Earth Day Poetry

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Elijah called it a ‘writing train’ I believe. Madison must have been writing on Mary’s back, too, before I walked up. We were outside on a brisk Earth Day, writing poetry. They were having fun, which (these days) appears like a waste of time…but isn’t. I can’t say everyone was having fun between the chilly breeze and being assigned to write observations of the Earth. Most seemed to enjoy being outside and being free to write, though, since they knew what was coming — tomorrow and Thursday are the last two Smarter Balanced pilot testing days. They’ll be in front of computers testing the test, which is the antithesis of writing poetry. I read a recent article about why poetry matters; I liked the reminder that “we hunger for ways to express ourselves that feel the most true, and bend to our most human voices to create new shapes in the world.” That’s what I heard from some of the students when they shared their poems in class later — they were expressing joy and anger and everything in-between. We need to get outside and keep writing those poems…even after Poetry Month.

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