Looking through my poetry from the last 20 years, I excerpted just a few “snippets’ and put them together in this blog post.  I hope you enjoy.

1.
We stand as poets strong and tall

while our roots reach deep to find the perfect

word

to place, so delicately, on our paper.

2.
In a perfect world ~

you and I would understand each other
we would talk and write and text and share
all the glory and awesome events in our days

3.
The jubilee in this lighthouse trip is that I am no longer so heavily burdened by the problems of my students – their difficult lives, their wrong choices, their inability to say no to peer pressure. The burden has been lightened and my liberty is real. I am ready to be restored and renewed and to take on new beginnings this summer.

4.
Listen to me my students, as I sit reflecting in my quiet
captured and clutched in the frenzy of faith for this time.
Faith for you, faith in you, faith that surpasses this moment
and enters the realm of the spirit of truth.  Faith that does not pause
for even a moment. Faith that will abide
and bring joy not sadness or fear. I am certain.

5,
We teach because we are called to teach.
We teach because the children need us now.
We teach because we need to love them.
We teach because it is life to us.

How can we say “no” to them and walk away?

6,
The achievement gap widens.
The terrain becomes more barren.
The house falls into further decay.
The green in the landscape
slowly
silently
serenely
melds into
grey.

When will
no child
be left
behind?

7.
She is like thousands of children
abandoned and neglected
in this prosperous country we call
America.

When will no child be left behind?

8.
Save the children –
all the children –

even the dark and lonely

and silent children.

9.
To meet each student with a smile and a happy word,
to execute my lesson the way it is planned,
to correct with kindness and to praise with integrity,
this is an excellent day.

10.
Priceless is the smile
on each face –
as they sit in cap and gown
with their senior class
and receive their high school diploma.

Who could ever put a price tag
on even one of their miracles?

I hope you enjoyed my little verses. If you did, I have a lot of  haiku and senryu about being a teacher I can share as well. More to come because “POETRY IS LIFE.”