The Lunch

Lots of literacy at lunch today. Kiddos wanted to read their poems to me and to each other. The adults wanted me to listen to their poems too and they wanted to tell me the story behind picking said poems. There was a temporary crisis when we found a poem on the ground that seemed to have been written by a sixth grader---- I hate my life and I'm going to use this knife is how it began. A teacher was harping at me, "Look what's happened because of this poem in your pocket thing! Look what I have to deal with now."

I calmly answered, "Well, I think we're learning that Poem In Your Pocket Day has a darker side. A darker side that we have to accept."

Everyone calmed down after my calming words and we went back to celebrating and appreciating the kind of literacy we call poetry.