{"id":88079,"date":"2021-06-26T09:58:55","date_gmt":"2021-06-26T13:58:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/?p=88079"},"modified":"2021-06-28T09:21:40","modified_gmt":"2021-06-28T13:21:40","slug":"prompt-one-perfect-prompt-for-my-april-retirement-from-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/2021\/06\/prompt-one-perfect-prompt-for-my-april-retirement-from-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"Prompt One (perfect prompt for my April retirement from teaching)"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>The Stars are Waiting<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Not a door closing but<br \/>\nsteps further away<\/p>\n<p>Not steps further away but<br \/>\nin a different direction<\/p>\n<p>Not steps in a different<br \/>\ndirection but <\/p>\n<p>new steps, full of vigor<br \/>\ncarrying thirty years<\/p>\n<p>of children with me \u2013<br \/>\ntheir laughter, joy, and sorrow<\/p>\n<p>Their curiosity and<br \/>\nwide-eyed wonder<\/p>\n<p>Their innocence and will to<br \/>\nbelieve in things, unseen<\/p>\n<p>Their ability to forgive and<br \/>\ncare just as fully as before&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Their upside-down grins \u2013<br \/>\nhanging from the monkey-bars<\/p>\n<p>Their antics and giggles<br \/>\nwhile no-one is watching<\/p>\n<p>Their antics and giggles<br \/>\nwhile everyone is watching<\/p>\n<p>Their rush to comfort when<br \/>\nfriends are down<\/p>\n<p>and their love of everything new<\/p>\n<p><em>Everything<\/em> &#8211; no longer new<br \/>\nbut my steps<\/p>\n<p><em>New<\/em> is what I\u2019ll search for as I<br \/>\ntake in my surroundings&#8230; seeing more &#8211;<\/p>\n<p>New is stillness on the forest path; the<br \/>\nunturned stone of the future<\/p>\n<p>New is learning to hop-skip on the beach again \u2013<br \/>\nthe invitation of the ocean\u2019s swell<\/p>\n<p>New is sitting in a tree<br \/>\nreading poetry by Maya Angelou<\/p>\n<p>New is building a garden big enough to house<br \/>\nhundreds of peace stones; gifts, accumulated<\/p>\n<p>New is baking up a storm for doors<br \/>\nonce again, flung wide<\/p>\n<p>New is flinging doors open-wide<br \/>\narms, too \u2013 hearts, singing<\/p>\n<p>Being the kite<br \/>\nwafting in the wind<\/p>\n<p>\tthe stars are waiting<\/p>\n<p>(Cristy Watson, 2021)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Stars are Waiting Not a door closing but steps further away Not steps further away but in a different direction Not steps in a different direction but new steps, full of vigor carrying thirty years of children with me \u2013 their laughter, joy, and&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1004,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-half-marathon-poem","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88079","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\/1004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88079"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88079\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103591,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88079\/revisions\/103591"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}