The Paradox

For the past two months, I have been at home taking care of our newborn daughter. She's adorable, incredibly alert, and usually snuggly. Perhaps the most frequent piece of parenting advice I've received is "Enjoy this time; it goes so fast." That's true... except when it doesn't. At three AM when 15 minutes with a …

I Want to Be Famous

Teachers head back for the 2014-2015 school year tomorrow. Students won't come for another week and a half, but even so, it definitely feels like there's a change in the air. It's been a big summer- getting married, transforming my house into our house, a couple short road trips, a week of camp, and a …

Nourish Beginnings

Nourish beginnings, let us nourish beginnings. Not all things are blest, but the seeds of all things are blest. The blessing is in the seed. From "Elegy in Joy" by Muriel Rukeyser I'm sitting in a coffee shop, Post-it note to-do list and rapidly filling academic year planner at hand. I checked Twitter to find that …

Mashup, Mixtape Culture

I never feel comfort Steeped in commodity Tangible artifacts and wasted ideas Counting joy uncovered exits Changed the argument The beginnings of the difference Dusty road Gets me where I need to be -A found poem pulled from final UNCCWP SI reading   Had this song in my head as I was writing

Poetry Crawl

In Melissa's demo today, we reflected on our experiences with poetry. I hated poetry in school, mostly because I felt like I didn't "get" it. There weren't clear right answers, and it often seemed like analysis of poems was just the teacher or students BS-ing about how it made them feel. My best teachers of …

Stunt Poetry

At about 3am this morning, I awoke. (Grr! teacher insomnia.) I clicked on a link from my Twitter stream, which led me to the Vimeo homepage. The video I wanted wouldn't load, but the title of the video below caught my eye. It is an incredible piece of cinematography. I think it'd make a great …

Poem for the Year

In addition to a motto, I like the idea of adopting a poem for the school year. If I'd chosen a poem for last year, it likely would have been "To Raja Rao" by Czeslaw Milosz. A few days ago, the poem below was included in the Writers' Almanac email (which is a great way …

Go Write A Poem

I've never thought of myself as a "poetry person." I was the kid in high school English who whined, "I don't get it." However, I enjoy reading poetry now, thanks to poetry aficionados who have nudged me toward poetry they think I will like. Last week, we had an amazing poet in residence with our …

Happy Birthday Robert Frost!

Something we were withholding made us weak. Until we found out that it was ourselves We were withholding from our land of living, And forthwith found salvation in surrender. From "The Gift Outright" by Robert Frost

Faithful Delivery

Two weeks ago, I got off a NYC express bus on my way to TEDxNYED. I walked into a Starbucks, reached into my purse, and realized I had left my wallet on the bus. I called my cousin, who immediately got on the phone with the MTA and started working to relocate the wallet. I …