It is Saturday. This Was a Week. I Will Be Grading All Day (but It's Okay, I Cherish @halseanderson)

Hvor heldigt at jeg mødte dig. 

I was glad to introduce friends for another episode of THE WRITE TIME (shhh. be patient). Here's a hint, this episode will be with my CNY, Danish-traveling, woman-warrior friend who, as Rhiannon calls it, "is the most human person you'll ever meet." 

Rhiannon joked with me for years that she knew one day LHA and I would meet and connect. She had a hunch and she was right. I love any one with energy, passion, drive, mission, muscle, mind, creativity, fight, wit, humor, and wisdom. Yes, superheroes are fictitious, but I recognize the ones we have amongst us - in real time - and when I see them, I gush. I admire. Eventually, I reach out.  To me, to Rhiannon, to teachers everywhere, and especially to young readers finding their way in this world, Laurie Halse Anderson is truly a Wonder Woman (this is a book plug - if you don't have Wonder Woman - Tempest Tossed in your to-read pile, get it now)

Yesterday, Rebecca Marsick kicked off NWP's THE WRITE TIME with a free write which prompted us to speak or shout about something that matters to us, and explain the differences between the terms if we wanted. I went poetic and quickly doodled,

it always begins with a leak,

       something to say, 

   something to speak,

for everything we hold deep within.

sometimes a loss,

    the occasionally a masterful win,

cuz the humanity stuff, our way of being alive,

  can be quite the task,

& all of us need moments, at times,

to rip off our ridiculous mask.

there's a time to let the thinking out,

 to scream inner truth and finally shout

  into this complicated world...

 emotions, frustrations, anger, joy - 

       a place to be twisted and swirled,

'Speak' is the butterfly, 

       learning to stretch its wings.

           'Shout' is the dragonfly 

                with a flight for greater things.

Okay, I'll take that for a rough draft, but for today, I have graduate papers I need to work on. In the meantime, I'm thanking the Great Whatever for all the generosity its sent my way, for the National Writing Project, for Lauri, for Rebecca, and for the luck my world has happened upon.