This past month, I have had the opportunity to work alongside teachers and students at Caledonia-Mumford elementary and middle school. As a part of Buy Local Build a Future, we have been studying the local community, writing poetry and creating artwork to publish in a book and poetry/ukulele videos.
As a part of this project, I have come to value the beauty of deep roots in one town. For although I, too, live in a small town, we have lived here but five years. Some of my neighbors have lived here for generations and have stories, traditions, and rituals around places and people they have known "forever".
Students - sometimes we write from a sense of longing. What do you long for? I long for this sense of place-over-time, but I didn't want my poem to be sad this time. So instead, I just pretended that I have lived somewhere for generations...and wrote from that heart.
If you long for something, you might write about the longing feeling. Or you might pretend, and make your longing come true, even if it is just for a few lines.
(Please click on COMMENTS below to share a thought.)
You perfectly captured what it's like to live embedded in a small town! (My mom taught and subbed so long that she had GRANDKIDS of the the first kids she taught!)
ReplyDeleteYou're kidding! That's really crazy. The kids must have loved going home to tell their parents and grandparents that. Thank you...I like living in a small town, though I'm not as connected as the child in the poem.
ReplyDeleteA.
What a great small town poem, I loved it.
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