To My Students
I am the riverbank
and you are the water.
You flow past me
year after year
fresh
eager
a little wild.
I do my best
to ensure you
a safe passage
and teach you
endurance
stability
and the ways of the world.
But you rush on.
Time passes.
You return
to the familiar banks,
the remembered curves and shallows.
I will not know you,
and yet I will have
a deep memory of your passing.
Your passing
wore me down
changed my direction
made me new.
©Mary Lee Hahn, date unknown
Yes, I used that photo for my SOL post on Tuesday. Then later on Tuesday, I filled a giant recycling can with most of the contents of a filing cabinet that then left my classroom, providing a space for a shelf (emptied of professional books which migrated to the back cabinet, which was emptied of...) yadda yadda blah blah classroom setup. That's not the point of this story (but maybe I'll share some before and after pictures next week).
The point being, as I browsed through folders before flipping them into the recycling can, I found a folder of my writing from years back, including this poem. It builds nicely on the fishing theme from my SOL post.
Heidi has the roundup this week at My Juicy Little Universe.