Two Poems and a Poem: Ritual One, Day 26

 Two Poems:

"My Mother's Last Forty Minutes" by Barbara Kingsolver

"Remembering Boston Strong" by Richard Blanco

Today's poem was written in a form I think I made up a few years ago. I've never seen it anywhere before which is why I think it's my own creation. However, I am uncertain and admit it may be out there somewhere. If it is, I do not claim credit. Anyway, the form is this: Take a line from a piece of poetry or prose, or a song or a favorite quote. Then use each word in order to start a line in your poem. In this particular case, it was not my intention to capture the essence of the original poem or interpret its meaning. I simple chose a line as inspiration to create something completely new. I did not know where I was going with my poem until I was well into writing it.

The line is from Kingsolver's "My Mother's Last Forty Minutes":

May I say that life is filled with instructions we just don't believe we are ever going to need?

A Poem:

Derailed

by ljkemp

May, an in between time. Spring is no longer cool and breezy in the morning and the same again at dusk, but the oppressive heat has not yet arrived.

I miss my classroom days, when this time of year meant a break was near. A time of quiet and rest.

Say what you will about summers off and days that end early.

That those who can't do, teach. You, those who buy into this stupid old trope still, even now.

Life has thrown us on one hell of a ride since last spring, and though the train seems to be slowing,

Is it going to halt abruptly throwing us from the tracks or will it pull into the station smoothly 

Filled with passengers who exchange handshakes, phone numbers and text messages,  even hugs. Glances of kindness and respect

With a new understanding. We are all on the same team. That teaching comes with knowledge and training, but it does not come with 

Instructions. Not for this. Not for how to get a derailed train back on the tracks.

We know how to respond with intervention and differentiation for individual needs,

Just don't expect us to have all the answers to everything all the time.

Don't expect us to create miracles and explain anomalies, and have immediate answers to never-seen-before problems.

Believe us when we tell you it is not as easy as you think.

We will teach them math and reading, science, and history, but not at the expense of their well-being or of our own. Maybe at the expense of our own.

Are you going to concede yet? Admit the school is the heart of the community, not just a place for chalkboards and globes and desks and textbooks.  

Ever really been inside a classroom since you graduated (or didn't)?  If the teachers give up, if you push them all out, you are

Going to need more than just knowledge and rhetoric. You have a lot to learn about what our children need to learn.

To contribute to the world and to humanity, our children need  to learn empathy and compassion and love. For the train to stay on the tracks, we

Need. We need more love.