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!

Will You Be Mine?

Happy Valentines Day!

How lovely to be able to focus on what the world need so much more of these days, LOVE.

I browsed through my photos today looking for inspiration for my Valentine's poem and was reminded of so many things I am grateful for: people, experiences, words, walks in the woods and more. Sometimes I get so caught up in "today" and 'right now" that I forget just how many wonderful moments I have experienced in these 65 years. Its good to look back and see the scope of your life once in a while.

My poem today, is in honor of my amazing husband of 44 years.

What a blessing to feel so loved every single day!

Hope you all are feeling the love today too. Lets all put more of it out into the world. :)

Happy Poetry Friday, Everyone! Check out more poetry at Teacher Dance- The blog of this week's host- Linda! Thanks for hosting!