Happy Valentine’s Day to you all! I hope you are all healthy and happy as the pandemic marches on. Although it does, it looks like a normalcy may be restored ( hopefully) with the vaccine rollout. In New Hampshire one has to live in a nursing home, be a healthcare worker, be 65 years and older or have dire health conditions to qualify for a shot right now. I may have access to one coming in March or April as I work in a school. My husband is 60 years old and should be allowed to have the vaccine about the same time as me.
Lately I’ve been teaching poetry to one of my reading groups. A few of the kids dislike poetry and I wanted to expose them to the fact that poetry doesn’t need rules nor should it rhyme. We read Love That Dog by Sharon Creech. It’s about a boy named Jack who hated poetry, had no thoughts or ideas about it. Until his teacher and a poet inspired him to write poems about his dog Sky.
I saw the kids embrace the character and start to accept and even embrace poetry. As long as it’s on their own terms then it works. The worse thing you can do for a student is to assign to write a poem about a certain subject. I believe he or she should choose their topic to write about. That way he or she is invested in the poem!
A few days ago I was playing around with magnetic poetry, a site that enables you to write short poems with random words that are given. It was fun to do and then later I went back to add my own words and shape my poems to fit my ideas.
Here are a few. Be kind. I’m an amateur!🤣
The young child
Was embraced by the magic
A Self dance
Wrapped in a velvet skirt
a brilliant red scarf draping
Around her neck
To love oneself
Is born early
The young child grows
Grows and grows
as she dances and twirls through
childhood
with her skirt swaying
to and fro
So does her love
For herself
Grows.
Broken poetry
Far from perfect
May not dazzle you
Yet the words
And feelings
remain true
The magic of morning
The pink sherbet sky
A gray squirrel crossing the road
A mystical quiet aura
Hangs over us
And a little
Smile emerges
in the peace
of the day.
All My Best,
Heart and Soul
Mary❤️
