Watch Where You're Going!

March Literary Madness has commenced! It seems everyone is hosting contests, authors are busy with school visits, agents are opening for submissions again and there is an exciting energy in the air.

I have been taking advantage of some of the opportunities to stretch my writing wings. Like a fisherman who is after the BIG CATCH, I have learned you have to keep casting, always making sure your bait has a fresh perspective and is publishing-ready!

One of my favorite opportunities jus arrived. Every March, author @VivianKirkfield hosts the #50PreciousWordsContest. Take a look at all these great stories she has reeled in this year!

You may have read my entry from last year here. It is challenging to know what to write about. Sometimes I start with a pretty concrete idea and spend time squeezing a full story arc out of it. Other times my fingers sit idle on the keyboard for quite awhile. This year's 50 precious words entry was born out of playing with fun words that tickled my tongue.

Out of this word play came two characters- Bunny and Duck.

A mallard and a rabbit. Interesting pairing, and probably unlikely friends.

They have an unfortunate collision leading them, not to anger and name calling, but to listening and learning from each other, ultimately to forgiveness and perhaps in their understanding and compassion, a new friendship might take flight.

But how to do this in just 50 words????

Hope you enjoy my attempt below. Let me know what you think.

Fingers crossed on this one :)

©cathystenquist

Thanks to @Margaret Simon of https://reflectionsontheteche.com/ who is hosting the Poetry Friday roundup today. Hope you'll skip on by to take a look at her amazing poem in a weather map form. Yep! Her approach really has opened my eyes to poetry's possibilities.

Have a good weekend everyone!

My New Best Friend?

Happy Poetry Friday! Today I share a poem about the simplest, and in my opinion the most precious of things: Reading to a child. Following is a little explanation of the inspiration.

This week Amazon announced that their voice-activated assistant, Alexa +, will now be even more intuitive and interactive.  Definitely someone they claim we cannot  live without.

 “I’m your new best friend in the digital world,” Alexa + proudly states. For only $19.99 a month, you can have a new friend living with you intimately knowing all aspects of your life. What a deal!

During a demonstration, they went on to Alexa +, “Can you see if somebody walked the dog the past couple of days?”

I’m not a dog owner, but shouldn’t you know that?

I was curious, so I continued to watch, as Michael Strahan of Good Morning America got to converse with “her.”  Alexa + soon came back with comments about his “legendary” arms.

“Do you still keep up those famous guns in the gym these days?” she asked.

Ewww.

Too flirty, too personal and might I say, “icky.”

But what really made my stomach turn was when a sweet girl, about 6 or 7 asks Alexa, to tell her a bedtime story.  

Alexa answers, “Do you want an adventure story or a funny animal story?”

Yes, maybe this question hit me in the gut more, being a writer of children’s picture books and poetry. When I write, I imagine my words being enjoyed by a child—my book on the lap of a child snuggled up with someone they love with plenty of time to ask questions about what they heard and discuss it.

While I can see this application possibly being helpful for the home bound and disabled etc., I think we need to be careful about feeling drawn to every new shiny toy that comes down the pike…

just because we can.

Yesterday, my grandson, only 17 months old, grabbed a book off the shelf and ran to me shouting, “Read this! Read this!” I pulled him to my lap, and we entered into a world of celestial delight together, touching and talking about the textured moon, sun and stars. These are the kind of book experiences that are priceless for him and for me.

For me, there is nothing sweeter.

Hop on over HERE  to Denise Krebs Dare to Care Blog

for more amazing poems to brighten your day!

Thanks Denise for hosting!

Yearning for the Splash

The slight increase in temperature today, to a balmy high of 33 degrees, had me roll down my window a bit, breathe in the fresh cool air and dream of summer. Car packed and buckled in for our trip north, the anticipation was excruciating. The highway never seemed to end. All the kids could think about was dropping their stuff, slipping on suits and racing to jump off the end of the dock.

So I fished though my files and found a poem that I wrote for a contest last year.

(unfortunately it did not place), but I like it, as it brings back happy memories. It was also a fun poem to write too— playing with font size, color and spacing to give a visual to the poem. I hope you will enjoy it!

Happy Poetry Friday everyone! Hang in there... Spring is on the way!

Oh, and Special thanks to Laura Purdie Salas for hosting this week. Be sure to stop by her blog for a cool sneak peek at her new board books and some lovely FREE downloads of coloring pages. Such a talented poet!

So pour yourself some lemonade, put on those flip flops and crank up Margaritaville.

We are going to the lake in our imagination!