Canadian Poet and educator, Carl Leggo wrote, ' writers write their worlds in words. With the resources of the alphabet we explore and express who we are in the world. The alphabet provides the building blocks for constructing knowledge of our identity.'  Carl Leggo shared this idea for growing a deeper appreciation of poetry: Carl Leggo reminds us that these 26 amazing letters hold infinite possibilities, infinite combinations. How magical is that? Sound, shape and power combine to create shades of meaning we can share with an audience of fellow readers and writers, the world over.   *Write down the 26 letters of the alphabet *Circle your five favourite letters *Write five words that begin with your five favourite letters *Use these words to reveal some poetry There exists in these 5 listed words much in the way of music. Opportunities abound for alliteration and zany connections. There is an energy in the words as well. We can begin to look at the alphabet...

The idea for this poem comes from Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge's book, Poemcrazy. The aim of this poetry making challenge is to explore your lesser known names using poetry to discover what these names might be. Using a structure provided by Susan Goldsmith Wooldridge, a poem will hopefully emerge and you can discover some of your lesser known names: My real name is Yesterday my name was Tomorrow my name will be In my dreams my name is Secretly I know my name is My friend thinks my name is The name I whisper is Your names can be as silly or serious as you wish them to be. Trot out your names and see what emerges. Feel free to improvise on the structure as well. it's perfectly okay to break the rules here. Your names and moods might change with the seasons, or across the days and years. Think about those names your friends and family call you. Inspiration might be found there. When I thought about my many names, this is what happened for me: What's In A Na...

During that intriguing journey from kindergarten through to high school we lose so many of those fans of poetry, and the answer is simple. It happens because we move away from writing, reading and performing poetry and focus way too much on dissecting and analyzing it. We chop it up into pieces. It becomes reading by autopsy! No longer can hear the rhythm and rhyme. No longer do we rejoice in the wordplay.  We lose the pleasure that comes with performance. The quest is focused upon hidden meaning and obscure symbolism. We become obsessed in second guessing the poet's motives. Poetry in such an environment becomes dull and tarnished. The fans begin to wander away… We have lost sight of the fact that we learn to write by reading, listening thinking and writing –and by writing we arrive at understanding.' I learnt from American poet, Ted Kooser - 'You have to read at least one hundred poems before you write one.' I interpreted this as meaning I had to immerse ...

Ideas exist in things, so the saying goes. This poem owes it's beginnings to a recent sighting of vintage cars driving in a parade through my town. As I stood watching these well preserved senior citizens of the road, my thoughts returned to our first family car all those years ago. We had an Austin A 40 and it was a rather cantankerous machine. It could be relied upon to  shake and rattle when asked to travel at any speed above 'slow.' It required constant care and attention and sometimes without warning it would begin a convulsive lurch when out on the highway.   So, before I even finished watching the car parade, ideas began forming in my head. The word 'jalopy' floated forward and I found myself immediately in the poem zone. Sometimes a single word is all you need to get ideas flowing. Let me share what I built... The Old Jalopy Dad looks stressed Mum looks stroppy We're going for a drive In our old jalopy Kids pile in Dogs in tow S...