Today's Thoughtful Thursday continues the celebration of Veteran's Day with two poems written by African American veteran Yusef Komunyakaa (b. 1947) about his Vietnam War service. Komunyakaa served in the United States Army from 1969 to 1970 as a correspondent; he was the managing editor of the Southern Cross during the Vietnam war, for which he was awarded a [...]
Today’s Thoughtful Thursday post, as it falls on Halloween, is dedicated to a series of delightfully sinister “Little Willie” poems. These poems detail the antics of Little Willie, a boy who carries out one devilish deed after another. Fans of Adams Family style fiendish humor will find these rhyming verses particularly fun. "Little Willie"poetry is first attributed to the [...]
Is your son or daughter an inspiring poet? A good writer? A talented artist? Time to enter a contest and show the world these talents! Today's Thoughtful Thursday showcases a few contests your creative children may want to enter. Click on the links for more details. National Poetry Month Poster Contest: Students in grades 9 through 12 can enter [...]
Did you know that National Hispanic Heritage Month began on September 15th and ends on October 15th? And why, you may ask, does this celebration of the histories, cultures and contributions of Americans whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean and Central and South America start in the middle of one month and end in the middle of the [...]
Our boys and girl are back in school! Today's Thoughtful Thursday offers some inspirational words and poems to celebrate the start of their new school year. The poem "Workshop" by Billy Collins (b. 1941) presents a delightfully irreverent analysis of itself within the poem and will appeal to all who spent time analyzing poetry in high school English. In [...]
In early August 2019 we lost Toni Morrison, the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. In today's Thoughtful Thursday we celebrate this gifted author by sharing some of her inspirational quotes. Share these with your children and enjoy. On Writing –If you find a book you really want to read, but it hasn't been written [...]
For today's Thoughtful Thursday we return to our roots with poems for Black boys. Our inspiration: Did you hear about the 10 year old Black boy who faced criminal aggravated assault charges after an elementary school dodgeball game? A (white) classmate was injured after being struck in the head with a ball the boy threw during the game. The [...]
Last month, Joy Harjo was named the U.S.’s 23rd Poet Laureate. She is the first Native American to be appointed to this role. She takes the position in September 2019, following U.S. Poet Laureate Tracey K. Smith, whose work has been featured often in Thoughtful Thursday posts. Harjo was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1951, and is a member [...]
There will be just one poem for today's Thoughtful Thursday. "A Small Needful Fact", by Ross Gay, pays tribute to Eric Garner, whose life was ended in 2014 by a police officer's illegal and deadly chokehold during an attempt to arrest him. The medical examiner ruled the death a homicide. A Staten Island grand jury decided not to indict the [...]
As we near mid July, today's Thoughtful Thursday celebrates Summer. We do so with a variety of poems about summer from a variety of poets. We start with a classic from Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906), who "In Summer" waxes eloquently about a song for a summer's day. Then we have a delightful ode to a "Firefly", a familiar summer [...]