Poetry Friday: So Beautiful or So What

I'm not sure how it can be Friday again already, since I haven't yet finished reading all of last week's posts. But it's been a great week. We're finishing up our third quarter of the school year, and I have loads of assignments coming in today that I will spend the next few days grading. We made it through the whole quarter without missing any days of school except the ones previously scheduled (Carnival break took place, even though the festivities in Port-au-Prince were cancelled for the second year in a row). This has been a bizarre and uniquely challenging school year, but I can honestly say I have loved every day of this quarter with my students. Our classes are smaller than they were when we started the year, because many of our families have moved, or at least sent their kids somewhere a little more predictable. The State Department moved the travel advisory number back up to 4 yesterday afternoon (4 is the highest number, the worst number, the level you don't want). To all those undeniable facts, I say, I know, but it was still a wonderful quarter and I'm so thankful for being able to teach in my classroom instead of long-distance over the internet. 

Now we are reading about teachers in other parts of the world having to do the distance-learning thing due to COVID-19 (and of course teachers in China have been dealing with this for months now), and to them I say, I see you, friends, wouldn't want to be you. You have all my sympathy and I hope and hope and hope that the virus (which is officially here on our island, one case in the Dominican Republic, an Italian national) doesn't force us to do the same. I hope you, too, will soon be back in your classroom with your kids, teaching them face-to-face, and appreciating that privilege as never before.

I will soon be posting a Birthday Edition post for Poetry Friday, as I received several poetic gifts on my recent birthday.  I'm not ready to do that yet, but in my current "everything's awful and yet everything's fabulous" mood, there's nothing more appropriate than this anthology that the inimitable Irene sent me.

It's called Poetry of Presence: An Anthology of Mindfulness Poems, edited by Phyllis Cole-Dai and Ruby R. Wilson. I have been loving the beautifully-chosen selections, each one guaranteed to lower one's blood pressure and cause stress to drain out one's fingertips. I promise a review when I have read more of the book.

I also promise a better Poetry Friday post next week, with some, you know, poems in it, but in the meantime, listen to this song by one of my favorite poets, Paul Simon. Here are the lyrics on his site.

"You know life is what you make of it.
So beautiful or so what."

Rebecca over at Sloth Reads has the roundup today. Thanks, Rebecca! Hope I get a chance to read the posts before it's already next Poetry Friday!