Carol's Corner
I think that the second-grade students in Delores La More's class at Canfield Avenue Elementary School are very lucky. Their teacher has the heart of a poet. She understands that bringing her students to a beautiful natural setting, such as the Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden, will get their creative juices flowing.
During a recent docent-led tour of the garden, Ms. La More asked her students a number of questions designed to elicit their poetic responses. She asked them to describe the garden, the sounds they heard and the sights and colors they saw. She asked them to write about their observations of other visitors. And she asked them what they liked and how they felt while they were in the garden.
As someone who loves to write poetry, I found Ms. La More's questions delightful--perhaps especially so because the subject was the botanical garden. Later, while looking through the garden scrapbook at photos of schoolchildren on tour, I wondered what I would have written in response to those questions when I was seven years old. What would have been similar to and different from my writing as an adult?
I wrote the two poems that follow as a response to Ms. La More's assignment, and as a fun challenge to myself. One was written from the perspective of my imagined "seven-year-old self" and one from the perspective of my (more) adult self. See if you can tell the difference!
GARDEN MEMORIES I
the garden is big
with lots of trees
the frogs like it
and so do bees
i see lots of colors
green and yellow
they remind me
of lemons, limes and jell-o
i hear the birds
stream and cars
and wonder if
grass grows on mars
when i am here
i feel happy and joy
this is a good place
for a girl and a boy
GARDEN MEMORIES II
peaceful and serene
the garden
brings solace
to my heart
the flowers
remind me of
the cyclic quality
of time
leaves
qn plants and trees
exhibit the variety
so inherent in life
surrounded
by the lush vegetation
visitors reveal
their own soft beauty
Now, since EVERYONE is a poet, I invite you to close your eyes and imagine you are in the garden. How would you express what you hear, see, and feel? I invite you to have fun, stay loose, and let the words and images flow.
CAROL FELIXSON, Docent and Communications Coordinator
P.S. I think a synthesis of a child's and an adult's sensitivity to the poetry of life and nature is well summed up in a caption on a clipping tacked to the bulletin board in my office. It reads, ". . . of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt."