Timely

Today is National Poem in Your Pocket Day, and as always I gave my students time in class to choose a poem yesterday and share that poem today. As usual, they were also required to write a reflection about the experience.

The assignment was straight-forward:

What poem did you choose to carry in your pocket today?
Today's Challenge: Tell us the title and the poet, quote your favorite 4-6 lines and explain why you chose it.

To give them a model, and in the spirit of community, I posted my reflection first:

I chose the poem "How it Begins" by Mary Oliver, and here's why. Last summer, the morning after my dog died, I was listening to "The Writer's Almanac" on the radio, as I do every morning. When it came time for the daily poem, here is what I heard:

Puppies, puppies, puppies 

A puppy is a puppy is a puppy.
She's probably in a basket with a bunch of other puppies.
Then she's a little older and she's nothing
but a bundle of longing.
She doesn't even understand it. 

Then someone picks her up and says
I want this one.

That day, I found those words to be a tremendous comfort after losing my dog, and now that I have a new puppy, they seem even more true.