Category: Video

Dynamite Diamantes

A Video Poetry-Writing Lesson for Kids

The diamante was the first poetic form created especially for kids. Learn how to write your own by watching this video.

Simple Cinquains

A Video Poetry-Writing Lesson

Want to learn how to write cinquain poems? Here’s a video lesson to show you how!

Awesome Acrostics

A video poetry-writing lesson

Acrostics are one of the easiest forms of poetry to write because they just have a single rule and they don’t have to rhyme. In this video lesson, I show how you can create your own acrostic poems in just a few steps.

Video – I Bought a Maserati

One of the great things about being a kid is having the ability to imagine all sorts of things. You can imagine being able to fly, have super powers, be a movie star, be incredibly rich, travel to outer space, and so on.

Of course you can’t actually do some of these things, like have super powers. But some of them could happen to you. You might someday be rich, or famous, or an astronaut.

Unfortunately, even for the things you could do, you probably still have to wait until you’re older. And that’s what this poem is about; getting your fondest wish, but still having to wait. In the meantime, you can always continue to dream.

Video – April Fool’s Day

I’ve been fooling around (pun intended) lately with creating videos, and so I decided to make a new one for what is currently the most popular poem on the website, “April Fool’s Day,” from my book Revenge of the Lunch Ladies.

Sorry it’s a little bit late for April Fool’s Day this year, since April is now almost halfway over. But I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Video – My Brother Ate My Smartphone

Here’s another video of a funny poem from my book My Cat Knows Karate. This one is called “My Brother Ate My Smartphone” and it’s about a boy who swallows a smartphone and suddenly becomes the smartest kid on the planet.

In a way, this poem is like a movie I saw when I was young. It was called, “The Computer Wore Tennis Shoes” and it was about a college student who became a genius after an accident involving his school’s computer. Of course, this could never really happen, so please don’t eat your brother’s phone. Instead, just enjoy the poem and maybe a few more while you’re at it!

Video – My Cat Knows Karate

Here’s a video of me reciting the title poem from my book, My Cat Knows Karate. This new book has a number of poems about pets, animals, and sports, and this poem brings all three ideas together into a single poem.

I have always liked the idea of animals doing sports. So much so that I wrote an entire book of poems about it, The Tighty-Whitey Spider. And, if you like this poem, you might also enjoy my poem, “My Puppy Punched Me in the Eye” from my book My Hippo Has the Hiccups.

Poetry Reading at Barnes & Noble

On September 21, 2016, I did a poetry reading for a small group at Barnes & Noble in Spokane, Washington as part of a local program called “Poetry Rising.” I read a poem from each of my books, including my new anthology, One Minute Till Bedtime.

The folks at Poetry Rising were kind enough to send me  this video of the event.

My Teacher Took My iPod

Here is a video of me reciting my poem “My Teacher Took My iPod,” from the book Revenge of the Lunch Ladies.

When I was a student, iPods hadn’t been invented yet, but there were still plenty of things you weren’t allowed to have at school, and teachers would take them from you and return them at the end of the day, just like they do today with mobile phones and music players.