A Writing Kind of Day

Several blogs back (11/29) I wrote a piece titled: Writer's Notebook. One of my favorite authors Ralph Fletcher who writes books on the writing process also publishes poem books for young adults. Last night was a clear crisp night with a great view of the moon. It reminded me of one of his poems called A Writing Kind of Night in the book A Writing Kind of Day Poems for Young Poets.

A Writing Kind of Night

It is clear tonight

a writing kind of night.

There's a moon stirring up

mysterious metaphors

in my imagination.

The heavens are jam-packed

with planets and black holes

that are still undiscovered,

and magnificent poems

that are still unwritten

The author shows you in his book that you can write a poem about almost anything that occurs in your daily life. How about this one?

Poetry

Poetry is like some

sugar-crazed teenager

who just got a license

but refuses to follow

the rules of the road

It races out of control

then jams up traffic by

going reaaaaal slooooooow.

It turns up the music so loud

you can't sleep at night.

I can't figure out how it Decides

to capitalize certain Words

Punctuation? Ha! A joke!

Won't use complete sentences.

And why does it refuse to

stay

on

the

line?

The most annoying thing?

Poetry won't shut up.

It embarrasses everyone

by telling the truth.

So how about an open invitation to make this a writing kind of day for yourself? Remember free free verse works as well as rhyming. If you get stuck go back to the blog I wrote on the color purple. Since we are not speaking purple anymore try another color and begin

What is...

This time of the year we often crave Comfort Foods. This is an easy side dish.

Crisp Mashed Potato Cakes

Ingredients;

• 1/2 cup green onions
• 2 cups mashed potatoes chilled (if possible use a potato ricer to make potatoes a smoother consistency)
• 1/2 cup shredded extra sharp cheddar cheese
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1/8 tsp. pepper
• 5 slices of bacon cooked and crumbled
• 3/4 cup panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)

Directions:

• Preheat oven 425
• Saute onions in a non-stick pan that has been lightly greased about 2 min.
• Remove and fry up bacon in same pan
• Stir into chilled mashed potatoes onion, seasonings, bacon and cheese
• Divide potato mixture into 6 equal portions shaping into patties
• Dredge patties in panko
• Place on a greased cookie sheet
• Bake 12 minutes turn over and bake another 12 minutes