Welcome to Poetry Friday! This week we are hosted by artist and poet, Michelle Kogan, HERE. Stop by and check out what she has for us this week. Thank you Michelle for hosting!
First of all, the tragic school shooting has to be acknowledged. I’m praying for those families that are experiencing the unimaginable, for the children crying for their lost friends.
This week, on and off at my computer, I have been thinking about beginnings. After all, 2022 is about to begin and none too soon.
The calendar, of course, is totally empty. There is no choice but to arrive at January and see what will happen when we get there. Everything has a beginning. New Years Day is my favorite day of the year because it’s a beginning and I am always hopeful.
New buds on branches Full moon rises in the sky our calendar world. © Janice Scully 2021
© Janice Scully 2021
I have been writing poems on the prompt “beginnings” for a submission to an on-line journal. Human beings are always beginning something, and maybe children have even more beginnings in their daily life. I don’t know but it seems they must. But adults have more begin agains.
I didn’t submit this poem. I revised it this morning and thought it might speak to teachers.
BEGINNER
Once, you didn’t know
how to read.
but you
learned words,
turned pages.
One new word
led to another
and soon you read
sentences.
Which led to reading
your first book
and the next,
which is how it is
for everyone.
At the beginning
is where everyone
In the whole world
begins.
© Janice Scully 2021
I hope you find hope and joy in your week. Begin or begin again a few books.
Lastly, I have had good news this week. A short non-fiction essay I wrote from my childhood entitled SWIMMING TO PENNSYLVANIA, was published on line at RavensPerch.com here. I was thrilled. The piece began as a monologue for my playwriting group, but I turned it into an essay.
Thank you, Michelle, for hosting.
What a nice essay! And I enjoyed the poems, too. Some years ago my kiddo & I swam across a tidal creek at one of the local beaches, and a lifeguard blew his whistle at us & we got a good scolding. There was something very satisfying about crossing that very small border, though!
Congratulations on your story Janice!
Your statement about the school shootings really hit me. I have school aged children and I worry about them, and they worry about this too. When I was a kid, we had drills for tornados and severe storms, not active shooters. When my kids ask me about how we did ALICE drills (that’s what they are called for my kids) when I was in school, I tell them we didn’t do that. It puzzles them. And that’s sad. They wonder why we never did active shooter drills.
Thank you for sharing.
That’s so interesting. I feel bad that kids have to cope with such violence. I’m reading Lost Children Archive by Valeria Luiselli and she muses about the future or lack of future that young people might be feeling.
Thanks for taking me across that childhood river Janice–what a grand challenge, and congrats on the publication of your essay!
I’m enjoying your “Beginnings” post and poems, it’s an area we all can relate to!
Your poems, essay, and post pair nicely with Laura PS’s (just came here from there). Beginnings and endings. Fertile ground for creative minds.
Thanks for this reflective post about beginnings (enjoyed the poems!), and for acknowledging the tragic school shootings. Things seem to be getting worse as certain politicians continue to turn a blind eye despite overwhelming support from the general public for gun control legislation.
Congrats on your essay publication!! A nice read and it’s wonderful to hear some good news for a change.
Well, how exciting is that?! And yes to new beginnings…but we seem stuck, do we not? We pretend to care about our children, but we’re okay with letting them shoot each other or carry babies conceived by rape. Thank you for making me feel a wee bit hopeful all the same about what the new calendar could bring, Janice.
Congrats on publishing your essay, Janice. Your beginnings poem speaks to universal truths. If you’re looking for places to submit, I think NCTE or SCBWI would love this poem for their newsletter/magazines.
Thank you! That is a very good idea! I had a piece in SCBWI several years ago and maybe should try them again.
Congratulations on your essay! As a former reading specialist, I loved your poem “Beginner.” I appreciated not only the words but the visual structure – almost like adding an aside to each verse.
And thank you also for acknowledging yet another tragic school shooting. So sad. When will this senseless violence end?
Yes to beginnings. I loved your essay and left a comment there. Your poems and post show your compassion, Janice. Would that we could help everyone begin again or simply begin to be kind, thoughtful and full of love rather than hate. To imagine those students in that hallway makes me ill. It’s a horrible thing to imagine and so much worse for all involved. Same with the parade in Wisconsin, a lovely beginning of the holiday season destroyed for some forever. I pray for all of us.
Thank you, Janet. My best to you for the holidays!
Thank you for this dose of loveliness, Janice. I wish I could look at every day and see it as empty. The first lockdown did that a little, though I still had deadlines and such. But all the social stuff and life obligations were gone, and while it was scary, it was also a blank canvas. Long way of saying: I love your haiku. And congrats on your essay publication!
Congratulations on a publication! So nice. And, thank you for acknowledging the school shooting. I’m struggling with being a person that has a lot of emotion and all that there is to grieve in this world right now. I am also praying. I work in a school where tension runs high right now…and I’m off to work. Many mornings, including this one, include prayers for safety on all the levels. Perhaps we could begin…by getting one gun then two then more and more out of the hands of kids first.
January has always felt like a new beginning, but I love the “clean slate” and “new beginning” imagery of the blank calendar, Janice.
Janice, I read your short non-fiction essay and think it is a wonderful piece of writing. Congratulations! Begin is my one word for 2021. I am happy that I found and read one more poem with my one word.