Today is National Poem in Your Pocket Day. Poetry has a bad rap. A lot of it is pretentious. More is sophomoric. I should know. I wrote reams of bad poetry as a self-indulgent teenager.

I grew up on poetry. My mom had a book from which she read to us all the time. My sister took the book and read it to my nephew when he was young. Then I got the book to read to my own children. It’s copyrighted 1926, so it was an old book even when I was a child. I believe it was a 6th grade school book.  And while I have lots of poetry books on my shelves–Poe, Dickinson, Sexton, Thomas, Rumi, and so on, this is the book I gravitate to when I’m in the mood for poetry.

If I had to chose only one poem to carry in my pocket, it would be one from this book. It’s a Joyce Kilmer poem. Kilmer is probably best known for the his poem,

“I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree,”

but that’s not the one I have in mind.

I much prefer “The House with Nobody in It.”

I’m working on another werewolf book, with my good friends from Toke Lobo & the Pack.

When I was on a writing retreat a couple of months ago, I had an urge to read a book where the plot hung on the blues–the musical genre. I realized I hadn’t created a sound track for the story-in-progress and that jazz/blues were going to be predominant in the mix. For those readers who are not familiar with my werewolf world: Toke Lobo & The Pack is a country music band, this idea for jazz and blues was a little bizarre.

I think the need for bluesy jazz came because of the moon. The moon is almost a character in this story. It’s also the topic of a lot of music.

Here’s the mix. Several songs have been used in earlier volumes of what I call The Werewolf Chronicles.

• Bad Moon Rising (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
• Talking to the Moon (Don Henley)
• The Moon Looks Down and Laughs (Billie Holiday)
• Dancing in the Moonlight (King Crimson)
• Dancing Down the Moon (Debbie Harry/Blondie)
• Reaching for the Moon (Ella Fitzgerald)
• Moondance (Van Morrison)
• The Moon is a Harsh Mistress (Joe Cocker)
• I Wished on the Moon (Billie Holiday)
• Shame on the Moon (Bob Seger)
• Talking to the Moon (Sara Niemietz)
• Moonshadow (Cat Stevens)
• Brother Wolf, Sister Moon (The Cult)
• No Moon at All (Ella Fitzgerald)
• I Wish I Was the Moon (Neko Case)
• Moonglow (Diana Krall)
• Reflecting Light (Sam Phillips)
• Daylight Again/Cost of Freedom (Crosby, Stills & Nash)

This week’s #UpbeatAuthors topic is “a place that gives you peace.”  I really had to think long and hard about what peace means to me. There are many kinds of peace. Different places offer different types of peace.

One such place is my bed, which offers me peace from the crazy scary world in which we live.

I have an extra firm mattress (which my husband hates), and an extra thick box spring, so the bed is higher than a standard bed. Being short, I love the feeling of elevation.

We recently purchased new bedding. The debate over color took several weeks. We settled on this, and we both like it.

Have you ever heard the phrase “bedgasm?” This is exactly how I feel every night when I crawl into bed. And while I am a morning person, that doesn’t make leaving my bed any easier.

So yes: my bed is my place of peace.