Letter to an Awkward Sixteen Year-Old Dragging Main

 

A golden shovel using a line from Elizabeth Bishop’s “Letter to NY” 

In the Style of Neruda

 

I cheated a little on the challenge to write in the style of Neruda. This poem is inspired by Neruda’s BOOK OF QUESTIONS and my garden.

Equations

 

The striking line, “You can’t sum it up. A life.” comes from the poem “The Hurting Kind” from the book THE HURTING KIND by Ada Limón.

The poem itself, in response to Margaret Simon’s gorgeous photo, is a “This Photo Wants to Be a Poem…” poem.

The photo is via Margaret Simon.

Let's Talk

 

Let's talk. Let's talk about the wildfires there and the flooding here. Let's talk about the decreasing numbers of butterflies and bees in our gardens. Let's talk about solar energy and Green policies. Let's talk to Indigenous people, whose deep ancestral knowledge of the earth can teach us so much about conservation and ecology. Let's stop ignoring what's going on and work together to change our trajectory.

Or

 

Courage is hard work. As an individual, I waver. As a species, we are wavering. The earth will move on with or without us, but my greatest hope is that humankind will have more courage than cowardice to do what’s best for our planet.

The quote in this poem's striking line can be found on p. 30 in ALL WE CAN SAVE.

Silence

 

image via Unsplash

Your silence will not protect you. -- Audre Lorde

Talking openly with your

students about race is necessary. Silence

is fear, and fear will

keep you frozen. You will not

grow without risk, and neither will they. You can't protect

them from hard truths, so invite them to explore and learn along with you.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2021 (draft)

Slightly Subversive Social Justice Librarian

“When we identify where our privilege intersects with somebody else’s oppression, we’ll find our opportunities to make real change.” ― Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race

SLIGHTLY SUBVERSIVE SOCIAL JUSTICE LIBRARIAN

I look up from the circulation desk when

the girls walk in wearing leggings, glittery t-shirts, and brightly colored hijab. We

make eye contact and I smile. Then they identify

where

we shelve the thick fantasy books by their favorite author, and our

brief moment of connection ends. The privilege

of my position as librarian intersects

with their positions as readers, but I can see with

a glance around the room that more than one somebody

believes that this space is not theirs. This kind of look or covert stare “elses”

the girls and establishes mainstream oppression

even in this openly accepting public space. When asked for my recommendations, we’ll

head into the stacks and just by chance, find

ourselves near the two fantasy readers asking them for their suggestions. Our

shared love of books provides all of these readers with opportunities

not only to meet each other between the pages, but to

make

real

human-to-human connections, which result in genuine change.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2019

High Flight

Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.
~Kevin Durant


High Flight

The last day of school is in sight. You can’t imagine how hard

it is to release my masterpieces, say goodbye to my best work.

Launching you, I imagine the sigh of wing-beats

as you fly away, soaring with your talent,

your sense of humor, your desire to set the world right. When

you alight again next fall, don’t you dare hide your talent,

head under wing, letting others lead. Genius doesn’t

need adult plumage to rise and spiral. All genius needs is work.

And remember, the work of flight is joyful, not hard.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

Word Game Wednesday

Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is not path and leave a trail.  ~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Word Game Wednesday

What would you like to do?

Play Word Around? Rhyme Out? Bananagrams? Do not

dawdle; find a group and go

tinker with words! Play Scrabble; observe where

the

words intersect, criss-crossing a path

of letters that may

lead

to unexpected mergers. Perhaps go

online instead

and play Free Rice, where

you earn kernels of rice for nuggets of knowledge. There

is

no

guarantee, but Word Game Wednesday could have been the path

that led us to be homophone, homonym, and

homograph hunters. Words open the world. Using them, we leave

a

splendiferous trail.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

Winter Memory

Life is not measured by the breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.  ~Unknown

Winter Memory*

When you consider the life

of another creature, it is is

often humbling. The temperature that day was not

much above zero. We measured

the cold by

the

frost on our scarves from our breaths.

We

were by the lake to take

winter pictures, but

we became fascinated by

the

geese in the water. After a few moments

of observation, we could see that

the cold didn’t seem to bother them. We had begun to take

our

photos when we saw it – goose breath

puffing in the cold air. Blew us completely away.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

*Mr. Wald, our classroom stool-repairer, provided the memory that became this poem.

Poetry Friday

Whatever you are, be a good one.  ~Abraham Lincoln

Poetry Friday

Pick a poem about whatever

captivates you –

endangered animals, a hotdog car, dinosaurs, or ants – you are

in charge of choosing and practicing. Be

an attentive audience for others. Then, be a

positively excellent performer. Make us sigh, or laugh and say, “Good

one!”

