APRIL IS SCHOOL LIBRARY MONTH/NATIONALPOETRY MONTH

ANDY WEIR AUTHOR OF THE MARTIAN GIVES A SHORT AD FOR SCHOOL LIBRARIES

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Poppies in East Los Angeles

 Paul Thomas, blogger par excellence, quotes from John Dewey:
What avail is it to win prescribed amounts of information about geography and history, to win ability to read and write, if in the process the individual loses his own soul: loses his appreciation of things worth while, of the values to which these things are relative; if he loses desire to apply what he has learned and, above all, loses the ability to extract meaning from his future experiences as they occur? (Experience and Education, p. 49)

So how do we promote poetry and libraries so we can save our civilization in the age of Trump and complete disregard for anything meaningful in life?

I have always been intimidated by poetry and never thought I could write any.  I only wrote one that I liked - in 8th grade - about the lemon tree in my backyard.  My teacher loved it.  I think I loved my teacher too. She made me feel a whole person -- as most other teachers didn't. 

In honor of this lovely teacher I thought I'd try my 'hand' at a poem today.  And as I thought of this, I looked down at my own hands and realized I was starting to see the hands of my mother.  The idea of generations of hands. 

HANDS

My two hands now aged and wrinkled
Dark spots dot them here and there
The dryness aging them even more
Do they show I'm wise or just weathered?

Hands give us away I think.
They made my mother's beautiful face 
An aberration in her composition
While her hands told all.

We can't escape them and rely upon them.
They give us so much.
They provide us with so many alternatives.
Do we appreciate them at all?

My hands have always seemed inadequate
They couldn't draw a single image
Nor could they master the classical guitar
But they did allow me to learn to crochet.

Hands are more than a gift
They are a blessing 
Without them we wouldn't find our lost glasses
Nor would be find any peace.

Hands
These hands
Are they my hands
or my mothers?

Brown spots and 
wrinkles mark their
aging progress.

Thin skin means
bruising, and
nicks and bleeding.

Somehow
They have withstood the
tests of time.

Wildflowers in Los Angeles

Find out what will inspire your students to write. Maybe it's their cell phone. So be it! Let them make a stab at it!   
   And not too much criticism.  I know that's why I didn't write anything for many., many years.