Church Aisle
Diane Rawson
Up the aisle
Dad at my side
To meet my beloved.
Down the aisle
Holding dad tightly
Exiting mom’s funeral.
Leaving dad behind
To see my future daughter-in-law
Meet my beloved son.
Down the aisle
Between my husband and new daughter
Exiting dad’s funeral.
I’d been working on the writing community I created with my 4th grade students the last year I taught elementary school. I was getting nowhere. I had my journal and one of my students journals to reflect on but still the piece wouldn’t shape up. Then I had a conversation with Mike about TIW’s and I remembered that I could write about my TIW – that is the one I thought I was going to do when I applied to be a returning fellow. I’d already began some writing about the awful lesson I had with a graduate school class when I gave them two articles about race from a teacher’s perspective. So I pulled it up on the computer.
The Janice Jones article was central to the piece and I wrote about my own experience as a teacher when we used the article as a jumping off point for a HVWP/PON meeting. I pulled out that writing and put it as my opening. Rolling into the weekend the piece began to take shape. I worked three hours on Saturday morning and at the end I forced myself to post it on NWP. I was excited about it because Race is such a hot topic & I looked to google to find a title. I put in Obama and race & found the word uneasy- good word for how this whole experience felt to me.
I had two excellent ideas from the responses I got from Open Mic & my husband’s suggestions were also helpful. I began to rewrite & rewrite & rewrite. Last night after company left I had my husband help me format it & do a final read to help edit until today when I emailed it to Steve.
I hate it and I find it exciting at the same time. One part of me is totally shy and feeling that it exposes me as an awful teacher. Another part tells me that I am on to something and I should continue collecting data from using these articles with my grad. students & maybe attend a HVWP Professional Retreat to turn it into an article.
