To be completely honest, I was not excited to be sacrificing my only free day of the week to a literature festival dedicated to the arm of literary arts that I enjoy the very least. Imagine my surprise at Janet Wong's confession that she, too, hated poetry.
What?!? Did I hear that right?
Indeed she was not a lover of verse when she started writing. Maybe there is hope for me yet.
I want to be the best teacher I can be, and I want my students to fall in love with reading. But I know that I will be selling them short if I can't impart a wholistic enthusiasm for literature. So it is my goal over the next 6 months to fill that gaping hole in my literary interest. The 4th Annual COE Lit Festival turned out to be a great springboard in this endeavor.
I enjoyed getting to hear the inflection of Janet Wong and J. Patrick Lewis as they read, especially Lewis recitation of "One Child Left Behind." I think that was the title. Did anyone catch who wrote it? I'd like a hard copy of it, but I've had a hard time finding it. I also found hopeful, Lewis' declaration that poets are born, not made, but usually after their 30th birthday. I'm going to choose to believe that my ELA teachers were just 20 years too early to truly engage me in poetry.
Overall, I'm really glad that I went. I learned a lot, but more importantly, I had fun and I left with a sense of encouragement that as I choose to broaden my poetry schema, I might actually enjoy the journey.
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Staci: thanks so much for this heart-felt response to the Festival. And that you spent time even waiting in those long lines to get autographs. Same as with Michael: did you get a chance to ask Lewis or Wong any Qs while you waited to get the books signed that you'd like to share with us?
J. Patrick Lewis writes: "One Child Left Behind" is a poem of mine that I read at the conference. It's my take on the execrable No Child Left Behind policy of the Bushadministration. Here is it, in case your student might have a use for it.
One Child Left Behind
Damien Dyer, late for school,
Bundled up in his ridicule.
Heart aflutter, brain on fire
Was Damien “D/D Minus” Dyer.
He wished that he had stayed in bed;
They kissed him off to school instead
For it was time to Test-ify
On The Day You Do and Don’t Ask Why.
Except for him, P.J. and Duff,
The other kids seemed ready enough.
The Test—for everyone the same—
Was Damien’s testament to shame.
The teacher said, “Pick up your pencil.”
Damien chewed the sad utensil,
Meant to defeat the roaring Science
Dinosaurs and the History giants.
Geography’s not just any place,
Grammar slapped him across the face,
Answers slid down a memory hole.
He sat, wooden as a totem pole.
Beaten down by the need to guess,
Beaten up by the bully, stress,
Damien, stupefied with fear,
Choked on the Test she’d taught all year.
Now half a century’s gone by.
Damien Dyer stares at the sky
Wondering how he came to grow
Up Standardized so long ago.
He laughs—uneasily, it’s true;
He smiles and the smile may comfort you.
But Time has not undone the harm
That tripped a childhood alarm.
And failure’s phantom will not let
Some part of Damien forget
One blue humiliating day
That sent the best of him astray.
[Note: This poem will be published in HORN BOOK, September/October 2008. All rights are mine. JPL
Staci, I know exactly how you were feeling. I was not happy about having to get up early and attend the literary festival, but I really enjoyed what I heard. I loved hearing Janet Wong speak with such sincerity and honesty! I also got a lot out of the session I attended!
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