I Have a New Friend

I Have a New Friend

I have a new friend.
We've never met.
She chalks art and exercise challenges on the sidewalk.
She leaves the chalk out.
I write and draw my thanks.
Her chalk sticks became a pile of chalk pebbles.
I left a package on her porch --
Highlights magazines and gently used sidewalk chalk.
She left a package on my porch --
coloring pages, crayons and markers, four Cra-Z-Loom bracelets.
And a note.
I have a new friend named Annie.
We've never met.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2020

Perspectives

Perspectives

I can see the train on the tracks two blocks away,
but an eagle can see a rabbit two miles away.

I can turn my head to look west down the street to the sunset,
but an owl can turn its head to see 270° (plus it can see in the dark.)

I can roll my eyes at Bill's corny puns,
but mantis shrimp and chameleons can roll each eye independently.

I can see your face,
but not your heart.

I can see through tears,
but not through closed doors.

I can see the stars,
but not the future.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2020


Can it really be the last Friday of National Poetry Month? Christie has the roundup AND the Progressive Poem at Wondering and Wandering.


And then this: Grant Snider is thinking about what we can and cannot see, too!

What You Want

What You Want

When what you want
is to swim laps in a pool,
a walk in the neighborhood
will have to do.

When what you want
is a hug and high five,
a card or an email
will have to suffice.

When what you want
leaves you high and dry
what you DO have
will just have to satisfy.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2020

Fifth Grade Lessons

Fifth Grade Lessons

You're
only
eleven
and you're learning
life requires you to
(first and foremost) show up.
Read directions, do your best,
ask for help, give help when you can.
Put one foot in front of the other.
Never take "ordinary" for granted.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2020

There's Really No Other Option

There's Really No Other Option

It's a small boat.
You're alone in a storm.
The sea is rough.
A gust of wind takes your sail.
The boat spins and lurches.
It threatens to swamp.
You scream into the dark night.
The sky absorbs your anger, despair, frustration.

Then you pick up the oars,
and you row.


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2020

Be Prepared

no Swiss Army Knife

adequately prepares you

for a broken heart

©Mary Lee Hahn, 2020

I opened my Everyday Offerings book after I heard the announcement from Governor DeWine that our schools would be closed for the remainder of the year. It wouldn't have mattered if I had seen this before I heard the announcement. I knew it was coming. I was not prepared.

Generosity

Generosity

Give what you can.
Even if you have
No cash to spare, your giving makes a difference.
Every card or "thank you" or piece of art
Reminds those who are working so hard to keep
Our world running and our citizens
Safe and healthy, that we acknowledge their
Invaluable contribution.
Today, what will
You give?


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2020

NCTE President's Address-November 2019

Several people had asked earlier about when my NCTE President's Address from November 2019 would be available.  It is titled, Room for Learning: Challenges and Opportunities in Our Changing Classrooms. It is available now and you can find it here.

If you are like me, you are having trouble reading anything over a page or two these days and I have no idea how a talk converts to text. But I decided the piece was worth sharing here as a way to amplify the voices of people I've been learning from lately. If you are looking for new people to follow and learn from, skimming the article for those mentions and photos is worth it.  One of the biggest gifts of my NCTE role on the presidential team for the past (almost) four years, has been the ability to grow my circle and get to know so many people and (most importantly) to learn from and with them. I have been thinking about our education community a great deal during this past month. We are so lucky as members of NCTE to have this community and I think it's important for all of us to expand our circles so the we learn from more and more people every day.  NCTE has sustained me throughout my career and it continues to sustain me and keep me grounded during this difficult time.

(As an added bonus, it will be well worth your time to open the address in order to get a vintage photo of Mary Lee and me looking over the program at one of first NCTE conferences.)

The 2020 Progressive Poem is HERE!

True to the spirit of collaboration and community here in Poetry Friday Land, Irene Latham started the National Poetry Month tradition of a crowd-sourced Progressive Poem, and then handed the baton to Margaret Simon this year. Margaret put out the call and thirty poets quickly filled the schedule. (See bottom of post.) This year, #1 Donna Smith started things off by giving #2 Irene Latham the choice of two lines, and so that's the way the poem's flowing this year. You get to pick a line, and offer two possibilities to the next person. Here are the choices Heidi offered me. I got to choose between "slow and mesmerizing, or brief and energizing."

Here's the poem so far:

Progressive Poem 2020

Sweet violets shimmy, daffodils sway
along the wiregrass path to the lake
I carry a rucksack of tasty cakes
and a banjo passed down from my gram.

I follow the tracks of deer and raccoon
and echo the call of a wandering loon.
A whispering breeze joins in our song
and night melts into a rose gold dawn

Deep into nature’s embrace, I fold.
Promise of spring helps shake the cold
hints of sun lightly dapple the trees
calling out the sleepy bees

Leaf-litter crackles…I pause. Twig snaps.
I gasp! Shudder! Breathe out. Relax...
as a whitetail doe comes into view.
She shifts and spotted fawns debut.

I want this moment to last a little longer, so I choose...

We freeze. My green eyes and her brown


Tag, you're it, Tabatha!
Your two choices for the next line are:

meet and lock. Time slows down.

OR

connect in a moment so profound

Here's where the poem's been, and where it's going:

2020 Progressive Poem

1 Donna Smith at Mainely Write

2 Irene Latham at Live Your Poem

3 Jone MacCulloch at deowriter

4 Liz Steinglass

5 Buffy Silverman

6 Kay McGriff 

7 Catherine Flynn at Reading to the Core

8 Tara Smith at Going to Walden

9 Carol Varsalona at Beyond Literacy Link

10 Matt Forrest Esenwine at Radio, Rhythm, and Rhyme

11 Janet Fagel, hosted at Reflections on the Teche

12 Linda Mitchell at A Word Edgewise

13 Kat Apel at Kat Whiskers

14 Margaret at Reflections on the Teche

15 Leigh Anne Eck at A Day in the Life

16 Linda Baie at Teacher Dance

17 Heidi Mordhorst at My Juicy Little Universe

18 Mary Lee Hahn at A Year of Reading

19 Tabatha at Opposite of Indifference

20 Rose Cappelli at Imagine the Possibilities

21 Janice Scully at Salt City Verse

22 Julieanne Harmatz at To Read, To Write, To Be

23 Ruth at There is no such thing as a God-forsaken town

24 Christie Wyman at Wondering and Wandering

25 Amy at The Poem Farm

26 Dani Burtsfield at Doing the Work That Matters

27 Robyn Hood Black at Life on the Deckle Edge

28 Jessica Bigi at TBD

29 Fran Haley at lit bits and pieces

30 Michelle Kogan

Contact Tracing

Contact Tracing

shy handshake
pat on the back
ponytail tug
hand-over-hand cursive
fist bump
high five
side hug

wave goodbye through the window of the bus
wave hello through the computer screen

contact secure
heart to heart


©Mary Lee Hahn, 2020



Molly has the Poetry Friday roundup this week at Nix the Comfort Zone.