Sept 28: Hamilton

Today, I am sharing an afternoon of my life with my Slice of Life Community.

We went through driving rain and massive puddles to get to the room where it has been happening for more than a decade in the big city. We saw a powerful storyteller's depiction of the characters whose revolutionary ideas contributed to the founding of our experiment in representative democracy.  Our feet were wet and the single ladies room for about 800 females resulted in a long and windy line through the entire theater; yet, it was worth the challenges for the masterful songwriting, vibrant storytelling and messages that stand the test of time.  

Those who tell the story,

Refine the memories, characters,

Choose the lens, lines reminding us 

Of the lofty ambitions, strong personalities

The drive of those long-ago immigrants

Like Washington, Hamilton, Jefferson, Burr,

Courageously defying the King, 

While not always in agreement with how to 

Integrate new ideas into a plan for a new nation,

Still needing reminders about immigrant drive, 

Working relentlessly towards goals, 

Active participation in determining our future.

Raise a glass to freedom
Something they can never take away
No matter what they tell you

Sept.27 The Show

On the eve of a forecast of a Nor'Easter, I watched the setting sunlight ricochet through ominous clouds after a week with more positive than negative even if I was still adjusting to the idea of drinking champagne next to my new French drains!

I smiled as I thought of my once tiny miracles who rocked my world a decade ago and that wonderful tea celebration of living where quiche settled perfectly next to raisin tea sandwiches to fill all the crevices in our hearts. And then, even if the forecast was dire, the show began....

Clouds whipped with amber residue

Floated swiftly through the sky,

Dancing effortlessly above treetops

Until the new cast infiltrated the skies

Dressed like phlox and amethyst

That made you look, appreciate the

Power of nature to put on a show.

Demand we notice.

SOL26: New Season

I'm sharing with my tens of readers and SOL Community today. 

This season is confused, 

Leading to drenching rains

During football, soccer games.

It's stressful, exhausted teachers 

Wrangling unwilling learners

Presenting the same old curriculum

Word smithed by think tank wanna-bes

Yet, I have always found joy in this season, 

Crisp mornings and sun-kissed afternoons,

Familiar sweaters retrieved from closet repose,

School jitters transitioning into learning,

A week filled with very special birthdays,

Plus, a message, "I'm home!"

Filling my heart with happiness, hope.

Sept 21 Ethical ELA: Confidently

 

Today, I am sharing a lagniappe as they say in Pnchatoula, a little extra, thanks to our Ethical ELA host, Leilya Pitre. She asks us to reflect on the last three (or two for me) days of drafting or to try something new a Gogyohka. This poem consists of five line, each with one breath/thought, and no syllable counts, It is about my first-born (by three days) grand who rocked my world!

These days, she stands tall, strong,

Ambitiously dreaming of the Olympics 

Confidently facing new challenges, 

Learning, friendships, Broadway shows,

Engineering marble runs before celebrating.

Sept. 19 Ethical ELA: I Hope

Today is the second day of the September Ethical ELA Open Write. Kim Johnson is hosting and asking us to consider what we are getting back to?  She suggests we consider: Back to the future? Back to school? I'm taking the prompt from where I am to where I hope to be.  I admit I am a bit of an optimist who wants to remain hopeful even when life and the news seems hard..

I have been reluctant to hope, 

Crammed with worry about my family, friends,

Anxious about aging, loneliness,

Distraught for our splintered nation, 

Nervous about gruff international interactions

Aggrieved by lying and self-centered behaviors.

I hope the see more signs of kindness where

We stop what we are doing to help others,

Signs of growing and changing family, friends plowing

Forward through storms and challenges of life

Glimpses of respectful disagreement, dialog, 

Problem-solving devoid of name calling, blame, 

Honor and respect for diverse ideas, philosophies, beliefs,

Kindness, honesty, compassion on at all levels.

 

Sept. 18 Ethical ELA

Today, I am writing and sharing with the Ethical ELA community. Today's host, Mo Daley, asks us to write a poem in tribute to those who came before us by writing a poem about the land around you. 

I read today's prompt on my porch after reading the newspaper on my phone thinking about those who built this home a century ago could never have imagined someone reading the news on a phone! 

Once,

Native Americans, Lenni-Lenape, traipsed 

Through my woods, headed for a Passic River 

Before Dutch immigrants bucked

The tide to create cow pastures and farms

Before naming their land after

Nathaniel Hawthorne

Before General Lafayette camped at the

Goffle Brook during the Revolution.

Before the early 20th Century when

Home building created a suburban

Community attracted by lighted streets,

Uniform sidewalks, and a public library

Where books could be read, friends greeted

From welcoming front porches!

That's the story the according to the old oak

Shading the porch shared,

He's been around a while !!! 

