Confab and Contests

A friend is a gift you give yourself.
~unknown

Welcome, everybody! Good to have you here. We're having a party, poetry style!

Today, in addition to doing the Poetry Friday round-up, I'm holding a giveaway. Several giveaways, actually. Two of them are particularly good for teachers, kids, or for anybody who wants to share them with kids, and one is more personal and not really meant for sharing.

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One winner will receive a Shakespeare's Greatest Hits, Volume 1 cd:

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Another winner will receive The World's Very Best Opera for Kids cd:

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And lastly I am giving away a custom-made set of poetry binder dividers. You can tell me which poems to use or leave it up to me.

If you'd like to enter any of these contests, you can send me an email: tabatha(at)tabathayeatts(dot)com. I will randomly choose winners next Wednesday the 25th.

I look forward to visiting your links!

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* Greg brings us The 14 Fibs of Gregory K. theme song.

* Renee is featuring Margarita Engle's new verse novel THE LIGHTNING DREAMER, including a video of Margarita reading selections.

* B.J. has an original poem, The Sense-sational Sea: a poem in two voices.

* Myra offers us a Marilyn Singer and Gris Grimly collaboration, Creature Carnival, perfect for their current bimonthly theme on Monsters, Beasts, and Chimera: Spooks and Spectres.

* Ruth is sharing Monet Refuses the Operation by Lisel Mueller.

* Catherine is thinking about her grandmother and Robert Burns.

* Heidi has an anecdote and a video.

* At Author Amok, poet Charles Rammelkamp discusses his synagogue's annual Poetry Shabbat.

* Carol is sharing Love Wants to Know How.

* It's Miniature Golf Week at Today's Little Ditty, featuring an original poem inspired by Michelle's little putters.

* Jama is enamoured with apple dumplings over at Alphabet Soup.

* Margaret has more dots for International Dot Day and an Animoto video with a collaborative Dot Day poem by her students.

* Laura Salas is in with Bathtub Families by Billy Collins.

* Robyn is "carpe-ing diem" with Andrew Marvell and his Coy Mistress. Oh, and there's some amorous birds.

* Irene is posting from the National Book Festival (this weekend, in DC) and has a little Shel Silverstein poem that captures how she's feeling today.

* Joy brings us THE LIZARD and a poetry prompt.

* Becky's poem, It's Apple Pickin' Time, was inspired by her family's recent visit to a local orchard.

* Diane has a little poem called My BFF at Random Noodling.

* KK's Kwote is a line Diane found in Deborah Levy's novel, Swimming Home.

* Kurious Kitty continues "Talk Like a Pirate Day" with a poem from Shiver Me Timbers!

* Liz is sharing her latest favorite poem -- Introduction to Poetry by Billy Collins.

* At The Poem Farm, Amy has a story poem about kindness, inspired by a student's writing piece.

* Janet is joining in with a poem about goldfinches.

* Keri pops in with her 2 favorite love poems and a request for everyone else's!

* Carmela offers her Children's Poetry Blog Hop post, in which she (anxiously) shares the first poem she ever had published: My Sanctuary.

* Matt has a couple of haikus - one for children, one for adults.

* Linda is celebrating being on the Cybils Poetry Group-Round Two, and sharing a sweet fairy poem.

* At A Teaching Life, Tara is sharing a poem about chocolate milk, which, her students tell her, is yet another thing they feel is being unjustly taken away.

* Violet brings us a light-hearted sonnet called Fruit Notes.

* Happy Cybils panelist Anastasia has a haiku about the upcoming Cybils poetry nominations.

* Cathy's poem is about an Artist Date with a hungry koala!

* At Bildungsroman, you can find The Elf and the Dormouse by Oliver Herford.

* Samuel posted five new poems this week on the lunchbox doodle site. (He's especially proud of today's poem, which is, in part, a welcome song to Autumn.)

* At Father Goose, Charles is Speaking of Flowers.

* Ed shares some minor quibbles about the 2013 Cybils Poetry Award.

* Dori offers This is the garden: colors come and go by e.e. cummings.

* Mary Lee posted The Tide Rises, The Tide Falls by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

* Jennie has a review of October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard by Leslea Newman.

* Jone is sharing a summer swap poem she received from Keri.

* Jeanette showed POETRY magazine to her students and it inspired some fun responses from the kids.

* Janet Wong explains The Mortimer Minute (bunny witness protection plastic surgery courtesy of Dr. LaTulippe).

* Janet Squires reviews The Place My Words Are Looking For: What Poets Say About And Through Their Work, selected by Paul B. Janeczko.

* Betsy is imagining Dark Horses.

* Teach Mentor Texts is thinking about Banned Books Week.