Author Archives: Nancy K. Carpenter

About Nancy K. Carpenter

After 25 years in Texas, I've returned to Upstate New York to start a new life. In this journey, I've had to turn to my pen to make a living, as both a writer and teacher. One of my biggest challenges has been to catch up with the changes in technology that passed me by while I was raising my sons, riding horses, and raising hay on a farm outside Dallas. A writer, poet, teacher, and tutor, I have had to give up "fighting Gutenberg," as I used to say, and come to terms with the internet-- Macs, PCs, eBooks, iPads, and the world of cyberspace. These are my musings about life and the road that led me to this blog--my latest attempt to join the 21st Century.

His Master’s Choice

After watching too many presidential Coronavirus “briefings,” I woke up at 4 am several nights ago and wrote this ditty. I’ll let the poem speak for itself. HIS MASTER’S CHOICE –with apologies to Alexander Pope’s, “Epigram Engraved on the Collar … Continue reading

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My “No Green Thumb” Poem

I’m posting this poem at the request of several Facebook friends, who were curious about a reference to my former status as a non-gardener (and, I should admit, a lousy housekeeper).  In my son’s early years on our small farm … Continue reading

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Spaghetti in My Hair

In the Fall of 2014, I took a job at Headstart in Liverpool, N.Y.  I had moved back to Upstate New York after living 26 years near Dallas, Texas, in the wake of a divorce. I longed to be closer … Continue reading

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Christmas Inflatables

We’re having a wild and snowy winter in Upstate NY this year, and it stands in sharp contrast to my previous 26 winters in Dallas, TX.  With ceramic bumps as lane dividers on TX highways, plows are not allowed, nor … Continue reading

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NY Winters: Shoveling

Many of my friends in Texas thought I was insane to move back to “snow country” after 25 years of living in the Lone Star State. There was much I loved about my home in Dallas, especially my horse and … Continue reading

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More Leaves

More foliage poems. This time, haiku. As a teacher, I used this form to introduce students to the power and use of metaphor and to ease them into writing poetry. But now, I love the simplicity of it for my … Continue reading

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Autumn Walk

It’s been a while since I’ve written on this site, and the Upstate Autumn has emboldened me to start posting some of my poetry. Most know me as a children’s poet,  since I have a children’s book series, Itty & … Continue reading

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How I Came up with my Blog Title: quilltokeyboard.com

Call me fickle. I used to love my cartridge pen in high school and college and wrote everything with that little missile of blue ink tucked into the pen’s handle. (Hundreds of pens later, I like a simple blue Bic–it … Continue reading

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A valentine to my Mother, Jane Parke Carpenter, 1923-1999

Got up this morning, and a poem came. Whenever this happens, I am amazed and grateful, for as W.S. Merwin once said at a poetry workshop, (and I am paraphrasing, from memory), “After writing a poem we often feel that … Continue reading

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Valentine’s Day: Straight from the Horse’s Mouth….

Rather than turning to Hallmark for Valentines today, I thought I’d share with you some verses that my gelding, Bravo, wrote to a certain lovely filly named “Second Kiss” (her barn name was “Dottie”)  at Bay Yard Farm in Texas. … Continue reading

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