Noteworthy

Our host

Susan Ahlbrand is in her 36th year of teaching 8th grade English/language arts in the small southern Indiana town of Jasper.  When not preparing lessons or grading papers, she enjoys reading and writing, binge-watching shows with her husband, attending sporting events, and heading off to visit one of their four kids who are scattered across the Midwest and South.  April is her favorite month since it’s filled with daily poetry-writing challenges prepared by the most incredible community of humans.   She is pictured above with her six BFFs who have loved and supported one another for 53 years!

Inspiration

One of my besties since elementary school (at age 58 I’d say I am blessed to still be in close contact with six of my childhood friends even though we are scattered around the Midwest) sent me a message the other day sharing that she found a bag of our notes from junior high/high school.  Of course, today’s kids have very little understanding of what note writing consisted of in the late 70s and early 80s.  

She photocopied many of them and mailed them to me.  When I opened the package, I was instantly taken back . . . to the workings of the teenage brain, the pre-occupation that comes with young love, petty worries that seemed huge, the very real fear of being betrayed.  She even shared one of my early attempts at poetry.  I’ve come a long way, baby!

Process

Reflect on communications you’ve had in the past . . . notes like mine, phone calls, letters, texts, Facetimes, etc.  If you are lucky enough to still have evidence of any of those, work them into a poem.

Or, write about a friendship from your childhood and how it has stood the test of time.

Or, create sort of a hybrid . . . write about a relationship and work in bits of communication that have happened within it over the years.  

Or, show how communication with a key person in your life has morphed over time, especially as different means came into vogue.

As always, any output is fine.  I think free verse works well for this, but feel free to tinker with an inventive form.

Susan’s Poem

Noteworthy

Looseleaf paper
full of thoughts
cursive scrawls
revealing
plans, secrets, crushes,
gossip, worries.

Signed
BFF and
LYLAS
with the latest
edition of my autograph
perched
underneath
as if anyone else
would have
jotted those words.

Origamied
artfully into a triangle,
other times folded skillfully
into a rectangle with a pull tab
“Open Here”
carefully penned with an arrow
pointing up.
often there was a To:
and hearts
and other adornments.

Easy to conceal,
to covertly pass across the room
or hand-off in the hallway,
sometimes becoming a football
in the cafeteria
tumbling through finger goalposts.
ultimately stuffed in the front pocket
of my Jordaches
for the trip home
to store in a shoebox
under the bed . . .
a treasure trove
of memories.

Discovered
decades later
better than any Facebook memory
or forgotten texting chain.
Not lost to cyberspace
but noteworthy
forever.

Your Turn

Now, scroll to the comment section below to write your own poem. (This is a public space, so you may use only your first name or initials depending on your privacy preferences.) Not ready? That’s okay. Read the poems already posted for more inspiration. Ponder your own throughout the day. Return later. And, if the prompt does not work for you, that is fine. All writing is welcome. Just write something. Also, please be sure to respond to at least three writers. Oh, and a note about drafting: Since we are writing in short bursts, we all understand (and even welcome) the typos and partial poems that remind us we are human and that writing is always becoming. If you’d like to invite other teachers to write with us, tell them to subscribe.