June 26, 2008
Yep– so I could still sing this song for just about every professional and personal challenge of 07-08: John Doe of X fame, backed up by the beautiful Kathleen Edwards, to be played very, very loud.
And the appropriate closing poem, below.
Have a wonderful summer, everyone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A Place With Promise
Sometimes my affection for this place wavers.
I am poised between a vague ambition
and loyalty to what I’ve always loved,
kedged along inside my slow boat
by warp and anchor drag. But if I imagine
seeing this for the last time…
then I think I could not bear to go,
would grab any stump or tree limb
and hold on for dear life…
Why can’t we hold this landscape in our arms?
The nettle-tangled orchards given up on,
the broken fence posts with their tags
of wire, burdock taking over uncut fields,
the rusted tipples and the mills.
Sometimes I think it’s possible
to wash the slag dust from the leaves
of sycamores and make them green, the way
as a child, after lesson and punishment,
I used to begin my life again.
I’d say a little “start” to myself
like the referees at races, then
on the same old scratchy car seat,
with the same parents on the same road,
I could live beyond damage and reproach,
in a place with such promise,
like any of the small farms among the wooded hills,
like any of the small towns starting up along the rivers.
~ Maggie Anderson
June 28th, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Kathleen Edwards! Mmmm.
And thanks for the lovely poem.
Sometimes, my affection for schools wavered (deflated, crumbled, melted, died). And not only in the obvious times, like the week before school ended. It’s the unexpected Crummy Thing on a day that should be full steam ahead, fluffy clouds in the blue sky, that will do you in.
Having seen the inside of a classroom for the last time (as queen of said classroom), I did not hang on to any emotional stumps. I let go, quickly, ripped off the band-aid. It was similar to having a child leave for college –a good thing, a new start, a little residual sadness, like finishing a truly excellent, life-changing book.
And then, I went to the experience library to find a new great book–and the shelves were full of possibilities.
Nancy