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The Waking
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I feel my fate in what I cannot fear.
I learn by going where I cannot go.
We think by feeling. What is there to know?
I hear my being dance from ear to ear.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Of those so close beside me, which are you?
God bless the Ground! I shall walk softly there,
And learn by going where I have to go.
Light takes the Tree, but who can tell us how?
The lowly worm climbs up a winding stair;
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
Great Nature has another thing to do
To you and me; so take the lively air,
And, lovely, learn by going where to go.
This shaking keeps me steady. I should know.
What falls away is always. And is near.
I wake to sleep, and take my waking slow.
I learn by going where I have to go.
--Theodore Roethke
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Joy's Updates - Straight from the Horse's Mouth.
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Thursday, March 11, 2004
High School Boys
You know the conversation isn't going to improve after being asked, "Ms. Durham, do you know how to get chewing gum off a desk?"
So I just looked at him, waiting for the rest of it. Then he said, "I wanted to see how gum would stick to someone's jeans, so I put a big blob of it on the seat. Then things went terribly wrong."
"I can see that," I said.
Then he explained, "The gum stuck to the seat and spread out. I think it's going to take steam to remove it. I'll clean it off tomorrow. Just set it aside. Don't worry! I'll take care of it."
I told him I'd get the janitor because they have supplies to clean all kinds of disasters in school and that he might make it worse trying to clean it himself. At this point I wasn't as stern as I should have been because he was so sincere about it yet managed to explain it humorously (to me anyway). I was glad he admitted it and told me so no one else would sit in the desk before it was cleaned. It was in his own desk, too, which I find odd in light of his experiment.
When I rode the elevator this morning I wondered what some of the buttons would do and almost pressed two of them. The one with the bell icon on it was dismissed since I was afraid it was some kind of alarm that would make a loud noise all over the school . I still wonder about two other buttons and might press them after school today.
The class that Gum Boy is in was watching Finding Forrester today as a reward. I feel compelled to bribe them sometimes. During the movie one of them shouted out, "Ms Durham, he said James Lowell!" and others voiced their agreement. We just studied those Fireside Poets, so it was fresh in their minds.
During the lecture earlier in the week, I told them that Longfellow was the only American to have a bust in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey in London. Then I asked them what a bust is. One of them said it was being arrested, another that it was a chest, another that something was broken. I asked them to think about the fact that there was a bust of Longfellow in a building that has a section called Poet's Corner and decide if their answers made much sense. They agreed that they didn't. Eventually someone said it was a statue from the shoulders up. They eventually understood that it was an honor for Longfellow.
This is what I do all day. It's more interesting than some jobs. At least I get to laugh at them sometimes.
1:56:00 PM
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