Poetry Friday: Cut from WIP

Thanks to Kiesha for hosting POETRY FRIDAY at Whispers from the Ridge today. New to Poetry Friday? Find out more here.

Happy Poetry Friday, everyone!

Now that A PLACE AT THE TABLE has launched, I am working on a new middle grade novel. This one is in verse (at least for now). The floods that destroyed the historic street near our old house is part of this book’s story.

Also incorporated into my WIP — memories of being out in the woods as a child, the wonder of catching frogs and newts, the stream where my best friend and I played for hours in the summer. At our new house, toads, snakes, and snails are part of the landscape (and you’ve already met our box turtles).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve drafted many poems that won’t make it into my working draft. Here is one of my favorites.

Where

by Laura Shovan

I woke up last night

thinking of my brother

and me catching frogs,

salamanders, spotting turtles

sunbathing on a rock

or fallen log. Where

did they go, the animals,

when the flood came

and the stream

burst its banks?

If you’d like to read more about the two so-called thousand  year floods that impacted Ellicott City in 2016 and 2018, here is an article. 

Tweet