Today's Poetry Friday is dedicated to Mary Lee Hahn, who is retiring after 37 years of teaching. As well as being an amazing teacher and an inspiration to all of us, Mary Lee is also a fabulous Poetry Friday participant and organizer. She's a wonderful poet. So we're celebrating with #PoemsForMaryLee!
My contributions are both golden shovel poems that I wrote for Mary Lee's birthday back in December. For both of them, the strike lines are from Mary Lee's own work. The first strike line comes from a haiku she posted here, and the second is from her poem "Spiral Glide," published in The Poetry Friday Anthology for Middle School.
Colleagues in poetry
We meet every Friday
Gatherings digital,
Faceless, and virtual.
Only our words interact, and still
The moments are magical.
Poetry Friday: digital, virtual, still magical.
Teaching Like a Hawk (from the point of view of one of Ms. Hahn’s students)
Ms. Hahn in fifth grade is not
The type of teacher given to flapping.
She provides me space for my
Own choices, lets me spread my wings.
Her decisions are just.
In her class we are leaning
On each other and turning
Our struggles into motivation to keep on rising.
Not flapping my wings, just leaning, turning, rising.
Happy retirement, Mary Lee!
Check out what everyone else is posting for Mary Lee this week here.
9 comments:
Ruth, those golden shovels are perfect. You took her poems and gave them a perspective from someone who learns from her and respects her. Beautifully done. I hope you and your family are doing well.
I love both these golden shovels, Ruth - but most especially the second.
Thanks for sharing these golden shovels. Love the student's POV in the second one! :)
Ooh, what a wonderful form, the shovel for another poet! Here's to smooth flight and not flapping and flailing - I love the kid POV there.
Like Jama, I love that student's words, too, Ruth, "Not flapping my wings, just leaning, turning, rising." Exactly what I imagine Mary Lee's students would say! Beautiful golden shovels!
Oh, to have teachers that let us flap our wings, rise and fly. My goodness...what lucky kids. And, that she shared with us too. I couldn't agree more. A wonderful tribute in your two poems.
I 'dig' both of your golden shovels, Ruth. "Not flapping my wings, just leaning, turning, rising" - Yes! :)
Somehow I never got the birthday book memo, so it's so nice to have the opportunity to read some of these poems that I missed the first time around! I especially like "Teaching like a Hawk"—it's perfect, Ruth.
I love golden shovels! These two are so much fun -- to see my own words as the striking lines...wow. Thank you, Ruth for celebrating me (TWICE in just a few months)!
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