POETRY FRIDAY

So last night, I learned that my school district will be closed for the next three weeks. I'm not afraid of Corona. I am afraid for my kids. I'm afraid for my sixth graders being alone for days and weeks on end. Or alone with little brothers and sisters while their moms and dads go to work. I'm afraid of kids being hungry. I'm afraid of parents who are over stressed and worried about money being harsh with their kids. Mary Lee published a beautiful poem this morning. And then Parker Palmer shared Lynn Unger's poem "Pandemic."

Pandemic

What if you thought of it
as the Jews consider the Sabbath—
the most sacred of times?
Cease from travel.
Cease from buying and selling.
Give up, just for now,
on trying to make the world
different than it is.
Sing. Pray. Touch only those
to whom you commit your life.
Center down.

Read the rest of the poem here. 

Matt Esenwine, at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme is hosting Poetry Friday today.

SLICE #12/31- A Good Day

People warned me about J. 

Wiry, fast moving, loud.

Performing significantly below grade level. 

English language learner. 

Single mom, working all the time.

J and an older brother are pretty much raising themselves. 

The warnings were pretty accurate. 

She is loud. Busy.

At the center of pretty much every off-task event in the classroom.

And yet at the center of all of the naughty

there is a sweetness.

A little girl longing to be loved. 

Despite her insistent protestations,

"Don't touch me, Miss. I don't like to be touched."

Again and again and again.

"Don't touch me. I don't like to be touched."

In my afternoon class of 30.

She's pretty rough.

But she shines in my morning ELD group. 

She's grown a bunch. 

Is writing in English. 

Loves graphic novels. 

Especially NEW KID.

She stashes a copy behind the bookshelf 

so no one else can find it. 

Today I had to meet with J.

during recess.

There had been another incident. 

She dropped a book out the window

on purpose yesterday during cleanup.

We talked about safety.

That she could have hurt someone

And about respect.

That that's not how we treat our materials.  

She apologized

And we talked about how much 

she has changed this year.

Who she had been.

Who she is now.

"I'm trying Miss. 

I'm trying to do better."

I assured her that I knew that. 

That change takes time. 

"Can I go outside now, Miss?"

I told her she could and then I took a chance.

"Can I give you a hug?"

I expected her to say no, she didn't like to be touched. 

Instead, she wrapped her arms around me.

Stayed there for 30 seconds. 

I wondered when she had last been hugged.

Today was a good day.

SLICE 11/31- SOMEONE CRIES PRETTY MUCH EVERY DAY

I'm not sure I should admit this,
but pretty much every day,
somebody cries in sixth grade.

Today there were two.
This morning D cried.
She's afraid her mom might be dying.
I saw her mom a couple of days ago
she didn't seem sick.
She works at nearby restaurant
and was wearing her uniform.
I ask D if her mom is in the hospital.
She isn't.
I ask if they went to the emergency room.
She didn't.
Why do you think she's dying? I ask.
You can see those blue lines.
Those blue lines? I say.
Yes. She says, pointing to the veins
snaking across my old lady hands.
You mean her veins? I say.
You think she's dying because you can see her veins?
And then she tells me that there is purple
around one of the blue lines on her hand.
I'm trying to put the pieces together.
I'm thinking perhaps her mom has a bruise on her hand.
In the mean time, A jumps into the conversation.
My mom gets lots of those, she says.
She says there are these little tiny red hairs
all underneath your skin
all through your body.
This seems to appease D.
Your mom gets them too?
Yes, says A.
But she's not dying.
She's at work making cannolis.
D seems much relieved.

This afternoon K cried.
Was sobbing when she walked in the door to class
With a friend holding her up on either side
Are you ok, I asked.
Even though she clearly was not.
Is there anything I can do?
No, she says, I don't want to talk about it.
I watch as she walks across the room to her seat
Puts her head down on her desk.
Doesn't raise it for at least five minutes.
I make sure everyone else is started on independent reading
and go across the room
Her face is tear-stained
but she isn't crying any more
Can I do anything?
I ask again.
No, she says, I don't want to talk about it.
Will you let me know if I can help?
 I say as I move away.
She nods.
Five minutes later she is laughing with her table mates and
shortly after that, she leaves for an internship meeting.
She seems ok.

