a perfect spring day

i love PAC and i love taking my class of 23 out to PAC and i love love love kickin off my shoes and sprawling on the green grass dotted with sweet-scented clover during PAC. it's a perfect opportunity to chat with kids- get to know them. be amazed by their stories and really get why they are who they are. sometimes you just gotta step outside the classroom for the chains to fall away, so you can breathe deeply, so you can open your eyes and your heart all the way.

so ya know what? i talked to my fifth period and suggested we learn about similes outside...the result? an amazing afternoon in the grass with the sun warming our faces, our backs, our arms and legs and some really great beginnings of some poetry.

some laughing, some talking, some absorbing- writing nothing,
but for some
the magic of a perfect spring afternoon
wins out against the madness
and their words- like rivers of beautiful letters- drip onto the pages
waiting
to be gobbled up by hungry readers

like a laughing child, the sun played peek-a-boo with me behind fluffy white clouds

a lonely yellowjacket dines on a weedy flower like a lost soul grasping in the dark

kids are so incredible WHEN THEY WANNA BE and believe me, when they don't wannabe, i wannabe a yellowjacket with a big long stinger

wanna know what's funny?
watching a kid hop around like a rabbit who'd been shot in the tail with a pellet gun just 'cuz a tee-tiny bug wandered up the leg of his gym shorts

wanna know what's cool?
watching that kid who epitomizes sadness turn his face to the smiling sun and suck in the life-sustaining breath that only comes on a perfect spring afternoon. for just a minute he knew peace and maybe it's enough to last him through the night to come

wanna know what hurts?
watching that kid who just doesn't give a damn about himself toss sticks and bits of grass at his classmates in a last ditch effort to wreak havoc on them...all because they allowed themselves to be caught up in the magical beauty of the day and he just doesn't get it