Today's Quote: John Muir

Good tidings to all as we look forward to a new year. --DM

Text:
Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees.
~ John Muir

Today's Quote: Louisa May Alcott

Text:
I'm not afraid of storms, for I'm learning how to sail my ship.
~ Louisa May Alcott

Today's Quote: Author Unknown

Text:
We must walk consciously only part way toward our goal, and then leap in the dark to our success.
~ Author unknown
Illustration by Jessie Willcox Smith.

Today's Quote: Emily Post

Something to take to heart at dinner today. Happy Thanksgiving! --DM

Text:
Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use.
~ Emily Post
Photo by Jack Delano.

Today's Quote: Baltasar Gracián

Text:
The greatest of sages can commit one mistake, but not two; he may fall into error, but he doesn’t lie down and make his home there.
~ Baltasar Gracián

Today's Quote: Stephen Colbert

Text:
You can’t laugh and be afraid at the same time—of anything. If you're laughing, I defy you to be afraid.
~ Stephen Colbert

Photo by David Shankbone.

Today's Quote: Only Joking!

Considering it's Halloween, I'm inclined to stray a little from the quote theme for today! --DM

Text:
Question:
What kind of mistakes do ghosts make?

Answer:
Boo boos!
~ Joke

Today's Quote: Denis Waitley

Text:
Don't dwell on what went wrong. Instead, focus on what to do next.
~ Denis Waitley
Original photo by Alan Levine, CC0 1.0.

Today's Quote: Robert Kiyosaki

Text:
People who avoid failure also avoid success.
~ Robert Kiyosaki

Today's Quote: Proverbial Wisdom

Text:
The elephant in front of your eyes can't be seen, but the speck across the sea is clearly visible.
~ Indonesian proverb

Today's Quote: Robert H. Schuller

Text:
Here's how to look at problems: Problems are guidelines, not stop signs!
~ Robert H. Schuller

Today's Quote: Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Text:
Only in growth, reform, and change, paradoxically enough, is true security to be found.
~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

IMPERFECT backpack pin

This post was prompted by a friend's backpack pin collection. Do you have one? Have you thought about making your own? This post on Wonderful DIY has a bunch of ideas about it: DIY Enamel Pins.

Here's a backpack pin of the IMPERFECT cover:

Today's Quote: Leonardo da Vinci

Text:
He who thinks little, errs much.
~ Leonardo da Vinci

Today's Quote: Maya Angelou

Text:
If we are bold, love strikes away the chains of fear from our souls.
~ Maya Angelou

Today's Quote: Proverbial Wisdom

Text:
A beautiful thing is never perfect.
~ Egyptian proverb

Today's Quote: John Dryden

Text:
Errors, like straws, upon the surface flow;
He who would search for pearls, must dive below.
~ John Dryden

Today's Quote: Rainer Marie Rilke

Text:
For one human being to love another: that is perhaps the most difficult of our tasks; the ultimate, the last test and proof, the work for which all other work is but preparation.
~ Rainer Marie Rilke

Today's Quote: Toni Morrison

We lost a great American writer, Toni Morrison, earlier this week, but her words will continue to inspire us. --DM

Text:
The function of freedom is to free someone else.
~ Toni Morrison

Photo by Angela Radulescu, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Today's Quote: C. S. Lewis

Text:
The more you obey your conscience, the more your conscience will demand of you.
~ C. S. Lewis

Today's Quote: Proverbial Wisdom

Text:
It's possible to light another man's candle without damaging your own.
~ Danish proverb

Today's Quote: Megan Rapinoe

Text:
We have to be better. We have to love more, hate less. We got to listen more and talk less...It’s our responsibility to make this world a better place.
~ Megan Rapinoe

Today's Quote: Benjamin Hardy

Text:
Mental creation always precedes physical creation. Before a building is physically constructed, there’s a blueprint.
~ Benjamin Hardy

Today's Quote: Denzel Washington

Text:
Success? I don't know what that word means. I'm happy. But success, that goes back to what in somebody's eyes success means. For me, success is inner peace. That's a good day for me.
~ Denzel Washington

Today's Quote: Proverbial Wisdom

Text:
The mistakes of others are good teachers.
~ Estonian proverb

Today's Quote: Ingvar Kamprad

Text:
Only while sleeping one makes no mistakes.
~ Ingvar Kamprad

Today's Quote: Pearl S. Buck

Text:
Every great mistake has a halfway moment, a split second when it can be recalled and perhaps remedied.
~ Pearl S. Buck

Today's Quote: Henry James

Text:
She had an unequalled gift....of squeezing big mistakes into small opportunities.
~ Henry James

Today's Quote: Leonard Cohen

Text:
Ring the bells that still can ring.
Forget your perfect offering.
There is a crack in everything.
That's how the light gets in.
~ Leonard Cohen

Today's Quote: Evelyn Underhill

Text:
It looks impossible till you do it, and then you find it is possible.
~ Evelyn Underhill

Today's Quote: Proverbial Wisdom

Text:
There are no mistakes, only lessons.
~ Chinese proverb

Today's Quote: Winston Churchill

Text:
...no boy or girl should ever be disheartened by lack of success in their youth, but should diligently and faithfully continue to persevere and make up for lost time.
~ Winston Churchill

Today's Quote: Beverly Sills

Text:
You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don't try.
~ Beverly Sills

Unfinished

unfinished by Betsssssy

People studying languages might have heard the term "Imperfect" as a tense.

Imperfect tense is for actions that don't start at a particular time or end at a particular time.

"Imperfect" comes from the Latin imperfectus "unfinished" because the imperfect expresses an ongoing, uncompleted action.

