Unexpected

I wrote this for someone actually after a really intense week and things were said on both sides and now I'm embarking on a really epic and fantastic journey that is scaring me and thrilling me at the exact same time. Never before have I felt so wildly alive and for the first time in forever, my emotions are running fast, wild and deep. I don't know where it will go. I don't know what will happen but dear God it's exciting!

Life is full of surprises

Some good some bad

Some make us happy

While others make us sad.

Sometimes surprises

They come from the skies

Welcoming hellos when there are

Goodbyes.

If you open your eyes

And see what’s before,

You tend to realize

Life’s worth living for.

When in your gaze

Someone might appear

A person, a friend,

Whom you’ve always held dear.

Then something changes,

For the better I think,

Excited for everything,

I stand on the brink.

I see someone there,

Someone who makes me feel tall

Someone I’m getting to know

Someone for whom I’m starting to fall. 

Freedom's song

This was inspired by the book "City of Ember" my seventh graders are reading. The assignment was to write a poem that discusses Lina and Doon's adventure and what they see when they finally escape. The kids thought it was too deep and too metaphorical but they appreciated it. They also pointed out that I write poetry with very little punctuation. I told them I'm like Shakespeare. 

The rushing wind
Brushes against a face
The sweet smell of freedom
A gift from God's grace.

A soft sound of music
Found in a bird's song
Different from silence
For it the ear longs.

The bright ray of sun
Pierces the night
Making the heart
Feel ever so bright.

The rhythmic song
Of a heart full of hope
Making the fears
Somehow easier to cope.

Educational Musings 2 of 2: For Arts Education

Here is the second poem that came to me during PD and listening about reading levels and scores and this and that. 

As I sit here
At teacher PD
I wonder what kind
Of teacher I'll be.

I really hate
How we now teach
To find creativity
Is quite a reach.

Tests, scores
Race to the Top
We have seemingly
The humanities have dropped.

I pity the child
Who wants to create
Cause a narrowing of soul
Seems to be his fate.

Arts programs are cut
By the scores each day
Self expression no longer
Seems to be the way.

Tests and programs
NCLB and NJ ASK
Are only concerned
With math and reading tasks.

Quickly we remove
All kinds of outlets
Of creativity for all
How we got here, we seem to forget.

Remember the great men
Aristotle and Plato
They taught great things
Thousand of years ago.

They taught people science
They taught them art
They taught religion
And doing their civic part.

They created great thinkers
And philosophers too
Actors and musicians
Poets and playwrights too.

They were great teachers
Who sculpted a mind
Thinking like that
You can no longer find.

We no longer care
About the whole kid
Both mind and soul
Like we once did.

The arts are more
Then just fun and games
They teach kids a lot
And creativity they tame.

They give an outlet
And lessons to learn
They increase test scores
So it's money not burned.

They increase reading
Mathematics too
They give students
Skills in all they do.

When I think of how
Each student we teach
Aristotle would shiver
And Socrates would cease.

This is not how
Education was meant
It's supposed to widen the mind
Not take a testing bent.

Educational Musings 1 of 2

So as a theatre teacher sitting in a PD today, I was feeling quite angry especially when all of my questions about plays and poems were not being answered. I wrote two poems about this. Here's the first: 

A leveled response
A poker face
You'll never know
How my mind does race.

I sit and listen
But really don't care
Your words mean nothing
Your voice drifts on air.

What you say
Is no concern of mine
Meaning in your words
I'm struggling to find.

My mind runs
To a place far away
To a creative land
Where you have nothing to say.

People don't realize
The talents I have
Instead they want to pin me
Against a cold slab

Of standards and reasons
Core this and that
Teaching to a test
My mind is not growing fat.

My soul rebels
Against all this stuff
To be creative in here
Is proving quite tough.

I don't care about scores
Of standards to find
All I want
Is to broaden a mind.

When have we
Data based become?
When did tests and scores
Replace learning as fun?

I always hear
The arts have no place
The data's too driven
To the top it's a race.

What about a kid
With a sensitive soul
Who enters a classroom
Creativity a goal?

He is lost
In some test based shuffle
HIs mind and soul
Enter a scuffle.

The artist who finds
He has no relief
Finds that his soul
Has become quite a beast.

No one cares
In this world any more
Whether the artist can thrive
As long as he has a high test score.

The actor, artist
Musician too
Who find that his
Drive has nothing to do

With Race to the Top
Or NCLB
Terranova or Ask
Will soon be

Forced to conform
Compartmentalize his mind
Push down that creative soul
Until it, he can no longer find.

Power Point

After sitting through eight hours of professional development and listening to fellow educators READ their power point slides to us, I got a little angry. Here is what came up. 

Powerpoint Powerpoint
You I despise
Slides and clicks
My soul slowly dies.

People read from you
Each swoop of a slide
Monotony you encourage
I really wish you died.

Black text
White back
I really, really want
Prezi back.

Please, PLEASE
Memorize your slides
The constant reading of you
Makes me wish I died.

Tacky clip art
Charts and graphs too
Very slowly,
You turn my mind into goo.

Powerpoint, Powerpoint
You should disappear
Because you make me
REALLY HATE BEING HERE!

A Look Back

I'm sitting backstage waiting for my final cue to be called to dance my choreography for the last time in cbp:LLC's production of "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying." I'm thinking of how I got here and of all the people who have influenced me. And I remember Drew University's Department of Theatre and Dance.

I get nostalgic 

Each closing night

I remember so much 

Remember so many plights.

I think of me

And how I've grown

And how glad I am

That growth has shown.

I think back to all

Who've impacted me

Helped me to become

All I could be.

I think of the man

Who started it all

A man who caught me

Each time I'd fall.

A man who says

A theatre major I'd be

Who saw my potential

When that I couldn't see.

Then all too quick,

In a blink he was gone.

The love he instilled in me

Forever lives on.

I sit here too

Thinking of all the hands

Who have helped me to grow 

My theatrical plans.

All of the professors

Who stood by me

Taught me to learn

My own potential to see.

Rosemary and Lisa

They inspired me to write

Helped me persevere

Through a dramaturgy fight.

Baz and And

Taught me how to design

To build sets and character

And always challenged my mind.

Dan is a sage

Wise and true

Words of encouragement 

He'll always give you.

Then there's Chris

Who taught me to act

 Made me a great teacher too

And that is a fact.

And of course there's Cheryl

Who taught me most to grow.

To dance and choreograph

And all about Laban I know.

As I sit backstage 

Working in this art

I'm so grateful for the knowledge 

Each chose to impart.

This closing night

Is special to me

Because I think of those

Who taught me to be.

The closing of a show

I was a choreographer and actor in cbp:LLC's production of "How to Succeed inBusiness Without Really Trying." It has been a long journey but we completed a very successful run. Here's what I thought:

A journey's end 

On a warm summer day

So many emotions

At the end of this play.

Bonds have been made

New friendships born

Shared many laughs

Many secrets sworn.

Songs and music 

Dances too

Shaving and singing

To the song of a kazoo. 

Rehearsals and techs

Challenges abound

No matter the obstacle

A solution we found.

About myself

Much I did learn

I'm quite creative 

And got praise for which I yearned.

Me and my dances called great

But little do they know

Both were only successful

Because my cast made it so.

A great director 

A wonderful cast

From this show

I've got mem'ries that will last.