You do not believe in censorship
you say
and yet you sit there and complain that
I accept work with curses. Work that is
about process, about drafting, about stretching.
I do not censor youthful voices
that may want to shout,
to try new language, new words.
We learn about audience and persona
and your child is allowed to stretch her wings
to try on new faces and expressions with me.
She is allowed to find her voice in my class room,
even if her voice
is louder than you like.
In the classroom,
words fill the air,
hovering above student heads.
I blow gently and
floating words drift,
falling into outstretched hands
dropping into open mouths
forming ideas,
transforming notions,
dribbling out their pens.
I see through poet’s eyes
life recorded in metaphor
ideas dancing with possibilities.
I hear through poet’s ears
the humming of memory
the clatter of change
the sibilance of serenity
I touch through poet’s hands
hard thoughts,
rough realities,
soft dreams.
I smell through a poet’s nose
freshly mown hay of a summer day
leaves burning in an autumn evening
I taste through a poet’s tongue
the sourness of betrayals
the sweetness of hope
The poet has an infinity of senses
that reach into history
and unravel mysteries.
Today is my mom’s 86th birthday, so I wrote her a poem:
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My mother is a sewing machine
Stitching life together like a quilt.
She can make anything grow
as the needle whirs and punctures
Creating history.
When you wrapped me in that warm embrace
fireworks exploded in my brain
red and purple stars shot from my head and lit the room.
Incandescent memories are the after image
of our fragmentary connection.
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A couple of days ago, I wrote about another lost poem. I’m happy to say that poem was found! This is it! A glance at a picture sparked the memory, and it came back! It’s not quite as it was, since the 3rd/final line of the original didn’t return, but I am satisfied with the cinquain it became. 🙂
Over there are rides and such,
but here are the barns and displays.
4-H sheep, goats, rabbits, and cows
The spinners and weavers.
Photographers.
Prizes for craftwork.
Mini-doughnuts and fresh squeezed lemonade.
Local talent on stage: kids dancing,
dreamers singing.
We stand at our assigned gate, and stamp arms
so folks can get back in later.
You don’t talk to me
I don’t talk to you.
That’s fair.
You were right there
each line carefully crafted
and now you’re gone.
Embrace the new!
They declared.
Projectors, Smartboards, wifi,
Go paperless!
Let’s be a digital learning environment!
And so we did, but where has that left us
when the tech department is falling apart?
The student records can’t be accessed.
The projectors are no longer connected.
The Smartboards don’t work.
The printers won’t print.
The wifi is off-line.
At least there are new whiteboard pens to start the year.
They’re the only new technology that’s working!
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Big plans to revamp the entire system are not going so well. The front lines are more than a little annoyed, but it could be worse! We could be the tech dept trying to fix all those problems at every work site! Poor techies. They (like is normal for teachers) weren’t given the resources to do their jobs properly and everyone is feeling it.
In the Toronto dawn
the sun crept silently up to the
last mortal remains of the pudgy bandit,
laid out on the sidewalk like a sacrifice.
The call went out:
Three-one-one! Three-one-one! Come!
The City promised swift removal of the corpse.
But–political promises being oft full of air–
the raccoon remains remained throughout the day.
Not content to leave sleeping Procyonidae lie
crowds marked the site of his demise,
memorial to the adorable, nocturnal beast
with flowers, photos, Tweets, and cards,
pseudo-grief growing with the day
while #deadraccoonto began to decay.
Until by the light of the moon (a raccoon’s party hour)
The City van came to gather the cadaver,
but left the flowers.
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This was a social media event in July . The body of a raccoon was found and reported. A spontaneous mock-memorial grew up around it. It was all recorded on Twitter, with even a council member (Norm Kelly) participating. I think it makes a fascinating commentary of social media through parody.
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Here’s a post from 3 years ago. Tomorrow Queen Elizabeth becomes England’s longest reigning monarch!
The longest reigning monarch in British history, and the longest reigning female monarch in the world, was Queen Victoria. She reigned sixty-three years, seven months and two days.
Queen Elizabeth II assumed the throne upon the death of her father, on February 6, 1952. She has been celebrating her sixty years on the throne this year, but if she can hold on for 3 years, she can smash the record! She needs to reign until September 8, 2015 to reach the record, so she’ll pass it on September 9th. GO Your Majesty, GO!
HRH Queen Elizabeth II at her Coronation, June 2, 1953
Shawn L. Bird 