Don't you think "Unfinished" is a great way to think of us imperfect people because living is an ongoing, uncompleted action?

Today's Quote: Proverbial Wisdom

Text:
Never point out the mistakes of another with a dirty finger.
~ Italian proverb

Today's Quote: Adlai Stevenson II

You have to start by believing in yourself! --DM

Text:
It's hard to lead a cavalry charge if you think you look funny on a horse.
~ Adlai E. Stevenson II

Today's Quote: Joe Miller

Text:
When you're not really happy with a painting--that's the time to experiment...it can't get any worse.
~ Joe Miller

Soaring Elephant Soccer Moths

Some IMPERFECT poets have new books out this year! Check out:

Margarita Engle's Soaring Earth: A Companion Memoir to Enchanted Air

Irene Latham's Meet Miss Fancy

Elizabeth Steinglass's Soccerverse: Poems about Soccer

B.J. Lee's There Was an Old Gator Who Swallowed a Moth

Today's Quote: Margaret Thatcher

Text:
You may have to fight a battle more than once to win it.
~ Margaret Thatcher

Today's Quote: Abraham Lincoln

Text:
I am not bound to win, I am bound to be true. I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live up to the light I have.
~ Abraham Lincoln

Today's Quote: Robert Louis Stevenson

Happy Valentine's Day!

Text:
You can give without loving, but you can never love without giving.
~ Robert Louis Stevenson

500 Reasons to Explore Poetry Anthologies

Sharing a review of IMPERFECT from the American Library Association's Booklist Online. The review is in a wonderful article by Sylvia Vardell called "Books and Authors: 500 Reasons to Explore Poetry Anthologies":

Professor Vardell says:

The poems and poets in these anthologies offer a range of poetic forms, subjects, and perspectives from which readers of all ages can take inspiration.

If you were to spend approximately $100 and order the poetry anthologies featured here, you would have access to 500 different poets who write for young people. 500! Who knew there were so many classic and contemporary poets to seek out and savor? The recent resurgence of the poetry anthology provides a valuable resource when it comes to celebrating diversity in literature. The editors of these current poetry collections have actively sought out many new poets, offering new perspectives on a variety of themes and topics. It’s also interesting to see the diverse forms that these anthologies can take: blending poetry, fiction, and nonfiction and providing cross-genre connections so important for teaching; maximizing the picture-book format with illustrations that can inspire each poet or provide a unifying theme for the poetry; or eschewing art and illustrations to focus on poetry exclusively.

Many of these outstanding new collections are the creations of new or small presses taking risks to reach poetry readers. And many new voices make their first appearance in a poetry collection or anthology. In sharing these poetry anthologies, we can provide opportunities to meet new writers, new poetic forms and styles, and new ways to approach themes and topics and perhaps inspire young readers to create their own collections of favorite poems.

Poetry for Older Readers

Imperfect: Poems about Mistakes: An Anthology for Middle Schoolers. Ed. by Tabatha Yeatts. 2018. History House, $11.99 (9780967915838). Gr. 5–8.

This slim volume, geared toward middle-graders, packs a lot of punch. Featuring 70 poems by 55 different poets, it includes many new poets, such as Linda Kulp Trout, Catherine Flynn, and Robert Schechter, alongside a handful of classic poets like Carl Sandburg, Kobayashi Issa, and Antonio Machado. There are even a selection of poems written by young people themselves (in sixth and seventh grade). The focus on making mistakes of all kinds is the “perfect” focus for an anthology aimed at tweens and teens, and the poets approach the topic from both serious and silly points of view. Extra resources at the back of the book offer helpful advice for the reader, including “Making Good Decisions: Brainstorming for Future You,” with very practical tips; “Apologizing Effectively,” with step-by-step guidance on making sincere apologies; and “Poem Forms You Can Try,” with options for poetry writing, including acrostic, diamante, double dactyl, and poems for two voices. Pithy quotes and minimal art are subtly placed throughout the poems, including the sketch of a crack (in the vase on the cover) on many pages, hinting at the “mending” of imperfection the Japanese call “kintsugi,” or “precious scars” or “golden repair,” a way to see the beauty in fixing what is broken. A lively blog dedicated to the book (MistakesAnthology.Blogspot.com) continues to offer insights and quotes, along with links to each of the poets with more poems to enjoy. Some of my favorite poems in this engaging collection include:

"Apology,” by Robert Schechter, with a multitude of synonyms for mistake;
“A Note from the Architect,” by Mary Lee Hahn, a spin on creating the Leaning Tower of Pisa;
“Sea Hunt,” by Steven K. Smith, a narrative poem about discovering one’s passion; and
“Stolen,” by Elizabeth Steinglass, a look at how shoplifting might make you feel.

Today's Quote: Proverbial Wisdom

Text:
Your friend will swallow your mistakes, your enemy will present them on a plate.
~ Arabian proverb

Today's Quote: Golda Meir

Text:
Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.
~ Golda Meir

Blackout Button

The road to success involves trying new things, trying again, making mistakes! This blackout button is by Adventure Awaits Us:

A blackout poetry collection on Pinterest -- inspiration to make your own!

Today's Quote: Henry David Thoreau

Text:
Success usually comes to those who are too busy to be looking for it.
~ Henry David Thoreau

Today's Quote: Thomas J. Watson

Text:
Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It's quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn't at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can.
~ Thomas J. Watson

Today's Quote: Diane Ackerman

Text:
I don't want to get to the end of my life and find that I lived just the length of it. I want to have lived the width of it as well.
~ Diane Ackerman

Today's Quote: Benjamin Franklin

Text:
Be at war with your vices, at peace with your neighbors, and let every new year find you a better man.
~ Benjamin Franklin