Friday, May 22, 2015

Poetry Friday, The Fear Factor

Yesterday I read Sara Holbrook's poem "The Fear Factor," from The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School, with my seventh graders.  In the poem she addresses Courage, who always whispers, "Okay.  Okay.  It's going to be okay."

My favorite part is where the persona lists many things to fear, and then confesses (speaking to Courage) that the greatest one is: "I fear you will abandon me, / evaporate / and not return."

You can read the whole poem here, on Sara's own blog.

Today is my daughter's last regular day of high school.  Next week she has finals, leading up to graduation on Saturday.  I'm clinging to my own Courage, knowing (and yet sometimes doubting) that it's all going to be okay.  She's ready, we're ready (or faking it as well as we can), it's going to be okay. 

Here's today's roundup.

4 comments:

Matt Forrest Esenwine said...

Great poem to share for this time of year, with all the kids getting out of school...the fear factor gets to all of us!

Sarah SSM said...

Such a time of transition... Blessings!

Mary Lee said...

Yes, it's going to be okay.

(A quote I keep by my desk: "Everything will be okay in the end. If it's not okay, it's not the end."

Janet Wong said...

One of my favorites, too! Part of the magic of Sara Holbrook's YA poems is that they really do speak to all ages, elementary to adult.