North Myrtle Beach, S. Carolina
I actually do take a stack of grading to the beach with me. I pull out a report. Start reading.
Is that a dolphin? Oooo it’s two.
Look down and try to find where I left off. Jot down a comment.
Oh look. A gull landed so close I can touch him. “Hey guy. How you doing?”
Look down again. Read the same paragraph.
This would be so much better if I took my shoes off, and you know, squish my toes in the sand.
Set report aside. Take off shoes and socks. Dig feet into sand. Dig for a long while. Pull out report. Read the same paragraph.
Oh the heck with it. I’ll grade on the plane.
Along with everyone else, I’ve been following the unfolding of events at Virginia Tech with shock and sadness. As a college professor, it’s unnerving to think of a campus as unsafe. As a parent of college-age children, it’s even more terrifying. My thoughts and prayers go out to all those coping with the aftermath. I also remembered that there’s a poet on that campus. Nikki Giovanni has been on the faculty at Virginia Polytechnic Institute in Blacksburg, Virginia since 1987. I believe she will be participating in the convocation planned there shortly. How lovely to have a poet participating in this grieving process. I looked quickly for one of her poems to showcase at this moment and found this one.
The World Is Not A Pleasant Place To Be
by Nikki Giovanni
the world is not a pleasant place
to be without
someone to hold and be held by
a river would stop
its flow if only
a stream were there
to receive it
an ocean would never laugh
if clouds weren't there
to kiss her tears
the world is not
a pleasant place to be without
someone
Here are a few collections of poetry for young people with poems that I find comforting during difficult times.
Georgia Heard. This Place I Know: Poems of Comfort
Naomi Shihab Nye. What Have You Lost
Nancy Willard. Step Lightly: Poems for the Journey
Arnold Adoff. Love Letters
Francisco X. Alarcon. Poems to Dream Together
Nikki Grimes. Hopscotch Love: A Family Treasury of Love Poems
Pat Mora. Love to Mama: A Tribute to Mothers
Langston Hughes. The Dreamkeeper
Cynthia Rylant. God Went to Beauty School
Picture credit: www.tbcs.org.uk
From closing remarks by Nikki Giovanni at the Convocation at Virginia Tech on April 17, 2007
we are not moving on
we are embracing our mourning
we are sad enough to know we must laugh again
no one deserves a tragedy
we are better than we think and not quite what we want to be
we will continue to invent the future
we will prevail
It was sad how she tried to politicize the event.
Did you really think so? I thought it was an interesting connection with suffering everywhere woven into a salute to the community itself.