All Kinds of Visits

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In the past few weeks, I’ve spoken at two university children’s literature classes… three elementary schools… two conferences… two bookstores… and a juvenile detention center. Tomorrow I do a Young Author’s Day at another school.

Ordinarily, I blog right after talks and school visits — there’s always so much humour and poignancy — but this month I’ve found it all a bit dizzying. The schedule, yes, but also just the intense shifting of gears — from college students to troubled youth to toddlers with sippy cups.

I think I do okay when I’m on, but I drive home in a daze and my family often catches me later, staring off into the middle distance. This was never more true than last Friday when I spoke to two groups at the Williamson County Juvenile Academy in Georgetown, Texas.

It’s hard to know how to sum up the visit except to say these are kids who are not disengaged.
Or disenchanted.
Or hopeless.

They are in a tough spot, to be sure, but they were not afraid to raise their hands to say they liked poetry or kept journals, they were not afraid to call out suggestions when we wrote as a group, and they were not afraid to cheer what we came up with.

In honor of that fearlessness, their poems.
With my gratitude for their words and their attention…

________________________________________________

 

I AM

I am cherry, blueberry and white chocolate

I am the bagpipes and the drums

I am an airplane, a rollercoaster

and a transformer

I am black
 
I am blue

I am

_____________________________________

I AM
 

I am red like fire

I am green like grass

I am a rabbit and a beast

I am stormy. 

I can make it rain.

I am a rock. 

I can’t go anywhere.

I am.

__________________________________________________

I AM

I am a motorcycle,
fast and black and dangerous.

I am 100 degrees farenheit.

I am enthusiasm.

I am a bassoon, a snare drum, a violin.

I am brown, I am white,
I am.

_______________________________

I AM

I am purple like a grape.

I am red, too, like a cherry.

I am an eagle and a mountain lion.

I am rain and snow.

I am a diamond,
hard and clear.

I am.

24 Responses to “All Kinds of Visits”

  1. susanwrites

    Oh Liz, these are wonderful. It’s amazing, isn’t it, how working with these kids creates such an avalanche of emotions in us?

    I’d love to know what kind of set-up you used to help them find these words. I’ve got a really tough group right now.

    • liz_scanlon

      Yes. An AVALANCHE. I’m so sorry that your latest stint is proving so difficult, Susan. But really, considering the circumstances, anything could happen. Right?

      I only had one session with the kids so we co-wrote these on a white board. I’d been talking about how poetry as a way to discover oneself so I just started calling out questions.

      If you were a color, what color would be? What kind of weather? Etc. They were pretty much too eager to remember to raise their hands. Which I took as a good sign…

      • susanwrites

        Lovely! I love doing group poems. My last group really enjoyed them too. And yes, that eagerness to speak up without raising their hands…I love that.

        Thanks for letting me know how you led this.

  3. Anonymous

    Tanita Says 🙂

    “I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart: I am, I am, I am.” – Sylvia Plath

    Trés beau.

    • liz_scanlon

      I think so, too, Jama.
      I truly believe that everyone has an amazing metaphor or two inside of himself, just waiting to be teased out…
      Maybe not always the knowedge or even impetus to craft an entire poem, but metaphors? Everyone has them….