A few poems

Fashion Tips from Atlantis 2

My buckets are filling too fast, certainly

Middle toe, left foot, points and reaches, I feel it through my bones
it nudges a bucket over the side, too close to spilling over
I’m at that point of devolution, recruiting all limbs for that absolute truth
Yet for each one thrown back, another floods over

The shanty just wasn’t made for waves like this.
Rusted nails squirm loose from grey planks
And the tiller broke before it was even mine

It is true that I could have dressed the part better
But here I am in a crème negligee

On my body it is tattered, soaked, only minutely tangible
Of course I wear it so distressingly with flip-flops and a trash bag
What if I had waited, strapped on the seatbelt, bit my tongue?

There was a chance lost in history
to leave it on the rack
preserve it in plastic, waiting timelessly as carbon
for me to make an assumption
into ladyhood.

I could have ordered a uniform instead
Done up so shiny with badges, tassles, and heroics

Had the days been different that would have been me
But here I am all shivers, out of fashion’s favor

It took till now to get it.
I never wanted words with the waves
Had just tolerated how it tossed me
Pushed me onto my back
Pulled my hair down
And I looked it straight in the face

I had laughed when it lapped at my toes.

The thought that comes to me now,
Watching the shanty splinter away
Watching the buckets flood over
The ocean in my lap now
My body struggling back
Wrapped in lacey crème.

The thought that comes to me now,
Is that he, the wrong one, the new and the strange;
He would have definitely given me a compass,
A treasure map, and a good pair of oars.
He would have paid for my oxygen tank,
My flippers, wetsuit, and snorkel.
He would have given me a walkie and
He would have done it all with a smile
He would have sealed it with a kiss.

But I was born in August beside the ocean,
And those waves,
Those waves they whispered my name.

My Own Universe

Ascension to the empyrean cycles decline into the abyss:
Within the body, there is a universe
Within the universe, there is a never-ending cyclone
A whirlwind of plasticity, it personifies ouroboros
Never-ending, like the story; didn’t I see that snake there?
And didn’t he want to brand his own skin with it?
In the universe, there is a cyclone and a serpent, yes
But I swear I’ve seen a child there before
And I swear I’ve seen him there before
And I swear I’ve seen me there before
But I don’t swear on any of it
Because I don’t swear at all
Except when frustrated
Or crushed

CFS Jourals 11/9 and 11/16

11/9

Well, I'm glad I'm going to be getting back into the classroom, and through preparing this project I've felt a lot of nostalgia towards working directly with children. With the growth and clarification of my career aspirations, I have written myself out of the role of a classroom teacher, even though I had spent years molding myself into that shape. My problem is similar to many teachers who begin in the classroom who leave to enter the non-profit world, or the out-source education approach. The bureaucracy of the Public school classroom, especially with the urban demographics that may have higher non-dominant race percentages than suburban, has entirely failed teachers working towards social justice and innovative education approaches. I've turned my back on the public school classroom with the hopes to somehow infiltrate the policy making sector through non-profit and out-source option programs. I have a glistening hope that post-inauguration, reform will begin and initiatives to improve public education will launch: I hope to be a part of this initiative.

But what about now? What about before I graduate, before I enter the real world? I've been yearning to continue my work in education in one way or another lately. I would really love recommendations for education programs, especially non-profit programs and especially programs involved in targeting social justice and how racism fits into sustainability. Internships, summer jobs, anything that might fit the bill; it's hard to not to feel the pressure of the desperate need for hands and minds within the education system after having been a part of it for so long on both the teaching and the learning end.

***

11/16

So it's finally the week of the project and I'm very excited. What each of us are going to be doing with the various classrooms is amazing. It is amazing that we are collectively taking back spaces: Taking back the space of the land to experience nature directly and to discover a healthy relationship with it; taking back the economic space through creating localized economies and self-sustaining communities; and taking back the space of the curriculum to value holistic learning that has existed as part of global communities for thousands and thousands of years before we standardized the concept of education.

We are all going to be doing something huge on Wednesday. We are taking back the public space which should always have belonged to the public and has been unlawfully taken away. We are collectively saying that this land really is ours, which means that it is all of ours, and that we all should have a say about how it is treated and how we are treated.

Even though our project is simple and small and fun and will only last for a meager forty minutes, our project is huge because of what it means. Beyond conveying an introduction to the concepts of food miles and food systems, we are providing children the stepping stool to liberate themselves from structures that do not give them the space they deserve.

I am greatly looking forward to joining Hannah and Pesha in the classroom on Wednesday and sharing such an incredible experience together. I am looking forward to reflections we will be able to have and the direction that we will all take our experiences after this semester is over.

Community Food Systems: November 3

I'm really excited about bringing what we've been learning into the elementary classroom. I was raised by a teacher, and both me and my sister have been working in the education field since we were old enough to work. In recent years, I've been getting frustrated with the education system, witnessing more and more bureaucratic decisions that negatively effect children passing through the public schools. So I started researching ways to work around the bureaucratic idiocy in order to provide a quality education to children that not only exposes them to new and exciting knowledge, increases their intelligence and critical thinking skills, but also engages their true basic interests and keeps in mind the importance of health and the importance of play.

Integrating food education into elementary schools is incredibly important, so I can't wait to get some practice at relaying what we have learned in Community Food Systems into the classroom setting.

When I worked at a Montessori Preschool for the children of UMASS Faculty and Students, I tried to integrate basic sustainability learning into the classroom. We started using a compost bin as part of the lunch and snack structure. Once my preschoolers had gotten a hang of what goes in the compost and what goes in the trash, they really embraced the idea. I would supervise while the little ones who first grasped the concept would take up the teaching role, and when they noticed one of their friends going to throw food scraps in the trash, they'd let them know where to put it. We would talk about how important it is that we feed our Earth, and that when we give our compost to the ground, she gets a little healthier. I told them about how much the worms that they liked to look at and dig up outside liked to eat the compost, and how many other little creatures would benefit from throwing our food scraps outside rather than in the trash.

We talked a lot about other issues relating to sustainability. We started a little garden for them to work with. Along with the other teachers, I read Richard Louv's book "Last Child in the Woods," which became our bible at that preschool. With the Montessori style of teaching, we were able to let our kids decide what they wanted to learn about the world and nature and about treating the planet and their communities with care.

Of course, this was made easy for a few reasons: We were a research based preschool. Being that we were located on the UMASS campus, we had the benefit of being in the midst of learning about more effective teaching techniques and improving early childhood education almost as a requirement. We had the benefit of progressive educated parents willing to work with us to create this kind of environment, and lots of funding. We had the space, the tools, and the education to know how to provide positive sustainability learning experiences for children.

Working in a private and well funded school is way different than working in the public school system. So I am hoping to get a lot out of our visit to the first graders of Williamsburg, to further educate myself on effective teaching methods that can be used in a public school setting.

I still have in my mind a vision of being able to teach sustainability in urban public schools, so every step closer to realizing this vision is exhilarating.