SOL26 Bone-Up

Today, I am sharing with my Slice of Life Community about a little bit of my life, lately.

I signed up: 

• reluctantly for a timeslot right smack in the middle of the day requiring me to stay two hours after swim and eliminating pickle ball that day. 
• because they only accept only 6-8 people per 10 week session and I had been been waitlisted 3 times.
• in support of someone I know who is doing the dreaded rehab that I want to avoid as long as possible.

I tried to:

• lift weights into space, slowly with correct form way too many times
• pull that bar from way up over my head until it was way down below my navel.
• push that weighted plate with until my abs were crying for me to stop
• balance some ball left over from defunct Lamaze classes behind my back as I squatted against the wall

After, I

• felt muscle, joint, ligament, fiber, corpuscle in my body crying for relief
• was exhausted and tired in that way you might be if you ran a marathon 
• was thinking that I was in far worse shape than I thought I was in that morning
• was reflective on the challenges of rehabbing one's body
• was grateful I could walk out on my own even if I was headed for a hot shower and Tylenol
• was praying for those whose challenges are greater than my own

Sept 13 Searching

After 12 hours of pouring rain, I am hoping for the skies to heal from whatever heartbreak made them open their coffers and turn streets into streams. In the early morning, I did embrace the rhythm of the rain and finished book. Then, clad in my towel-robe, I wrapped up a project that has hung over my head, just like the clouds!  After admiring my online poetry-prolific friends (Kim, Glenda, Denise...) writing over at Ethical ELA, I bravely began sharing my own poetry monthly and in a fit of thinking that I should share the work, I forgot that I was not really a writer and agreed to host a day of writing in November!  

The easy part was sharing my published writing (a million report card comments, hundreds of CSE evals, lots of blog posts and my dissertation that nobody in their right mind has ever read) I had to write my poem that would be sort of front and center for all to see!  Yikes, that was hard. I think I wrote 25/30 this morning. I drank coffee and took potty breaks.  I daydreamed and then, I realized that was all the easy part.  I needed a picture of me!  Who knew that I had only taken a few pictures in the past decade and they were all horrible pictures of me.  In my defense, there are some great pictures of me with my nieces who share on social medial. There have been some good pictures with some of my grands, but I cannot fairly publish with just one of my bevy of loved littles. There is even one OK picture of me with some of my grands before they were all earth-side. 

I can and do photoshop in Canva, but cutting and pasting images back here is problematic.  And so, I am not sharing any of the 100 selfies taken this morning as the rain laughed and cried at me! If anyone has a picture of just me, just my head, not looking awful, not in a bathing suit, let me know before midnight! I will share my poem draft because it really is about memories and glimpsing the future, not about photos. 

I started with Joy Harper’s Remember, and drafted a memory-poem to my children about hiking and biking along trails. 

I Remember 

Your soft head tucked next to my heart

Leaves crunched as I trudged, 

Holding tight

As if I knew you would dance in puddles,

Run like a cheetah, ride like the wind,

Revel is snowdrifts, explore crevices 

I had never noticed before,

Scale rocky bluffs, peer over cliffs,

Become lost to all but the moon, while I

Held my breath

As if you knew, someday you would

Hold yours on your shoulders

Until they found magical acorns

You had never noticed

Before they ran into the future

As if they were destined

Sept. 11 We Remember

A teacher, who spent 9-1-1 in their bouncy seat, asked students, yet to be a twinkle in their parents' hearts, to interview someone who was able to remember that day. 

I might have shared my prayers

This was not the end of the world

Her boyfriend did not die,

His son was not at work,

She was uptown, he was late,

An adult would meet each child,

I might have prayed for those

Signing up to end terrorism

Breathing the poisoned air

Left to carry on after loss of

Lives, innocence. 

A brilliant sunrise,

Planes bent on destruction,

Lives lost instantly, others 

Destroyed slowly, all

Changed forever 

Today, darkened skies prevail

Shattered lives remain, 

As we remember

SOL26 Why Fireworks?

I'm sharing with the Slice of Life Community today.  

For many teachers and students, even here in the Northeast, school has already begun; yet, some families near me were clearly celebrating the beginning of this new school year with an impressive array of fireworks as the sun set, much too early, on Labor Day. 

I wonder why they did not go "down the shore" to celebrate the long weekend?

I wonder if they are celebrating kids who are busy/working/learning all day?

I wonder if they are just excited about the shorter days and cooer weather?

I wonder if others are optimistic about the fresh start of a school year?

I wonder if they are just looking ahead to curling up under a blanket with a good book?

I wonder if they were just letting off steam from built up frustration with inflation, wars, and politics?

I wonder about all the money they blew letting off steam!