My Life: In Verse

I found some notes I took at a Literacy seminar over the summer.
 
The speaker had us quickly jot down where we found poetry in our lives.
 
This is what I wrote:
 
My hate the world days
Standing by a friends chupah
Insomniac night wishing I could fall asleep
The things I do to procrastinate
The silent moments between friends
The awkwardness [...]

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I Can’t Keep

I can’t
keep a manicure (chip-free)
for more than
2 days
but I am
a
Lady
for
2 days
 
I can’t
keep my hair (frizz-free)
for more than
2 hours
but I am
a
Lady
for
2 hours
 
I can’t
Keep my nylons (run-free)
for more than
2 wears
but I am
a
Lady
for
2 wears
 
I can’t
keep myself from [...]

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I Like Me (Ergo)

We were having a discussion in class about choices,
 mistakes,
decisions,
second chances,
and if you could do it over again
would you?
 
So many of my students said
they’d love to start over
Do it again.
I didn’t want to.
I can think of so many things that when they happened,
I wished had gone differently.
That I had [...]

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Everybody Tells Me Everything

I was searching for poems I could read to my class last night, and found this poem by Ogden Nash. Besides for the guy being the sharpist wit, this side of the Atlantic, and me loving him, this poem is just too perfect for today.

Everybody Tells Me Everything
 

 

 

 

I find it very difficult to enthuse
Over the current news.
Just when [...]

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Fat is Not a Fairy Tale

Fat Is Not a Fairy Tale
Jane Yolen
I am thinking of a fairy tale,
Cinder Elephant,
Sleeping Tubby,
Snow Weight,
where the princess is not
anorexic, wasp-waisted,
flinging herself down the stairs.
I am thinking of a fairy tale,
Hansel and Great,
Repoundsel,
Bounty and the Beast,
where the beauty
has a pillowed breast,
and fingers plump as sausage.
I am thinking of a fairy tale
that is not yet written,
for [...]

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Violin String

I have on my table a violin string. 
It is free.
But it is not free to do what a violin string is supposed to do
 - to produce music. 
So I take it,
fix it in my violin
and tighten it until it is taut. 
Only then is it free to be a violin string.
- [...]

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Did I Miss Anything?

This poem is a favorite of my students (and me, well, I’m the one who introduced it to them). I wanted to share it with you, because I think it’s just so sharp and eloquent.
I think Fridays might become poetry days. Let me know what you think (of the poem and the Poetry Fridays).
Did I [...]

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