Celebration-my 500th Post!

Poetry Friday can be found at Elizabeth Steinglass-Poet.  She invites us to meet under the willow tree!  Thanks for the party, Liz!

This has been a challenging post to create for Poetry Friday.  I want it to be special, I want to Wow everyone, and I want to share a beautiful poem.  I read poetry all the time, but this week have read more than usual, searching for one that reflects back and yet, I realize there is no “one” set of words that will encompass everything.

This is my FIVE HUNDREDTH POST!  I’ve been blogging for over two years, since March 1, 2011, when I started the thread that has wound through my posts ever since.  I wrote about writing, that time teaching writing, and the topic has been my focus since, all the way through 499 POSTS!

In that first post, I described working with a class in personal narratives, using The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown as a mentor text.  I use it often in numerous lessons.  It is my ‘go to’ book, one I value in both teaching and thinking.  And so I return to it in this 500^th post.

The Important thing about blogging is that it has opened a world of opportunities for me to be the best I can be in living my life.  I am grateful.

The Important thing about blogging is that it’s given me chances to venture forth into places I might never have gone without it.  I have written for an audience and received feedback that is supportive and of value so I can improve.  I have read hundreds of words of other bloggers, examined what they do, celebrated their successes, and discovered new ideas from the offerings of this wider world.  I am touched.

The Important Thing about blogging is that I have discovered, beyond my personal community of family and friends, that there are also people all over the world who are kind and creative and inventive.  I am heartened.

I have long loved “goodbye” poems, have written some of my own, and collected others for many years.  I will continue collecting and work to finish my own collection of family-connected poems of goodbye.  The Important Thing about blogging is that I’ve been supported in this project every time I’ve shared a poem.  I am inspired.

However, The Important Thing about blogging is also that there is tomorrow’s post, and time to think of new ideas.  I leave you with a ‘hello’ poem I also love, by Marge Piercy.  I am anticipating!

          The Seven of Pentacles

                                      Marge Piercy

Under a sky the color of pea soup

she is looking at her work growing away there

actively, thickly like grapevines or pole beans

as things grow in the real world, slowly enough.

the rest you can find here!

Thank you to everyone who visits!

photo credit: Pink Sherbet Photography via photopin cc