Giving and Receiving

“To get the full value of joy you must have someone to divide it with.”

Mark Twain's inspirational quote above is one that applies to how I feel about the Poetry Friday community. Among the poets, there are joyful conversations and rich poetry; there are poetry swaps that extend friendship and encourage creativity, and there are digital inspirations, image poems offered for my galleries of artistic expressions. Joy abounds at Poetry Friday every Friday and is exchanged in the process of giving and receiving.

As a curator of artistic expressions, I continually promote the uplifting of voice around the globe in hopes of spreading poetry love. I encourage others to take gallery walks into serenity each season through the galleries I create. This week with passion and pride I unveiled my Sense-sational Spring Gallery with one hundred and ten voices that included bloggers, poets, writers, artists, photographers, and students. 

The Poetry Friday community was the biggest supporter of this gallery so I am grateful to all my fellow poets who with grace, resolve, and creativity provided their poetic thoughts. Many thanks are extended to the following poets for their individual image poems and/or their contributions to the 2018 Progressive Poem.

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2018 Summer Poetry Swap

Created and facilitated by Tabatha Yeatts

I am the lucky recipient of a wonderfully hand-crafted, paper crafting gift from my poet pal, Linda Mitchell (whom I have been eagerly awaiting a meet-up when I visit my grandbaby in Virginia). She included four poems, one for each season, under each delicate paper collage that she created. The summer poem will grace The Art of Summering Gallery and the others will be shown throughout the year. 

Being a fan of hand-crafted products, I have to say Linda outdid herself with this poetry swap. Each one of her poems was equally beautiful in their design and sentiment and all followed the format that is shown above. 

Beside this packet of four Etsy-like, paper craft, poem surprises, there was a glossy poetry postcard with a poem titled "Flight Plan" and a hand-written note on the back: 

Carol, I'm so enjoying some paper crafting for our poetry exchange. I just had to write about the seasons for you. Linda Mitchell

Linda captured the spirit of giving and I enjoyed the fruits of her labor. Referring back to the Twain quote, I received the full value of joy of this week by providing a gallery walk into serenity at Sense-sational Spring Gallery and receiving an amazing poetry swap gift. 

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To round off joyful thoughts this Friday, you can join me at Sylvia Vardell's blog, Poetry for Children, where she is beaming with pride over the release of the book she and Janet Wong have published.

I am eager to read through this book because I believe it is going to change the concept of principals' morning announcements. With this book in hand, principals will be able to provide a poetic lens into the people and places in schools that contribute to joyful education. I am proud and honored to be included as one of the 50+ poets who contributed to this book and will be one of the bloggers on the Great Morning Blog Tour. 

Beyond the poems that were written, Janet and Sylvia have added "Did You Know" and "Follow Up" paragraphs so that principals can easily prep for the Poetry Friday announcement. There is even a sample read aloud by Principal Steven Wilfing of Stony Brook Elementary School in Pennington, New Jersey included in the form of a short video. What can be more fun than to arrive at school this fall and listen to Great Morning poems read by the principal who is the lead modeler in the school? Thank you Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong.