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Saturday, April 28, 2018

POEM #28- Conduit


Reading is a conduit to wholeness.    Jason Reynolds

I discovered Jason Reynolds about two years ago and have been a huge fan ever since. I have read almost all of his books and had the opportunity to see him, along with Brendan Kiely in an interview at the Denver Public Library last winter. I wish Reynolds' books had been around when my sons were in middle school and high school. 

Earlier this week, I came across an interview John Schu at Watch Connect Read did after winning the Newbery Honor Medal. I loved this quote, so today it is the basis for my golden shovel poem. 


"Conduit"

ahhh, this thing called reading
some think it is
 just about black words crawling across white page, but really it is a
high speed conduit
creating endless opportunities for travel to 
place where brain heart soul merge and there is wholeness

(C) Carol Wilcox, 2018

5 comments:

Jean said...

Brilliant!
The last line is the essence of reading, n'est pas?

Mary Lee said...

Great quote...made even better by your elaboration!

Come to DubLit19 -- he's one of our featured speakers! (SCORE!!!)

Cathy said...

Yes, a place where the heart and soul merge. Perfect!

(And as Mary Lee says, come to Dublin Lit. You'll find the place full of readers....and Jason Reynolds.)

Glenda Funk said...

I just read Jason Reynolds' new book "For Every One' this morning. Someone borrowed and has not returned my copy of "Long Way Down," which was signed w/ a wonderful inscription: "Read this. There aren't many words." But oh the words Jason Reynolds does write. They say so much, and your golden shovel captures the message JR wants for all young people. What a privilege it is to share his books w/ students.

Heidi Mordhorst said...

You're on fire here, Carol--your broccolifest (essaybake oven huzzah) and this Golden Shovel both fantastic.

When I teach poetry to K-2 I make a HUGE fuss about how poetry is the best because it doesn't take many words to make a good poem, as long as you choose juicy, powerful words, and because you get to make the rules yourself--you're The Boss of Your Poem. And then I show them all the stuff you get to be the boss of!