Our 5th Grade has spent the past few weeks reading and writing all kinds of poetry. This week they invited me into their class so they could read some of their poems and interview me about how I write poetry myself. (I’ve written many poems for school productions; I’ll post one below.)
One question was, “Do you write poetry in a format like haiku, limerick, or concrete poems?” I responded that these days I like to write sonnets. So I showed and explained my most recent sonnet, which I posted on this blog earlier this week:
Sonnet for Sinemet
Today I start a new stage in my life:
Some Sinemet for Mr. Parkinson –
The guy who’s caused a fair amount of strife
Gets carbidopa/levodopa. Fun!
Who knows what’s next in store for me? I don’t!
My doctor says my right hand will revive.
If so, it means that starting soon I won’t
Refuse to dice up chicken, carrots, chives.
The past few years I’ve lived a different man,
With listless leg and useless, shaking arm.
I made adjustments. Every day I’d plan
To tough it out. I burned up all my charm.
But now I think that possibly I see
A life that’s filled with possibility.
The discussion then went in two directions. The students, who already knew I have Parkinson’s, asked many questions about PD and how I got it. They also made observations about the sonnet form: its rhyme scheme, the number of lines, the number of syllables in each line (exactly 10 syllables per line – a big surprise).
There are so many thrilling things happening at my school, every day. It’s the most terrific place on the planet. I get to walk into any classroom I want, and I see students and staff doing amazing things together. I credit the staff and the school leadership with creating and sustaining this academic acropolis; my contributions are almost peripheral.
Here’s a video clip of a poem I wrote for the school’s Black History broadcast:
Here’s a slew of sonnets I wrote for another production: Poems – Sonnet Contest.
