For the month of March , I will be participating in the Slice of Life Challenge (#sol19) sponsored by Two Writing Teachers. I will be slicing each day for 31 days inspired by my work as a literacy specialist and coach, my life, and my fellow bloggers.
Just Wondering #sol19
March 28. 2019
Wondering as you are checking your phone deliberately while I am talking
if my words
sting as they bounce off your armor or do they
buzz circling your head like tiny gnats
as you
mentally swat them away,
I wonder if the stray word slips in and rattles around irritating all it touches until
you can expel it
I wonder if you notice how those ricocheting words are flying everywhere and
your friends, your colleagues are watching to see if any of them enter a crack in
that parched land
hoping that the enthusiasm you shower on so many other things will distill
into a tiny drop
on this parched land
I wonder if you have known the success of words taken in when they don’t fit but
nurtured and tended until they bloom unexpectedly into
the success of a miraculous new idea
I wonder about the others who won’t be presented with
the budding growth of those unheard words
who won’t witness the struggle and the miracle of new understandings,
the seeds tended with love into something so unexpected
forever unexposed to those ideas you wouldn’t hear
Reflections from a Coach 
We both wrote about words today. And the way you weave yours together in this post, so masterfully expressing a frustration I know I’ve felt, is well-done. Thanks for sharing this and helping me feel less alone in these sentiments.
I hesitated. I really wasn’t sure I wanted to put them out there.
So glad you did share these words. I think we’ve all been in this situation and you craftily put your frustrations into a heartfelt poem. Nice slice.
The frustration in these lines comes through powerfully. I like this one in particular : I wonder if the stray word slips in and rattles around irritating all it touches until
you can expel it
It gives that sense of hollowness. I suppose we all have to deal with apathy on one level or another. You’ve captured the big reason why it frustrates, though, not just because it feels disrespectful, but because of the loss to the world from “wasted” words. Fortunately, there are others who will nurture those same words.
Wow. Wow is what truly comes to mind. So much to absorb and think about. I needed to read it several times. The structure and repetition were perfectly matched to your message and played out as your stream of consciousness. Really well done and still … wow. This will stay will me for some time. Wonder is my OLW
Well done! Your finely crafted poem hit me like a baseball bat. We’ve all been in your position — yet, in spite of your frustration, you manage to wonder (and worry?) about the lost words and thoughts s/he isn’t experiencing and the loss of wisdom s/he might share. Community doesn’t happen when a member stays aloof. Thank you for expressing this so well today.
So many great images. I could see the words ricocheting and the parched island. All woven together to beautifully illustrate something I’ve definitely felt myself.
Familar and wonderfully written. I sense vulnerability, which, we know, is key to growth – in all aspects of our lives.
Turns out your frustration is a great well for imagery. Plus, this poem reminded me of the proverb about planting trees under whose shade we will never sit in. My bottom line: Keep sowing.
I love that thinking. Saving (and stealing) and stealing that line for future. Many gave me advice about confronting, but in the end writing let me put in the boat and push it out into the water. Moving on…
I see courage in this post – courage to speak your truth, courage to carry on in difficult times, courage to persist, courage to share in prose your feelings and experience
Not so much courage. I wrote words to release thoughts I could not say.