{"id":54495,"date":"2019-06-22T23:01:21","date_gmt":"2019-06-23T03:01:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=54495"},"modified":"2019-06-22T23:01:21","modified_gmt":"2019-06-23T03:01:21","slug":"prompt-14-dear-teacher-ramona-at-36-desperate-near-quitting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2019\/06\/prompt-14-dear-teacher-ramona-at-36-desperate-near-quitting\/","title":{"rendered":"Prompt 14: Dear, teacher: Ramona at 36, desperate…near quitting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear, teacher: Ramona at 36, desperate…near quitting<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I see you sitting in the rocking chair with that baby-near-toddler in your lap<\/p>\n

watching Def Jam poetry<\/p>\n

listening to Taylor Mali’s poem about what teachers make –<\/p>\n

falling apart because you know you are buckling under the weight of the job…<\/p>\n

knowing you can’t do anything else because you know you are doing right<\/p>\n

walking in a good way<\/p>\n

with these kids.<\/p>\n

They get you and you get them.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I see you standing in office hallway outside the Vice Principal’s office –<\/p>\n

next year’s teacher assignments on the wall for all other teachers to see.<\/p>\n

I see your face when you hear her –<\/p>\n

that old bitch…you know…the career counselor…say:<\/p>\n

“Don’t give her Creative Writing! She can’t handle it. She gives everyone 100%.\u00a0 She is 100% Elke.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I see your face in meetings where other teachers shit talk kids you know fight to survive<\/p>\n

so you fight for them, too,<\/p>\n

so you can survive the system made to crush you all.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You need to know what you do is right!<\/p>\n

You are right about Spirit<\/p>\n

and bringing soul to the youth who drown in the bile of their hatred<\/p>\n

for classes, curricula, and creeping self-loathing borne out of failure.<\/p>\n

You see them! They need that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I am here – 15 years later –<\/p>\n

your professor in your Masters program honour you then<\/p>\n

for what you do now as you walk,<\/p>\n

head down,<\/p>\n

into the storm<\/p>\n

for the ones left behind<\/p>\n

or running ahead.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Keep walking, sister!<\/p>\n

You are needed.\u00a0 You matter.<\/p>\n

Ask the kids who shout out to you in grad ceremonies,<\/p>\n

the parents who weep at parent-teacher night,<\/p>\n

the non-believers blinded by the love they see from you for kids who lived loveless<\/p>\n

’til you.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It’s good, sister.<\/p>\n

It’s good!<\/p>\n

I’ve seen where you are going.<\/p>\n

When you look around now, you are alone not cuz you are behind…<\/p>\n

you are just way too far ahead.<\/p>\n

(c) r. l. elke<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear, teacher: Ramona at 36, desperate…near quitting   I see you sitting in the rocking chair with that baby-near-toddler in your lap watching Def Jam poetry listening to Taylor Mali’s poem about what teachers make – falling apart because you know you are buckling under…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":712,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13,12,2114],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54495","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-miscellaneous","category-musings","category-official-marathon-announcement"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54495","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/712"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54495"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54495\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54586,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54495\/revisions\/54586"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54495"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54495"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54495"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}