Photo Hunt: Thirteen

I am rejoicing because I have thirteen daffodils for spring bouquet #2! For other photo hunts on thirteen go here.

Celebrating National Poetry Month: #19

photo by Jared Nixon, flickr

The Swingset

Wood rots,

ropes fray,

metal rusts,

memories stay.

It stands there

deserted in the midst

of many times climbed

and swung from

Sometimes it was a ship

escaping from the storm.

Other times, many times,

it was the Saab convertible a friend and I

drove to McDonald's.

Now years of playing cease.

It's just the goal for flashlight tag,

where people sulk after losing

or preen after winning.

At times I want to shed

my childhood,

but somehow I can't cart it away

to the dump, where

swingsets are shredded, where

times past

can't ever

return.

-Grace Walton

Spring Project #2 Winding Down

Doesn't it always help to know a guy with a backhoe? Another part of the tree project was to fall the last big tree and remove the stumps. We hired our neighbor to come in and assist with that part. I am always amazed that people own these life size Tonka Toys. The trees and stumps are gone from this island in the middle of the driveway with a little help from the backhoe.
Just the limbs have started a nice wood pile for next winter... or... looking at the weather forecast for tomorrow... maybe a nice wood pile for this week-end. Snow in April?

Celebrating National Poetry Month: #18

Kick the Can

In the long after-suppers of summer
kids playing kick-the-can, like tiny
ghosts running here and there among
the trees, across the lawns, hold off

the weight of darkness, and the lights
go on in houses; radios tell
the weather, Doolittle over Tokyo,
or Robert Kennedy in L.A.

Hidden too well, deep in the barberry
by widower McCann's white porch,
or in the tomato-patches in yards
beyond the unlit alley, I hear

the can go clunking down the walk
and "One-two-three" and " All-in-free".
The years go by, I am not caught,
nor called home, all the long dark long.

-Robert Wallace

A Celebration of the Arts Around Lake Roosevelt

This week the students and staff at our school were entertained and instructed by a wide variety of artists thanks to an Arts Consortium through the Washington State Arts Commission. Our rural students absolutely loved having opportunities to learn about a variety of arts through guest performers. Members of the local Noisy Water Drumming group gave students an opportunity to drum and perform songs to honor our local Colville Tribe.

Tommy worked with the students on improv theater and had everyone using movement and performing without scripts. He had this teacher laughing loudly as I watched my students act out scenes such as honeymoon and romantic zombies.

The One World Taiko Japanese Rhythm Drums from Seattle instructed our students in the moves, language, and sound of this style of drumming.

Another artist Shelley Graham led students through a workshop of making figures from recycled material.

Later in the gym the recycled people looked like they were playing the Japanese drums.Two staff members and one of the Japanese drummers helped out in demonstrating some gymnastics routines and... everyone got to hula hoop.Gloria de los Santos directs the Arts Consortium and was responsible for bringing this amazing group of artists to our school. She is a well-known artist herself and has a passion for providing these experiences to the rural students of Ferry and Stevens Counties in the state of Washington. To see more of Gloria's art go to http://www.gloriadelossantos.com/ . Gloria has also organized the North Country Trail Artists which is an incredible self-guided tour of artists in northeastern Washington and Southern British Columbia. You can learn about this here. I have often focused on the natural beauty of life on Lake Roosevelt here on this blog, but we are also blessed with an arts community that is alive and well in our corner of the world.

Celebrating National Poetry Month: #17

Jump Rope Rhyme for Our Time

Junk mail, junk mail,
look look look:
bargain offer coupon,
catalogue book.

Junk mail, junk mail
free free free:
trial sample,
guarantee.

Here's an offer
you can't let pass:
an artificial lawn
with real crab grass.

Twenty cents off,
just go to the store
and buy what you don't want,
then buy some more.

Junk mail, junk mail,
what's my name?
My name is Dear Occupant
and yours is the same.
-Eve Merriam