I'm not sure I should admit this,
but pretty much every day,
somebody cries in sixth grade.

SLICE 10/31- Rooney's Best Girl

A few days ago, I wrote about all of Rooney's girlfriends. 

He is definitely a fickle guy. 

And yet, in spite of all of his flings, he has one true love. 

It's my thirteen-year-old lab mix, Star.

Star is old. And chubby. And a teeny bit crochet-y. 

She snaps at him when he irritates her. 

Occasionally growls or barks. 

But Rooney fell in love with her that very first day.

And his love is undying. 

Every morning, the first thing he does when he wakes up is to hunt for Star.

And the first thing he does when we come home from school is to hunt for Star. 

Sometimes, she is asleep on the bed next to his kennel. 

Sometimes she is asleep in the bedroom.

Once in a while, she will be laying out on the back porch. 

Rooney always greets her enthusiastically. 

Sometimes too enthusiastically. 

Rooney is not exactly the greatest boyfriend. 

For starters, he has absolutely no personal boundaries.

He sits on her. 

Jumps off the bottom stair onto her back.

Lays as close as he can get on her bed. 

Drops his toys on her face. 

Drags her around by the collar. 

Pulls on her ears. 

Insists on endless games of bitey-face.

Star puts up with him. 

I think somehow she knows

she is his best girl.

SLICE #9/31-TOO BIG

When I was a little girl, I loved to put on my mom's high heels, or my dad's rubber rain boots and tromp around the house. My balance, of course, was more than a little precarious.

And somehow, that image dances through my head pretty regularly these days.

Pretty much every time I write with my sixth graders.

Every day, I ask them to try on shoes that are a little too big.

One day it's all about point of view. "Read this short story," I say. "When you are through, we are going to write a poem from the main character's best friend's point of view."

And the kids slog valiantly ahead.

Another day we talk about theme. "Today we are going to write literary analysis essay that compares how the author develops the coming of age theme in two different texts," I say.

And the kids slog valiantly ahead.

Right now we are writing persuasive letters. The kids chose their own topics and audience.We should be allowed to keep our cell phones. We should have a school letter jacket. We should have more after school sports and activities for middle schoolers.

There is a lot more voice and energy in their writing.

They are excited because the audience is bigger than their teacher. We are actually going to give the letters to someone.

Tomorrow we have to try persuasive essays.

And those too big high heels and rubber boots are once again dancing around in my brain.

SLICE #8/31- A DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200 KIND OF DAY

Today was one of those "DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200" kind of days. Not awful, but definitely a day where I just kind of did, and redid, and redid, but never quite got anything done.

1) I got up early and wrote my slice. It was about trying to parent my 26-year-old son, which has been more than a little challenging for about the past six months. After I finished it, I decided that maybe it was too personal and  wasn't fair to him to post it, even though he never reads my blog. So 45 minutes writing a post I will never use.

2) I was going to visit my mom in Colorado Springs (about 90 minutes south of where I live), like I do pretty much every Sunday. I was on my way out the door, literally, with keys in one hand and dog leash in the other, and my mom called. She had had a really busy day yesterday and was tired and didn't want me to come. She might have been fudging a little, and just saying that because she knew I had had a really busy weekend, but I ended up not going.

3) This afternoon, Rooney and I went to the grocery store. My store is going through a huge remodeling, which will be great when it's done, but right now, it just takes forever to find anything. I left my cart in one aisle, while I went around a corner to find the Hot Pockets, which my son thinks are one of the four food groups. When I came back, my cart, which was about 2/3 full, was missing. I went back one more aisle, thinking maybe I had misplaced it, but no cart. Then I spied a woman a little ways ahead, pushing what looked like my cart. I hustled after her, and tried to politely say that I thought she had my groceries. At first she was a little miffed, insisting it was her cart, but it really wasn't, I could see my son's store brand white bread, and the dark chocolate I had bought for my secret pal at school. The woman had put a few items in on top of my groceries, and wanted to go through everything in the cart to make sure she had her groceries. Ten minutes later...

