Category Archives: poetry

A Slice of Rapunzel and her Witch

poetry, Slice of Life
Slice of LIfe

Part of Slice of Life by Two Writing Teacher

Nothing is happening here.
It’s like Rapunzel’s tower – only if Rapunzel had 3 kids up there with her.

We are missing travel especially
We all want out of this house, out of this town –
Our last travel was in March.
We drove to Georgia, with a few extra Clorox wipes for the cabin.
and drove back with official word that school was remote,
and unofficial word that if we saw toilet paper at a store on the drive back to Pennsylvania,
we should buy it.

March.
March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
10 months.
No wonder I’m thinking about Rapunzel in her tower.

“Nothing is happening here.”
She might have said
Or maybe her witch said it.
Does Rapunzel’s witch have a name?
At this point the actual fairy tales, fractured fairy tales
villain-side fairy tales
and Into the Woods
All run together. 

Rapunzel’s witch was not really stuck in the tower, right?
She came and went.
No. No. I’m not actually jealous of the witch!
I’ve always felt bad for her –
An aging woman, desperate for love and youth
Misunderstood

But, I mean, she came and went as she pleased, right?
She used her power to trap Rapunzel
She was a predator.
An aging, desperate predator.
I wonder if she would have stayed -quarantined in the tower with Rapunzel
If there were covid 19 at the bottom

But Rapunzel?
She was stuck.

March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December.
10 months.
No wonder I’m thinking about Rapunzel in her tower.

A Slice of a New Kid (in Middle School)

poetry, Slice of Life, Uncategorized
Slice of LIfe

Part of Slice of Life by Two Writing Teacher

New Kid (in Middle School) 

Were you ever 
the new kid?
In middle school -
In the maze of a huge 
Middle school?

Did you ever 
Look at the sea
Of faces floating
Down the hallways of
Middle school?

Was there
A Heather*
You wanted as a friend?
Popular, pretty, nice -- in
Middle school?

I was.
I did. 
There was.

One night
The phone rang
it was her!
“Come tomorrow after school … stay for dinner!” 
I was new and I was invited! 

The next day
I was pumped
In middle school
Tried to make eye contact with Heather
All day

I needed to know --
Her bus number...
What we would do...
Where we should meet
After school

The last bell rang
Without eye contact yet
We hadn’t spoken yet
The invitation was fake
Not from Heather, or maybe it was.

Did you ever 
Get fake invited
In middle school?
In the maze of a huge 
Middle school?

Was there 
a time
When you knew 
some people are cruel? 
In middle school?

I did. 
There was. 

5th Grade
In the sea of faces
Popular, pretty, nice faces --
The lessons of
Middle School 


*Name changed even though I really didn't want to. 🙂

#FindTheJoy

pandemic, poetry, Reflections on coaching, Reflections on teaching, Slice of Life, Uncategorized

Slice of LIfePart of Slice of Life by Two Writing Teachers

 

I’m not saying that it’s quite as easy to find the joy each day, remotely.

Even before pandemic times
Before The Quarantine,
There were days.

Days when
meetings overtook
people were mean
things got canceled
I didn’t see a child,
(other than my own and they were grumpy that day, for sure)

There’s a reason I have a wine glass that says
#coachingainteasy

On those days,
Before pandemic times
Before Quarantine
I sometimes had to look for joy

And maybe I learned that looking for joy
is how you find it

Now it’s pandemic times
The Quarantine

Now I have to look for joy
It doesn’t pop up on its own and wave its hands in the air as often as normal
(“normal?”)

But it’s still important.
Because I’ve learned that looking for joy
is how you find it

Even if you are looking into your computer screen at little boxes
reading emails instead of faces
walking down your steps instead of around a school

Some people have reminded me that I don’t have to keep finding joy
posting videos, sharing every day
“It’s a pandemic!”
“Cut yourself some slack!”
“You don’t owe videos to anyone!”

But I do.
I owe it to myself
I owe it to myself to keep looking for joy

#findthejoy

(Check out my #findthejoy videos on Twitter and Facebook @OnaFeinberg … and join in! See what happens when you look for joy!)

#sol20 March 31 A Slice, The Last Slice

pandemic, poetry, Slice of Life

Slice of LIfePart of Slice of Life by Two Writing Teachers March Slice a Day Challenge! I’m slicing every day this month. Thanks for stopping by.

 

I don’t know what to write about.
Which means I should probably try a 6-word slice:

Writing brought happiness, and also frustration 

My mind is maybe too tired to write today.
Which means I should probably try a haiku:

zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom
butt, ears, eyes, and elbows hurt
zoom zoom zoom zoom zoom

Slicing is hard.
Which means I should probably try a little rhyme:

Writerly life
during pandemic strife
means my first-hand account
is paramount 

Pandemic life
as coach, mother, wife
means busy days full of stress
my brain – full of a mess

Sit every day to write
before sinking into bed at night
means choosing my chair again
staring at the screen with disdain

But living the slicer life
during the pandemic strife
means a writing and sharing opportunity
a connection, a community

It’s the last Slice of Life this March.
Which means I should probably make this short and sweet:

See you next Tuesday, I hope! 