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

Endless Winter

You're never a loser until you quit trying.  ~Mike Ditka

Endless Winter

Indoor recess AGAIN? You’re

kidding me! Spring is never

going to get here! Oh, well. Grab a

board – mancala, chess, Clue – there’s no loser

in a never-ending game. We’ll play until

…what’s that you

say? The snow has quit?

The sun is shining…or at least trying?!?

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

Go Ahead and Give It Your All

Life is short. Make it amazing.  ~Hugh MacLeod (gapingvoid.com)

Go Ahead and Give It Your All

Making a Valentine box is like making a life.

The amount of effort you put into it is

the amount of fun you get out of it. Don’t be short-

sighted. Use every bit of imagination to make

it

(your life or your Valentine box) amazing!

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

Collaboration

We all have the same roots and we are all branches of the same tree.  ~Aang (in Avatar: The Last Airbender)

Collaboration

Testing means work silently (all by yourself) but we

are accustomed to collaboration. We know we are all

smarter when we work together, but we have

to take the

test alone. It is not the same

as (all those times) when we discovered how our (very different) roots

could lead us to common understanding. Testing is too quiet and

the air is filled with tension. We

struggle silently (on our own) until we are

all finished. At last we get our voices back and we are all

of us (once again) like branches

(grafted from many nations and cultures) of

the

(strong enough to support us all and tested by time) same

(collaboration makes us all smarter) tree.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

Easier Said Than Done

Treat people the way you want to be treated.  ~The Golden Rule

Easier Said Than Done

Learn to treat

yourself with kindness, because other people

might not. Believe the

truth contained in your heart. Get out of your own way

and become the person you

were meant to be. If you want

to, you can fix what’s broken. You can be the one to

make sure every injury will be

treated.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

Persona

Everything that can be counted does not necessarily count; everything that counts cannot necessarily be counted.  ~Einstein

Persona 

I’m interested in everything.

The world is full of ideas and wonders that

blow my mind. I can

make amazing connections, be

the one who sees what others cannot, be counted

on to be the one who does

not take a statement for granted – the one who is not

afraid to question (but also who does not necessarily

think before I put my opinion out there). However, you can count

on me to understand that everything

I do or say matters, and that

admitting my mistake counts.

I have a keen sense of humor, and although I cannot

necessarily

time my jokes accurately, I keep trying. My best might be

the Poetry Friday ant rap. That definitely counted.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

Advice to Writers

Don't judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins. ~Sharon Creech (Walk Two Moons)

Advice to Writers

Writing well is more than just words on a page. Don’t

be satisfied with your first draft. Be the one to judge

your own writing with a

critical eye. Man

up (or woman up) -- work on revising and editing until

you’ve

walked

through your piece at least two

times. If you’re writing about stars and moons,

get your facts straight. Don’t write “in

his

shoes” if what you really mean is moccasins.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

Reciprocal

When you live happy, you are happy.  ~Layann

Reciprocal

The Sparkly Unicorn Award is given when

you notice someone being amazing. You

get as much joy giving it as receiving it. The sculpture will live

on the recipient’s desk for the rest of the day, making them happy

every time they look at it. You made their day, so you

are

also happy.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

Late last fall, we spent a morning messing around with plaster of paris. We made discs and ornaments and pendants and other assorted creations, which we decorated with glitter, ribbon, sequins, shells, etc. One of the creations was given to me -- a disc with edges dripping glitter and a Unicorn Horn Shell jutting up out of its center. Weeks later, on a day when someone did something totally awesome that needed a spotlight, I dubbed the disc+shell The Sparkly Unicorn Award, and I bestowed the award upon the awesome child. I allowed them to keep the award on their desk for the rest of the day (getting glitter all over someone else's work for once). Since then, students have begun bestowing the award upon each other, and one girl especially (the one who dances and draws through "Luminosity") has become our Lead Noticer of Other People's Awesomeness. She has given the award more times in the last few weeks than I have since last fall. It's one thing to BE awesome, but it's another kind of awesome to shine a light on others.

This class. I think I'm already starting to miss them.

Positivity

At least I tried.  ~Hugh MacLeod

Positivity

A smile is at

the heart of all that is good, and it is the least

I can do. Every single day I am a success because I can say, “I

came, I smiled, I tried.”

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018

Persevere

This is your life. Do what you love and do it often.  ~The Holstee Manifesto

Persevere

Hard work. This

is

how you make your

dreams come true. Your life

is yours to mold like clay. Do

not wait for someone else to decide what

you

will be. Find what you love

most in life and

make it happen. Do

not be afraid to follow your dream as far as it

takes you. Just don’t forget to return home often.

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2018