ago, my posts were filled with images and quotes, and I was so focused on followers and SEO and stats and – well, you get the picture. Keeping that up became so stifling. Every post was a production. Have I just…

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  • What Is Your December Prayer?

    What Is Your December Prayer?

    What is your December prayer? Idina Menzel (whom I love) wrote and performed an original song titled “December Prayer,” and it has always resonated with me on several levels. Inspired by her song, I am composing my own “December Prayer,” but I would like your help. In the comments, or via email (thebaltimorewriter@gmail.com), please leave…

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  • Hello, everyone. Well, we are at our end. 30 days of sonnets celebrating National Poetry Month brings us to my favorite sonnet that I’ve been using in my classrooms and citing in my writing for decades. I’m happy to end this journey by sharing William Wordsworth’s “The World Is Too Much With Us.” As I…

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  • Hello, everyone. Today, for our second-to-last sonnet in honor of National Poetry Month, I have chosen Sonnet 23 by William Shakespeare. It’s one of my favorites for so many reasons. Primarily, though, I appreciate Shakespeare’s play on words, using them to describe his inability to put into words the love he has for another. As…

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  • Welcome, all. For the third-to-last sonnet that I will be sharing with you during National Poetry Month, I chose to read to you Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s classic Sonnet 43, “How Do I Love Thee?” It’s such a simple poem that’s been parodied as much as it has been praised. As we have seen in so…

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  • Good afternoon, all. Today is April 27, and we are now in our final four of sonnets for National Poetry Month. Today’s selection is a return to Keats, one of my favorite romantic poets. Like all the good romantics, it finds the beauty in nature and, in this poem, solitude. “O Solitude! If I Must…

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  • Welcome to day 26 of National Poetry Month! As we near the end of the month, I will be sharing with you some of my all-time favorite sonnets. For tonight, I am reading Shakespeare’s sonnet 18, one of his most famous love sonnets. It captures the common theme of love transcending life here on earth.…

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  • Welcome to day 25 of National Poetry Month. Tonight I am featuring a British poet of the Victorian era, William Cosmo Monkhouse, who was also an art critic in his prime. This sonnet, in the Petrarchan form, personifies Life and Death. Enjoy! 🙂 Life and Death, by William Cosmo Monkhouse From morn to eve they…

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  • Good evening, all 🙂 Today’s sonnet is by Charles Lamb, another romantic British poet who traveled in the same circle with Wordsworth, Coleridge, and others. His biographer, E.V. Lucas, even dubbed him the “most lovable figure in English literature.” Today I share with you Lamb’s sonnet, “A Timid Grace Sits Trembling In Her Eye.” A…

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  • Happy Earth Day, to all. I remember turning the earth 50 years ago with my 5-year-old classmates as we planted little saplings at our elementary school. Now, 50 years later, I look back and savor the many hours I have spent on trails and shores, appreciating the earth. So much of my writing is inspired…

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