 

 

#sol20 March 29 slices, before you grew up

poetry, Slice of Life

Slice of LIfePart of Slice of Life by Two Writing Teachers March Slice a Day Challenge! I’m slicing every day this month. Thanks for stopping by.

slices, before you grew up

someone recently asked me who I am
“who were you as a child, before you grew up?”
my answer is a disappointment, my memory is terrible

I think maybe the details are locked in a fireproof safe
or that’s wishful thinking
and they are gone

all I have are slices
of memories
little unfocused slices

laughter
we would laugh until we fell down, tears streaming down our face
it didn’t matter if the grown-ups didn’t understand our jokes

dance
we would dance in the living room, or outside on the grass until we fell down
in dance class, Mrs. Dittmar separated us often for too much laughing

song
mostly those Disney sing-a-long records with the square lyric book but later Madonna
I’d put in True Blue and listen and read the insert until I had the songs memorized

pretend
imagination was the most important thing, I promised I’d always have it
we played barbies, & school, made robber stew, and I even had an imaginary friend

someone recently asked me who I am
“who were you as a child, before you grew up?”
laugher, dance, song, pretend… my memory is terrible

#sol20 March 24 A Slice of Wordplay about Today. . .

Family, poetry, Slice of Life

Slice of LIfePart of Slice of Life by Two Writing Teachers March Slice a Day Challenge! I’m slicing every day this month. Thanks for stopping by.

 

About today.
How many zooms can one non-boomer zoom, if zoom is the only way to be in the room?

By the way.
I just looked it up and I’m maybe an echo-boomer, which makes me an echo-boomer-zoomer.

And so you know.
This is how I write when it’s already night, and I’ve witnessed one too many sibling fight, and I just want everything to be alright.

Before I go.
Help me. Why am I tired, when there’s only sitting required… but for my kids, these days leave them wired?

 

#sol20 March 21 A slice of Silver Lining Haiku

pandemic, poetry, Slice of Life

Slice of LIfePart of Slice of Life by Two Writing Teachers March Slice a Day Challenge! I’m slicing every day this month. Thanks for stopping by.

 

The other day I read a haiku slice… I thought I wrote down which slicer’s it was… but I can’t find that! If you know, please tell me! The haiku ended with “A silver lining” and I thought I’d try lifting that line, for some uplifting haiku of my own. Get it? Lifting to uplift! 

zooming all work now
made me clean my desk at home
a silver lining

kids don’t go to school
means time for chores and reading
a silver lining

new distance learning
includes a mute button tool
a silver lining

far friends at home too
now say we work together
a silver lining

dolphins, swans are back
earth is breathing cleaner now
a silver lining

I’d love for you to add your own “A Silver Lining” haiku in the comments, friends. 

 

#sol20 March 4 A Slice of a Poem, I Guess?

poetry, Reflections on coaching, Reflections on teaching, Slice of Life

Slice of LIfePart of Slice of Life by Two Writing Teachers March Slice a Day Challenge!
I’m slicing every day this month. Thanks for stopping by. 🙂

 

I don’t usually hear owls in the morning.

Do I?

This is what I am thinking as I arrive at school, balancing my coffee and bags and a water bottle, and my phone so I can speech-to-text a note to myself to remember later. Only, my phone thinks I’ve said, “I don’t usually hear about it in the morning.”

So I have to rebalance my bags so I can correct that in the note– because it feels like a slice. If I go home hours later and see a note that says “I don’t usually hear about it in the morning,” I’ll never know what I was talking about.

I breathe in the cool morning air, that feels both like it’s spring now, and also like it could snow any day.

Maybe this will be the kind of day where there are slices all around me, I think. Maybe I’ll fill my note on my phone with amazing inspiration for a poem that starts with

I don’t usually hear owls in the morning. 

I can add something about the cool morning air.

I don’t usually hear owls in the morning
Cool morning
Spring air
Snow soon

What a poet I am! I write a little in my mind while I walk to my room.

It will be a day full of slice inspiration. Slice-piration! 

Only I’m pretty busy, and the only other note I write is scrawled on a post-it on a page of the 5th-grade literary essay book. It’s a comment a student makes during the connection of our mini-lesson, and I have to write it down because I need it for my #finthejoy video.

I had reminded the class I was there for writing yesterday, and that today we were going to continue growing ideas about our stories to help us with interpretations for our literary essays.

“Wait. You were here yesterday?” A boy asked. “Morning or afternoon?”

“Afternoon.”

“You’re like a ninja!” he said.

IMG_7827

So, that’s my poem for the day, I guess. It must mean something, right?

 

I don’t usually hear owls in the morning

Cool morning
Spring air
Snow soon

Like a ninja