Brisk and Bright Approaches for National Poetry Month | Edutopia

Brisk and Bright Approaches for National Poetry Month | Edutopia

REposting....the Storms of Life

This is a repost from 2012
http://drferreri.blogspot.com/2012/08/rainbows.html

Drought, heat, humidity,

Strong winds, intense rainstorms,

Scorched lawns, fallen trees.

Tragedies, illnesses,

Fires, moves, challenges,
Sadness, silence, anger,

Lives disrupted.

   Rainbows,

    Reminders,
    It doesn't "rain" forever, 

      Life, relationships,people are fragile,
       Each day, a gift, not to be repeated.
 We are not promised tomorrow,
    Yet, there will be rainbows,
  After the many
Storms of life.

Reflection:

This blog was started to share writing with graduate students in a 21st Century kind of way.  However, my life is full of adventure, sadness, happiness, and drama; thus, there are lots of small "emotionally charged" moments about which I am writing! 

Meanwhile, the CCS ask us to shift our focus to more informational writing..  On one hand, I applaud informational reading and writing as an easier and certainly a worthy genre for many of our students; however, I do not want to give up personal narratives, personal poetry, and fictional texts based on personal experiences.  Writing and sharing has helped me share smiles during the great days and has helped me cope with the darker ones.  Diverse writers need to have opportunities to try it all as they grow and travel the storms of lfe.   Writers are as complex, different and ever-changing as the rainbows that emerge briefly from the sky after a storm.     

#sol15 One Day in August

 One day in August,

I was cleaning the attic!

Perusing old pictures,

Lost in memories,

Finding long, lost

Slices of Life
When I came across
This snipped of writing.

I could hear the prompt

Nestled in this long ago,

"On Demand" writing

About a snowman

Who came alive.

One day in December,

I made a snowman.

It came alive.

He wanted to go in my home.

We were licking candy canes.

We looked in my room.

He put on my baseball tee-shirt.

The End

The long-ago six-year-old

Who penciled this short piece

Managed to insert a wee bit of himself

And his thoughts of spring,

On a cold December day

When forced to write

"On Demand"

For his teacher's purposes.

I plan to remember

All year long

We all write best

When writing on

Personally meaningful topics!