Tara A. Elliott

The image shows a heavily snow-covered 200 year-Old pine tree branches in the foreground, with the branches extending diagonally across the image. The snow is thickly layered on the branches and needles. In the background, there are additional trees visible, also covered in snow. A power line runs horizontally across the lower part of the image. The sky appears overcast, contributing to the wintry scene. It is eerily gray, almost slightly green, with streaks of snow being caught in the camera lens also vertically during the February blizzard of 2026.

The image shows a close-up view of tree branches covered in snow. The branches are densely packed, creating a complex network of lines and shapes in the very faint peach morning light. The snow is thickly layered on the branches of a tall pine on the left and a crape Myrtle in the forefront and the right, highlighting their contours and adding texture. In the background, larger tree trunks and branches are visible, also covered in snow, contributing to the overall wintry scene. The trees appear to be tall, with branches extending upwards and outwards, filling the frame. The sky is slightly visible through the several-inch snow covered branches, providing a contrasting backdrop.

Get your ticket for the 29th Bay to Ocean Writers Conference! Featuring NYT Best Selling author S.A. Cosby! March 14th, LIVE at Chesapeake College on Maryland’s Eastern Shore!

easternshorewriters.org/event-6448395

Photo of NY Times bestselling author S.A. Cosby, wearing a white collared shirt over a black t-shirt. Cosby is a pensive, solidly-built black male stroking his dark beard streaked with grey with his right hand. He is wearing a solid black ball cap with no logo. Behind him on the wood paneled wall is a banner featuring a white dove with open wings on a black background.

The 2026 Bay to Ocean Writers Conference (sponsored by nonprofit ESWA) takes place on March 14th in Wye Mills Maryland. Over 30 craft-based sessions for writers to choose from, and featuring NY Times Best selling author, S.A. Cosby as our keynote. For more: easternshorewriters.org/page-1075433

Along the roadside, an open field blanketed with snow—trees dark in the distance, golden marsh grasses near the road mirroring the peach light of the already set sun. The Snow Moon rising in the far distance, high in the deep blue sky.

Snow Moon

RIP Rob Reiner, 1947-2025.

“As you wish.”

They also need to have just one teacher in their academic life truly stop and listen to them about what they love to read without judgement, and purely offer suggestions for their next book. Which means teachers need to make time for reading too—time we are never given.

These teach the kids to read one book until the project is done. Instead they need that accountability through shared experiences and dialogues with other readers while internalizing their own reading process and through understanding author craft through emulation in their own writing.

They also need a safe space in which to broaden their scope and share with other students, fostering a deep love of books. This is hard to do with 30-35 kids crammed in a classroom. Accountability for their reading is vital as well, but not through archaic book reports and projects.

Cramming a curriculum no mortal teacher could possibly get through does nothing for struggling readers. They need modeling and depth of understanding as well as art and creative writing to further foster the brain development of empathy and understanding.

Truth. Students need to understand the why as well as the how, and to me, a veteran middle school ELA teacher, have structured time not only for direct and small group instruction, but also to joyously build the neural networks for sitting in silence and independently reading.

Terrence Hayes, “I lock you in an American sonnet that is part prison”

Shara McCallum, “Madwoman”

John Nieves, “Dissipation”

Nancy Mitchell, “Black Bittern”

Grace Cavaleri, “A Field of Finches Without Sight Still Singing”

More contemporary…

Kevin Prufer, “Churches”

Teri Ellen Cross Davis, “The Goddess of Cleaning”

Christopher Salerno, “Headfirst”

Jane Satterfield, “Radio Clash”

Gerry LaFemina, “Looking for Caravaggio"

James Arthur, “Tyrrhenian Sea”

Maggie Smith, “Good Bones”

I am partially sighted which makes it hard to read your list, but…

Lucille Clifton, “won’t you celebrate with me”

Pablo Neruda, “If You Forget Me”

Li Young Lee, “Persimmons”

Carolyn Forche, “The Colonel”

Sharon Olds, “I Go Back to May 1937”

Michael Glaser, “The Presence of Trees”

Li-Young Lee: The 2014 Caesar and Patricia Tabet Poetry Reading YouTube video by The Creative Media Lab at Dominican University

Hearing Lee read is also valuable as his voice brings so much to his work.

My favorite reading, other than when I was fortunate to see him live many years ago: m.youtube.com/watch?v=uwfx...

Rose was his first book. You can see threads of depth starting to form. As you read further into his body of work, the threads weave more deeply, the images driving metaphor. Poems like “Mnemonic” and “Persimmons” capture universals so well, and they are poems that beg to be read more than once.

Let me know what you think. I don’t feel she was given enough credit for her work while she was alive. But I’m biased. She was my Professor.

Pick this up next…

Stunning & powerful.

Join us!

Love this, Cass!

You won’t want to miss the stunning debut poetry collection from the incredible Cassandra Whitaker! Join us for the launch on 7/29! bsky.app/profile/cass...

Thrilled to find a home for the lead poem of my manuscript Whorl. Thanks to editor Adam Vines and the Birmingham Poetry Review editorial team for the publication!

Love it! Perfect for summer!

Excited to give the Poetry Day Keynote on Sunday, May 18th LIVE at Manor Mill! If you’re in the Baltimore/DC/Annapolis area there are still a few seats remaining.

Register for Poetry Day at manor-mill.com/poetryday

Sounds facinating!

Hope to see you in Wilmington on Saturday! Excited to share my poems alongside stellar poets David Little and David Kozinski at the mansion!

Excited to share the stage with writing friends Brent Lewis, Kenton Kilgore, Beth Dulin and Joyce Maust! Hope you can join us live at Queen Anne’s County Centre for the Arts in Centreville, Maryland on Saturday, April 12th from 7-9 pm EST!

@brentfnalewis.bsky.social @bethdulin.bsky.social

Thanks to all for the fabulous birthday wishes! Had a blast rocking out the open mic at the BTO After Party at QACAC for 55! Much thanks to all for the happy wishes! 💕