Poetry Notebooks

Poetry Friday/ Collage a Poem

Spring brings

Confetti Rain

New garden palette

I’ve been enjoying the combination of poetry and collage, two of my favorite creative pursuits! The little index card notebook I’m using makes a nice little nest for spring creative thoughts.

Here in New England, I’ve been appreciating the spring blooms and a leisurely walk in a local park. A bright sunny day invited some of my family and I to take a stroll in a Tulip garden and enjoy the cheerful colors in nature’s palette.

It’s Poetry Friday, hosted this week, by Rose @ImaginethePossibilities, check out her poems and a lovely notebook collaboration with her granddaughter! Then, see her blog links for more Poetry Friday poems.

Poetry Month/Poetry Friday/ Collage a Poem

Scraps + a good little spiral bound notebook = POETRY FUN

Paper play, word play, colorful scraps on my art desk are things that make me happy. A little index card style notebook is a perfect place to collect the art scraps that come your way and create something. Grab some glue, add some book text, images, a splatter of paint, maybe a sentiment or two – to layer in a poem, or start writing a poem from your intuitive collage.

Here’s mine:

She was herself again

without pause

The music of Wildflowers

Letters, dancing without cause-

Flourishing

Her life’s Collage

Jill Dailey, 2026

This week, 4/24, Poetry Friday is hosted by Irene Latham @ Live Your Poem.

Reading Irene’s poetry, recent news and blog is always a delight. She’s published a novel! Some Starry Night, is a fictionalized account – what if this really happened – historical novel of an imagined relationship between Emily Dickinson and Vincent van Gogh. I’m excited to get my copy. For me, there is so much to savor in the abundance of what Irene shares. Today, I want to focus on her Ekphrastic poem, from her series ArtSpeak. It is a poetry response to a quilt by Faith Ringgold, “Vincent at the Sunflower Quilting Bee.”

I’ve always appreciated Faith Ringgold’s work and when I was teaching in the library classroom, I joyfully taught a unit on her art and books with colleagues. In Irene’s post, what strikes me most is the contrast of it all – the bright colors of Faith Ringgold’s art and Irene’s poem with layered meanings of work and struggle (my interpretation.) One thing that I’m savoring is the image she creates of Van Gogh, “offers them fifteen faces in a vase…” What a powerful metaphor that for me read like an understory of how the quilters are “contained,” in a broader cultural way. This was brought home to me with her ending “for beauty, for freedom, let us praise.” I hope you have time to read Irene’s beautiful poem this Poetry Friday. What’s your interpretation?

Check out her blog “Live Your Poem.” I’d get a good cup of tea, or coffee and sit back to enjoy all the creative abundance. Happy Poetry Friday! Jill

Live Your Poem

Poetry Month/Poetry Friday Posts /Word Play & Mixed Media

Collage a poem, Found Poetry, Mixed Media

Playing in the Poetry Notebook on National Haiku Poetry Day, April 17, 2026.

Fun with text and collage to create a Haiku today.

I’ve also been hopping over to Poetry Friday more frequently, and checking out the posts. It’s something I want to do more of. There’s so much inspiration and a great community of poets, many children’s poets, posting and writing regularly. Check it out here: Poetry Friday.

Happy creating,

Jill

27 thoughts on “Poetry Notebooks”

    1. Hi Carol, oh what a beautiful art/poetry Padlet. Full of spring inspiration! I’d enjoy sharing, thank you:) Isn’t it fun to combine visual art with poetry? It is one of my favorite things. Appreciate you stopping by and will happily post to your Spring Seeds Grace padlet.

  2. Jill, I am taking a watercolor class and feel like a failure. I think I’ll cut up my paintings and do collage. You’ve inspired me to turn failure into creativity. And why not add words? Thanks for your inspiration.

    1. Hi Margaret, I hear you, watercolor is tricky to learn, I too recently took a class and found it uphill. I think it’s one of those long-term build your skills art form that takes lots of finesse for sure! I do love collage and find it so open for self-expression as an art form. I’m glad my post inspired you and hope that you enjoy collage. Maybe eventually we will both enjoy watercolor too:)

  3. I really love Faith Ringgold’s work, and I think Irene has such a cool way of expanding another artist’s work into her own space, and making her work amplify it. I love how your collage takes words and makes them imagery instead of the other way around – it works! I’ve rounded up your imagery and poem with our ekhphrastic poems today, because this counts! Hope you can join Poetry Friday more often – I’m trying to be more regular, too!

