poetry

We are doing poetry in class again. That means I am writing poetry with my kids (I always try to do teh assignments with them), out theme is "Where I'm from" and we are taking a figurative view rather that literary. Here is my first:

Where I'm from...
I'm from catching polliwogs in the mud
and ruining rims across the street
hiding in sand traps, and taking golf balls
playing kickball in the summer's heat

Watching TV praying for a snow day
Penny candy from Bill's, in a small bag
Big bubbles in shop, gum mixed with saw dust
Girl Scouts after school, saluting the flag

Can I go to the pahk?
Ya, but don't go too fah!
And take your sistah too!
And Be careful for cahs!

New England boiled dinners with Dad's family
Getting cold cause my Mamie forgot her fake teeth
Coffee and omletes for breakfast at noon
Dad's broken leg from playing hide & seek

Comfort foods at Nana's - baked mac & cheese
Remember your manners – thank you and please
Swimming in the river, fishing off the dock
Getting stuck in the mud, losing shoes and socks

If you roll all this together
Add my friends and family
You'll see how I got where I am
What has made me be me

I am not completely pleased with it yet. I feel like it is still awkward in come places. Here is my college version:


Where I'm from (the college years)

From “this town smells like crap”
to a breeze that smells of cookies
tornado alarm tests
and negative 90 degrees

Printing papers in Kemper
Religon in Todd Wehr
Lit and writing in West
Lower campus at the rear

In the English Department
Professor Woods was the best
Doctor Martz passed away
He is now with Mae West

From Johnson and TriDorms
(Known as the Virgin Vault)
Scott Hall, the Quads and Merriman
Damages?? not our fault!

There was AchiO, ADPi
and my girls in PiDeltaXi
SigmaChi, ThetaChi and Merrimen
Tau, Phi Delts and LDA, (also me)

From 'RPN, to athletics,
There was a million groups for you
Help others, build houses, have fun
Oh, and those academics too!

I am now an “old alumni”
And the campus is not the same
Some buildings gone, some Greek names changed
and the drinking policy lame

The Ripon of my college days
Is still with me in a way,
the lessons learned, the people there
made me who I am today.

Clearly you have to have gone to Ripon to know exactly what I am talking about, but I am sure if you went to college, especially a small one, a lot rings clear.