Poetry

Amelie and I were sitting on the porch yesterday and she says she is bored.  My children have never said they are bored.  So we chatted and I suggested poetry.  She wrinkled her nose but then listened.  I told her that in college I used to write poems and really enjoyed it.  She asked me to take out my book of poems and we read through a few.  She is off now on a poetry craze.  She has been writing poems and looking up different rules about poems.  Yes, she is my daughter who never stops.

I am going to share one of my poems that I wrote in college.  I may end up sharing others but I will choose the one.



Only two people on the sidewalk
an old homeless woman
carrying her wardrobe in a paper bag
and a couple of feet behind her walks a respectful man in his 30's.
He is walking a pace faster than she-
so in a short time he will catch up to her.
In one stride he passes her and continues to walk his pace.
Only a foot between them, with her raspy voice-
she calls out to the man.
He holds his breath and turns around expecting her to
ask for some spare change that she will only spend on booze.
After getting his attention she says...
You know, for a second there, it sure looked like we
were walking together, didn't it?


That Unfortunate Soul  (one more)

Wandering aimlessly through broken cities
he covers his unimportant being with sheaths of dirty wear
one eye intact, two ears to hear
frost bit, bug eaten hands
scurry to find the comfort of a satisfied stomach.
The warmth consisting only in his mind
where thoughts of dandelions and colorful jellybeans dance.
Memories are his company
Visions of uneaten bread and windows from the inside
Fire glowing, he laughs with the world
the being with a wisdom of his surroundings, a knowledge of people
Lies on a sidewalk with hope and content.

Slaying past his people, briefcase at hand
Outstanding, beautiful at the sight
Washed clean clothes
accepted by society
Successful at every challenge, every thought created
holding an importance given to him at birth
Stomach full, he laughs at the world
Deadlines holding him in their hands of entrapment
Hurrying through life, never quite there yet
His ignorant mind consisting only of wanted happiness
He screams from the inside, wanting a way out
cring into his unsuccessful hands, he wakes up to another dreadful day.

I used to love writing poetry.

Dancing to Mozart

Yes, we unschool.  I have started going to Charlotte Mason meetings for ideas.  A lot of people think that unschooling is completely letting your child lead and leaving them to their own devices.  This is not true.  Unschooling (or life learning if you want more of a positives spin) means something different to different people.  To us it means not doing any schooling that the kids don't enjoy.  This means that we search high and low to get information into our children.  We very rarely use a text book.  Really the only text book we have is for Math and like I said before, the kids ask to "play" math.  Geography and History are done through reading.  Science is nature and books.  We do the odd experiment too.  We do a tonne of reading from all kinds of books.  Since going to the meetings I have gotten ideas to try with them.  They now have some copy work.  This is quite fun actually.  I write out a sentence and they copy it.  Sometimes I write that they have the best mom ever.  Sometimes I can write that my daughter Ricky is amazing.  These little comments make them smile and this makes me smile. It is those moments that I love.  The creativity and the little bits of love I can throw into their day.  Charlotte Mason believes in studying music, art and living books.  I don't have the exact same philosophy but these women are such a wealth of knowledge and I do take their advice.  We have fun with it.  We look through art books and talk about the work.  We read really good books.  Here in these pictures we are dancing to Mozart.  I turned up a video on the computer and we danced around the kitchen.  We got some CD's from the library and play those while we read stories about Mozart.  I absolutely love how much we have fun with learning!  I am so thankful for the lives we lead.