The Tangled Branch Discussion Forums

Thanks Linda and Aj—I love that a book might be in the hands of a young reader. Linda, of course, I'd be glad to!

Jackie

Thanks, Colm. I'm glad!

Thank you, Tracy. 

Hi all, I've been working on stories/poems/books for children, with the conviction that skills developed trying to write poetry improve your instincts no matter which direction you take.  I brought out a self-published middle-grade (age 9-12) novel in 2016—fumbling, but nonetheless used in a couple ...

Thank you Mark, Gyppo and Dave—always appreciate your comments.

  This perforated two-handled pot  firmly seated up next to the fan  grows a vine. It glints waxy green on hot days. Tentacles  weave spills like locks from Rapunzel  all-the-way-down-to-the-sill which I trim, so more will wind through the clay holes  and off the cracked rim.  Knob-handled pots sho...

Funny, Linda, even though you said "so the neighbors can't see in," you put me so firmly in the steaming kitchen that I imagined my life there. So I spent the rest of the poem wondering whether I closed the curtains so my grandmother wouldn't see me triple dipping, or so my neighbors now wouldn't wo...

Gyppo, you imply there's purpose in the voices, and that they're aimed at you. Do you think that of other things that come blowing in the wind?

Jackie

Oh dear! Dave, is this jargon? The last thing I want is to make a reader feel low! So, I need to include more about how the game works. Will work on that. Linda, I read that you yell "Pigtail" if you want a second chance, and it sounds like you know about that, too. I don't think we did. I know what...

The apple fits so neatly into meddling of massive proportions, Colm. Really clever! But are you surprised I don't like the ending?  

Jackie