    1. Hi Tanita, yes, to Faith Ringgold’s work! As a teacher-librarian I was fortunate to work with creative colleagues that worked hard to enrich student experiences through author/illustrator studies. It was so rewarding to see how students responded and created too. I’m excited about Irene’s work, she has such a beautiful range of writing. I appreciate your kind words, and I do enjoy the interplay of words-pictures, never really knowing which will come first:) Great to meet you through Poetry Friday. I hope to join more regularly too. Hope we both do:)

    2. Replay 2:) I tried to post a comment on your poetry blog, but couldn’t comment for some reason. Weird how tech., is. Just wanted to let you know I enjoyed your Bearded Iris Poem, love how it wakes and comes into its own with the sun. No shrinking violet:) The photograph is stunning! Also, I appreciate you including me in the group of Ekphrastics to check out:) Don’t know why I couldn’t comment, but wanted you to know. Enjoy the rest of poetry month! Jill

      1. (Thanks for stopping by – I’m trying to figure out what’s going on with the comment thing, too – some people can, some people can’t – and it’s completely arbitrary!)

  5. Jill, I LOVE what you’re doing with the collage poetry! I also love your thoughts about Faith Ringgold’s sunflower piece and my response to it…quilts have layers, and then Faith adds words, and we add words and our own llfe experiences, and it just makes sense that this conversation would evolve out of such richness! We have so many crafty-artsy folks in this community who are also poets…wouldn’t it be fun to do a poetry-craftsy-artsy retreat of some sort?? You’ve got me thinking!! xo

    2. Hi Irene, thank you and a poetry-craftsy-artsy retreat of some sort, speaks to my heart! Yes, please:) A dreamy thought is before, or after Poetry Palooza- although, this is a lovely big retreat on its own. Hmmm, you have me thinking how wonderful a retreat like this would be too:) Loving all the interplay of visual arts and poetry and I agree, I think many poets in this community would join in the fun!! Again, Happy “book” Birthday to Some Starry Night, and I hope you have a little time to relax after all the celebration too:)

    1. Hi Karen, thank you! I so enjoy the creative connection of playing with words and collaging paper. What fun we poets have experimenting:) Appreciate your kind words and Happy Poetry Month!

    1. Hi Patricia, so much fun and I think you could too:) Just a few simple supplies can open up the world of collage- scraps of paper, some glue and for us poets words as well. Hope you give it a try:) Appreciate your kind words and Happy Poetry Month!

  8. ooooooh, I love it! I’ve been having fun in my scraps these days too. It’s just making master boards as I need to unwind at the end of a day or week. But, you make me think a collage is in order! Love your notebook and the ‘music of wildflowers.’

    1. Hi Linda, so glad to know you’re having a play with your scraps too:) I know we share a love of scrappy creating and upcycling, so collage definitely is in order:) Yes to a good masterboard, such a good way to create and relax. Happy Poetry Month, creative friend! Hope you’re school year and poetry is going well:)

  9. Hi Jill! I signed up for iHanna’s DIY Postcard Swap– it seems like it might be up your alley. You could Google it or LMK if you’d like the link.

    1. Thank you, Tabatha and glad to know you’re enjoying iHanna’s DIY Postcard Swap. This is definitely up my alley. Right now, I’m doing something similar in an online mixed media class for Fodder School 5 (willawanders.com.) I appreciate the postcard swap heads-up and hope you’re having a wonderful Poetry Month!

  10. What a fun way of combining your collaging art with poetry! A perfect marriage!! I hope you’ll join us for Poetry Friday often — your work is inspiring!

  11. Hi Marylee, thank you! I’ve always appreciated Poetry Friday, and I hope to join in more often. What a wonderful community of poets!

  12. Jill, it is so good to see you again! It’s been a long time since we’ve talked (about geniushour probably!) I couldn’t figure out how to comment on your blog last Friday, so I’m glad to see it here. Your poem is beautiful. I love the rhymes of pause, cause, collage. And thank you for the inspiration to make a small collage notebook.

    1. Hi Denise, yes, it could have been tech.,/genius hour, so nice to see you again too! Thank you and I’m glad to know you’re in this community. I really enjoy creative notebooks and journals. Love the fun of small ones like this:) Thanks so much for commenting, glad the blog let you this week and hope you’ve enjoyed Poetry Month too!

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