Poetry Friday - Back to School

          Robyn Hood Black at Life on The Deckle Edge hosts our Poetry Friday today. She's "weaving" together our PF links starting with her spider poem that has appeared in the Highlights Hello and a fun picture of someone's sweet child reading it. Also, Robyn has another celebration by sharing bit more from Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong's newest publication, GREAT MORNING! Poems for School Leaders to Read Aloud. Thanks for hosting, Robyn and for the wonderful poetry sharing!

        I spent yesterday after school, helping Ingrid finish a school getting-to-know-you project. Usually, she spends Friday with me and those afternoons are relaxing, finding fun at the end of the week. This time, because she's off to the mountains this weekend, she came on Wednesday and had homework, a BIG assignment due Thursday before the holiday weekend. As she worked and as I answered a few questions, I wondered how the days were going, already busy with school and the stress, but fun, of learning - new subjects, new teacher, new classmates. In between assignment talk, we did remember summer, too, and I had time to write this, for Ingrid and Imogene, for Carter in his senior year, for all those back to school. It's for teachers, too, but they probably have their own to-do list.



School Starting - The Other To-Do List

Take a little time to understand
the teacher's voice
while giving directions.
When you hear Take out your purple folder,
keep still, but imagine
the run into the ocean,
taking out the boogie board,
pushing through the waves,
out, out, out
to turn and wait for the biggest one,
riding
          all 
               the
                    way
                          in.

If you need to clear your brain

when you hear line up the tens, hundreds, 

and thousands,

remember lining up to climb that rock wall,

fingers finding the edges to hold on

while legs stretch to grab the next step.

While listening to a read-aloud before lunch,

venture back to the garden sounds,

munching a ripe tomato,

crunching a yellow pepper,

slurping from the garden hose,

and splashing your face,

letting the drips cool,

loving summer.

Find some minutes to smile

at your classmates as you

take one final leap back

to porch-sitting till dark,

sunshine-worn

then off to sleep with a window breeze

and another good day gone.

Linda Baie © All Rights Reserved

           Enjoy your Labor Day weekend everyone. I hope that means you will have some extra time for fun and poetry!