I was going to wait on this, but once I typed up my poem, I decided not to wait.
This week we are doing Poetry Celebration. After a quarter of writing poems and publishing in a variety of ways, this week we read them out loud, cheer for each other, and eat brownies and cookies.
I gave the students a variety of video prompts to get them thinking. Sarah Kay "Hands." Lou Reed "Perfect Day." Joy Harjo "Remember." And this, the favorite, "Origin Story" performed by Sara Kay and Phil Kaye:
I have been trying to figure out what I would write and perform. Today I found inspiration from Joy Harjo, a poem called "Emergence."
Here is what I've written and plan on sharing with my class:
Emergence (an origin story)
When I decided to become a teacher
I was 42-years-old and didn’t
Have one college credit to my name.
This was the fall of 1997.
It would take over a year for
Me to begin classes at a
Community college -- one online
Class in college composition,
And one Saturday morning class
In Psychology.
The online I could handle easily enough.
But the face-to-face class…
That cloudy Saturday morning in January 1999
I drove to the campus,
Entered the building,
And walked up the stairs.
The door to the classroom was closed.
No one else around.
I was terrified to open that door.
So. Freaked. Out.
I walked back down the stairs.
Found a bench to sit on.
Studied the map again.
Looked at the other students
who all seemed to know where
they were going.
How to do college.
I felt clueless. Stupid.
Yet…
Somehow I conjured up the courage
To walk back up those stairs
Open the door
And walk in.
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