"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing. " -Helen Keller

Saturday, June 07, 2008

A kid at my sons' school brought out the mama bear in me...

My sons' school has a buddy reader program. In it, they match the kindergarten and 1st graders with 3rd and 4th graders and they all practice their reading skills. The other day, they had buddy reader recognition day. All the 1st graders wrote a poem for their buddy readers. Joey wrote his buddy reader a poem about conch shells. His buddy reader gave Joey a nice card saying he would miss him over the summer. But, then the little twit barely glanced at Joey's poem and said to him, "My dad will just throw it away because its trash." When Joey told me about this, he just started sobbing. My poor boy's feelings were crushed. I just wanted to throttle that kid. I KNOW my kids aren't perfect but I also know they would never thoughtlessly hurt someone that way. I tried to explain to Joey that maybe his buddy reader was worried his dad wouldn't understand how important it was and would throw it away and maybe he picked a bad way of explaining it. I also told him I would love to read his poem and would help him type it out so he could decorate the page and give a copy to both sets of grandparents. I also reassured him that I was sure it was a good poem because I knew he worked hard on it.

Let me tell you, I was blown away when I read it. I thought it was a good poem and not just a good poem for a 7 yr old...a damn good poem in general. This is the poem Joey gave his buddy reader...

The Conch Shell
Very hard and thin
with brown and white stripes all over
Big and small points
like stairs up a mountain
Big hole at the end
and a big point at the top


And these are the other poems he decided to write after I told him how good the first one was and how impressed I was with his work...

Nature
Bees buzzing all around
Big trees sitting still
Big grass blades weaving in the wind
Tree seedlings next to big trees


The City
Huge buildings
Busy traffic
Sirens wailing all day
Fire trucks speeding
Trucks roaring down the road
Hammers banging
and drills spinning
People living

The North Pole
Polar bears stomping
through the snow
Ice cracking
Freezing cold snow
Reindeer stomping
through the snow
Snowflakes falling
Silence everywhere


The South Pole
Penguins singing
Orcas splashing
Snow so thick and deep
Seals swimming
Penguins being born
Water icy cold
Penguins playing
Orcas fishing
Snow so thick and deep

Silliness
Baseballs with sirens
Bats without handles
How can we ever play
Scissors singing
Airplanes eating
What will we do about that
Fire trucks swimming
Tanks playing game boys
How can we handle that
Bionicles playing baseball
Dogs doing construction on the Empire State Building
Silliness rules everywhere

So y'all tell me what you think of his poetry.

7 comments:

CreoleInDC said...

I agree that these poems INDEED show FIERCE talent! I remember writing poems at Joey's age too.

Please share with Joey that I am SO proud of him for being able to put together such poems and that I think they are SO eloquent indeed!

(If he doesn't know what eloquent means...tell him Ms. Monica said to look it up in the dictionary! Smile!)

Thank you for sharing Joey's poems with me. Silliness really made me smile!

Anonymous said...

AWW! You should be proud. Creativity starts with lots of free expression at an early age. Please continue to help him develop his talents.

Anonymous said...

I like all of these but I think I like "silliness" the best. "Fire trucks swimming?" Good one!

I also thing the boy probably meant that his dad wouldn't understand how great it was and would try to throw it out. It is no reflection on your son's talent, which he obviously has in abundance.

Anonymous said...

Joey you are a very profound writer. Your words allow the reader to visualize exactly what you are saying. Please don't ever stop writing. You have skills man!!

Anonymous said...

Joey, You are a real talent. Keep up with the writing and developing your skill.

*Tanyetta* said...

Joey!

You are a very talented young man.

Keep up the good work and don't allow negative or mean people to bring you down.

EVER!

Anonymous said...

Oh, what wonderful poems Joey wrote!

Regarding what Buddy said to Joey: the first thing I thought was not that Buddy himself thought it was trash, but that Buddy's dad has drilled into him that his own schoolwork is trash? I'm picturing a very sad house with no schoolwork or pictures on the fridge, kwim? I'm not sure if I'm explaining this well, but I'm wondering if Buddy's comment really had more to do with Buddy's dad then Joey, that Buddy doesn't think it is trash, but he knows his Dad will think it is, because it is schoolwork.