WORDS FROM W.W. January 20, 2019
One of the 7th Grade classes I substitute teach for is Ms. DeKlerk’s Language Arts class. She trusts me with her students (Not sure how wise that is!) and inquires of my availability sometimes several months in advance or, as happened last week, if she happens to see me at school and is considering taking a day away from the classroom…like the next day!
This past Friday was a day in her poetry unit, so I began each class by sharing a couple of poems I had composed. My “hamming it up” Young Life days rose to the surface as I began my first poem with much verbiage about how much it meant to me, and how I often got emotional as I recited it. I talked about how the poem had come to me one night as I lay in bed and unable to sleep, and I entitled it simply “Flowers.”
I waited for quiet, a long pause when it comes to 7th graders! Some of them shushed their classmates as they anxiously awaited the substitute teacher’s original creation.
And then I began!
“Roses are red!
Pause for effect and looking as if I was about to breakdown in tears. I bring the back of one of my curled fingers to my lips as if I’m trying to hold it together.
“Violets are blue!”
Pause. “That’s it! Thank you!”
Laughter around the class and several of them clicked their fingers as if they were in a 70’s coffeehouse. A couple of “too cool” boys roll their eyes. The bodies of several kids who enjoy my humor are still shaking with inner giggling!
“And last night I had another one come to me.”
“Because you couldn’t sleep?” asks a dark-haired girl with braces sitting in the front row.
“Exactly! I was laying there and the words just invaded my mind.” Most of the class awaits with smiles on their faces. They have a feeling this is not going to resemble Longfellow!
“If roses are red, why are violets blue?
This is a confusing question for me…and for you!
And why don’t 7th Grade boys comb their hair?
Is it to get 6th Grade girls to stare?
And why are 7th grade girls so dramatic?
Is it because their lives are traumatic?
These are questions that keep me awake…awake…awake
For Pete’s sake!”
More clicking of fingers as I take my bow!
“Thank you! Thank you very much!”
As we used to say, now the students say of me, “He was a poet and didn’t know it!”
Words from WW Blog 