4) After I got the groceries unpacked and walked the dog, I was ready to do school work. I am not a television person, but I do like the background noise of the television when I am doing schoolwork. Tonight, the television happened to be on, because my son had been watching. The channels he likes are very different from those that I like. The remote had gone AWOL, as it seems to regularly do, and so I attempted to change the channel from Channel 300 to Channel 7 manually. Except somehow I pushed the RECORD button which I had never used. And then I couldn't get it to turn off. And my son couldn't get it to turn off. And the television wouldn't let me change the channel until it was done recording, which was about two hours later. And I didn't want to watch "The Simpsons," which was the channel it was stuck on. And we still haven't found the remote, three hours later. My son thinks Rooney took it, which is always a possibility, but if he did, he buried it somewhere in the backyard.

5) And now I'm grading restaurant reviews, which alternately make me laugh out loud, and want to weep, because we have to take our state tests in two weeks, and they have to be ready to write persuasively. Here are a few favorites:

AC reviewed Wendy's

I love me some Wendy's. The food there is amazing. You should definitely try the spicy chicken combo because you get a soda which i'm pretty sure is large size and you also get the sandwich which tastes super good 

It might take a while to get your food but it is definitely worth it. It is a fast food restaurant so sometimes you can get your food fast, but it depends.
The service is good and they are really nice. If you are a cheapskate, you might find it expensive but if you are not that cheap, trust me buying this food will be amazing. Overall, if you go inside it might not be that clean but it is a little clean but once again it is still worth it. 

They accept anyone. Even if you are in a wheelchair or have a disability, they will still be really nice to you.

L reviewed McDonald's, although I'm not sure she has ever been there. 

If you are in the mood for some burgers or more fast food like nuggets or fries, come to McDonalds. I don’t really eat the burgers over there at McDonalds but i’ve heard the burgers are good. But then again we all have different tastes and i’ve never tried the burgers before so i am not very sure how they taste.  

K chose to review Applebee's.

 Applebees has good service besides the fact that they take forever to get your food to you.

J reviewed a more upscale Italian restaurant.

In my opinion, you should go to Italiano's because the food is very delicious, and the service is also very good. The bathroom is clean, and there are mints, hairspray, and mouthwash.  

Umm, ok, so I guess we need a little more practice with persuasive writing.

Definitely a "DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200" kind of day. 

SLICE 7/31- OPRAH AND ME

Our original seats, Section 324

8 a.m. My friend, Kathy, and I huffed and puffed our way up the stairs to Section 324, Row 13 of the Pepsi Center.

Oprah! No matter that we were half a block from the stage and would probably spend most of the day watching the jumbotron. We were going to see Oprah! We had bought tickets more than a month ago and finally, the big day had arrived.

We hadn't been sitting in our seats in Row 324 for more than five minutes when an usher approached.

"Would you like to move closer to the stage?" she asked. "Oprah has just released some tickets and they are much closer to the stage."

"How much would it cost?" I asked. The seats we currently had, even as high as they were, had already cost more than $200 apiece.

"Nothing," she said. "The seats are empty. You can just take these tickets and move down there."

Kathy and I just looked at each other. We had the opportunity to move from seats that were about ten rows from the top of the theater to seats that were about ten rows from the stage? A day doesn't start out much better than that!

And only got better!

Oprah walking the audience through a vision setting exercise.

Julianne Hough leading an exercise session.

Grammy award winning rapper Common performing spoken word poetry.

Gospel singer Tamela Mann.

Oprah interviewing Gayle King, her best friend for more than 40 years.

The day ended with Oprah sharing her own life story.

My heart is full.