Posted on by Laura Lee

Of Crackers, Bitter Cold, and Grace While Teaching

From 8 years ago. Teaching on the coldest day of my life. A new semester.

“I felt a great pride and joy in teaching today, in super crazy conditions of cold, with kids so happy to see each other again after tense finals, with kids who thanked me for simple CRACKERS for gosh sakes, since it was bitterly cold–a record cold. I told them I cannot give them warmth, but I had crackers and as the calories churned, they’d feel better so could we stop complaining about the cold and pretend we are warmer with the carbs and move on and I knew they were too old to bribe them with simple crackers being nearly adults and all…but it worked.

I think that simple act of acknowledging their discomfort helped a lot. I also told them I love students more than trees, after a girl asked if there was anything I loved more than trees. Students, I said, I love my students more than trees, and you know how I fee about trees.

And the crying girl in the back of the room who talked to me after class, who sobbed and an and by the time I called her mom her mom had called me to thank me for calming her seventeen year old baby girl down and caring enough to take the time to make some calls on her behalf, even though it was so cold outside and thank you for the crackers gesture, the mom said. It meant something to her sad girl.

And this is why I teach. The connection with others, the hope for the future. Great kids. Goofy, smart, immature, mature, teens. Love them.

When I am not bashing my head into a wall screaming. 🙂“

Thanks for reading.

Laura

Image from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saltine_cracker

Posted on by Laura Lee

Chicago (poem)

Chicago:

A student dreamed

arches, bridges, homes.

Everywhere he looked

one more school of solid,

one more example of

Sandburg’s broad shoulders.

Montauk, Sears, Reliance, Rookery,

Wright, Mies, Sullivan–

none could stop his slope

down, under the bridge

and then home,

under a newspaper

ads for palm tree warmth.

He rose, all long white hair

and smell, grumbling

at horrified commuters

heading home.

© 2019 L. Koenig

(image of the Montauk Building, Chicago, from the creative commons)

Posted on by Laura Lee

I thought I was being clever… blogs, writing, poetry, grief (once again–still?)

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is happy-new-year-2022.jpg

I thought I was being clever creating a unique email address for this blog. But then the pandemic hit, my sister died, and I just gave up on some things.

Like the blog.

Like poetry.

So it was a hassle recovering my blog.

And I think I am ready to return to poetry, not that poetry has missed me.

My brother died recently, and I am grieving in a weird way. ANGRY, sad, angry, sad. So angry.

Writing might help.

I am pursuing helping others with literacy growth in a big way, tutoring ESL, GED, and teaching literacy classes–in my retirement. This lets me know how much I value literacy.

My trusty OLD laptop died, and I replaced it right away. This lets me know how much I value literacy.

As I try to recover old documents, I am trying to find more than 1/3 of a MILLION documents created. This lets me know how much I value literacy. As I read some of my poetry and fiction/ nonfiction, I find pieces I want to edit and revise.

I need to get the twitter bashers out of my mind’s eye, for they almost took away my desire to write poetry. Use the wrong word or use the wrong voice and you can be canceled, vilified.

So here’s to grief (again? still?) and a continuing pandemic I’d like to write away. That won’t happen, but perhaps I can find the joy of creation once again if I stop listening to the voices of the poet and poetry bashers who seem to pounce if a wrong word or tone or voice is used, even unwittingly, even when trying to create art. (Persona poems are one of my favorite types.)

And here’s to writing down passwords and email logins somewhere else!

Happy new year, all. And thanks for reading.