No foolin' - April is Poetry Month!

One of the many advantages of attending the national Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators conference (or attending any writing conference) is the opportunity to meet some great people and establish some long-lasting friends.

One of the good guys that I met several years ago at the LA SCBWI conference is Greg Pincus. That's him on my right and another good friend, Leslie Muir on my left at last year's 'Paint the Town Red' party.

Greg is a wonderful children's poet, the inventor of the "Fib" poetry form (how cool to know someone who actually invented a type of poetry!), and a world-class blogger. He is celebrating Poetry Month at his blogsite, www.gottabook.blogspot.com, by having a different children's author each day post a never-before-published poem. He's starting out the month in fine style with a poem by none-other-than Jack Prelutsky.

So check out Greg's site, read one of your favorite poems aloud to someone special in your life, or maybe try your hand at writing a poem. It's Poetry Month!

And while we're celebrating, I'll give a cheer to my high school English teacher Tom Diffley who made poetry so interesting that his classes always had long waiting lists. Thank you, Tom, for helping me to discover that poetry is far from the boring subject I thought it was before you enlightened me. And I still find great pleasure in reciting the poems you taught me thirty years ago!

Whose woods these are I think I know,

His house is in the village, though,...