Last week while still in Louisville I had the good fortune to hear Richard Blanco retell his story: from immigrant to inaugural poet for Obama in 2013. The story he shared is fabulous, filled with colorful elaboration, detailing his parents’ bold move from Cuba to Miami, recalling his fascinating childhood to his own journey as a poet. He moved his audience to tears and laughter, from the nostalgia of the past to the shared hope for the future. His story touched us all as pieces of it became our own. How he was picked by the White House is a mystery, even to him, but once we all heard his voice ring out over the capital on that cold January day, that no longer mattered. Richard Blanco is all of us.
Category Archives: Writing
Pink Perfection
“Today” by Billy Collins [the most popular poet in America] sums up this blessed and recently arrived Spring far better than I could craft. So I will borrow his verse for this week’s post. 
If ever there were a spring day so perfect,
so uplifted by a warm intermittent breeze
that it made you want to throw
open all the windows in the house
Free Write
There are some days when you just have to let your mind wander, play with sound and imagery through words, and just have fun writing. Every Monday I start each class with a 7 minute free write. These always amount to something. Something humorous or something profound, it matters not. Sometimes we are compelled to share and other times we tuck the scribblings into a private place. Regardless, we become a community of writers during those 7 minutes. Only the sound of pen hitting paper. Heads down and hands moving. Those 7 minutes fill the classroom with a thick pulsing creativity that you can feel as vividly as sunlight.
Last week, across the state, schools just about everywhere participated in Vermont Writes Day. Students and adults alike chose from several prompts and just wrote. You can be sure something profound happened in classrooms all over.
Nine Cent Girl 