O, day filled with meetings,
thou rearest thine ugly head before me.
I can see thine eyes, looking at me as a target,
and thy lips, curled so I can see all of those sharp, sharp teeth.
And behind that head lies a long body,
made up of fellow meetings,
stretching out beyond what I can see,
into December's cold,
unimaginable in the heat of August.
And alongside that body lies another
filled with classes to teach--some delightful, some frustrating,
some that will leave me questioning,
"Just who do I think I am?"
It has scented me, and will turn toward me in a moment.
I may not feel ready,
but I am strong and brave,
and I stand straight before thee,
and stare right back.
(I kind of wrote this in my head last night when I couldn't sleep. I was thinking of a pair of dragons, and myself as the little person in front of them, impossibly outgunned but standing my ground anyway. Fall 2010 semester, here I come!)
May you feel strong today,
Karen
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Karen, I love this. Strength for the heat of August, the cold of December, and beyond!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Lemon Gloria! :)
ReplyDeleteKaren, This is 1) an absolute pleasure to read, and
ReplyDelete2) Totally has a wide scope of application. Not to rip away your personal connection with the content, I think all teachers can relate to the emotions expressed here. Lindsay (my fiance) and I were just talking about our annual August teacher anxieties. So this really struck a chord with me. Love it!
Hi, Matt--it's great to hear from you!
ReplyDeleteIn my head, the thing started out in that Monty Python voice--the guy who's reading from the text about the Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch--in the spirit of wanting to "blowest thine enemy to tiny bits"; but then it became kind of serious, and definitely serious by the end.
Patrick and I have been talking at home about how we're both excited about the school year but also nervous. It's always slightly terrifying, I think, to have all that in front of us, and to KNOW how hard it can be. Whew! And yet I'm looking forward to meeting my new students, finding out what my "old" students did over the summer, and reading excellent things with them all.
Hokahe! (Let's go! :) )