Language alert: if watching the video with children, be prepared to hit the mute button at :33-:38 and 4:15-4:20. Also, apologies (and gratitude) to William Carlos Williams.
I have failed
the test
that measures
my worth
and which
you were probably
planning to use
to pigeonhole me
Forgive me
I refuse your labels
I am deliciously
worthy and capable
©Mary Lee Hahn, 2017
Sing It, Malvina!
April 1 -- Working for Change
April 2 -- A Lifetime Filled With Change
April 3 -- Red
April 4 -- Little Red Hen
April 5 -- Childhood Dreams
April 6 -- Lonely Child
April 7 -- Quiet
April 8 -- Storyteller
April 9 -- Troublemaker
April 10 -- Girl Power
April 11 -- Choices
April 12 -- My Gal, Mother Nature
April 13 -- Not a Joke
April 14 -- I Don't Mind Failing
Dori has the Poetry Friday Roundup this week at Dori Reads.
"I refuse your labels." Love!
ReplyDeleteYes to being capable, bright, and creative despite failing in this world. Got to stop pigeonholing our students! Right on, Mary Lee!
ReplyDeleteOr maybe we need to redefine what "failing" means. I EMBRACE the parts of my life that might look like failures in someone else's eyes. I think that's what Malvina was saying in her song, too.
DeleteLove the song, your poem, and the declaration that the term "failing" is relative and subjective. Hooray for being "deliciously worthy and capable"!
ReplyDeleteAnyone or anything that tests you or labels you isn't worthy. :)
ReplyDelete"I have failed
ReplyDeletethe test
that measures
my worth"
I cannot love this poem enough. What a wonderful cry to challenge society's norms and expectations. The world is so quick, so desperate to assign labels, to put people into categories and fit them in boxes, when we are all so much more complex and incredible than any label could possibly capture.
I love that 'hint' of food in 'deliciously', Mary Lee. Another good one for Malvina.
ReplyDeleteI love both the sentiment in this song and your delicious response to it, especially "which you were probably planning to use to pigeonhole me." Thanks for the reminder that one person's "failure" is another's success.
ReplyDelete"I am deliciously
ReplyDeleteworthy and capable" is worth copying out for my bulletin board.
Appreciations, for lighting the way.
You are deliciously worthy and capable, Mary Lee. Love this one!
ReplyDeleteThis is my song of the week, and your poem is the icing on the cross-bun. ♥
ReplyDelete"Deliciously worthy and capable!" Love it!
ReplyDeleteWonderful poem! We should all be failures.
ReplyDeleteI agree, that last line is the clincher. Here's to being "deliciously worthy and capable!"
ReplyDeleteYes, and juicy and not cold at all. I'm loving your riffs on other things. Incidentally, speaking of failing tests, when I followed the link to "Little Boxes" I got a very long kind of scary trailer for "The Thinning" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FbQoI8P7c4 Yikes.
ReplyDeleteOdd...I get Malvina singing Little Boxes every time I click the link either here or at Poetrepository.
DeleteOh, this one is perfect in every way. Amen to all the previous commenters. I, too, adore the last three lines.
ReplyDeleteThere a lot of anger under her lyrics. I like that you used humor. I think humor is more subversive and successful than anger and sarcasm.
ReplyDeleteMost of us can only succeed BECAUSE of our failures...thanks for sharing both of these!
ReplyDeleteI love, love, love this! May we all "refuse the labels" that try to pigeonhole us.
ReplyDeleteMary Lee! I've been following your Malvina posts (but for some reason I can't comment on my phone.) I've been entertained by and inspired by her songs since the '70s. Thank you for all the information you've unearthed--she's a more three dimensional person to me now.
ReplyDeleteI love the poem you wrote today--really wonderful. What a wonderful teacher you are.
xox
April
Love this play on plums.
ReplyDeleteThough the dandelion failed the flower test miserably, it has tenaciously succeeded in covering the lawn, while others more cultivated, have stayed within their assigned areas, spaced evenly, at successive, orderly heights, and are flowering as predicted within a limited blooming cycle. The renegade dandelion appears to have begun blooming in April and has plans to be around until the snow flies.
ReplyDeleteEfforts to eradicate this pest of a test taker have failed. Wait...now we're the failure??