A New Year and Manifesto

Hello everyone, Jessica here. I'm using the blog I used back for 445 so if you see previous entries (full of typos and half-formed thoughts, eek) that's why. It's nice to keep this blog going though and be able to reflect on what I wrote before.

For my manifesto, I decided to write a poem... not sure if that's allowed but being that a manifesto is a declaration of sorts, the poetic form worked (hopefully), at least for me and sorting through my thoughts which are often scatter-brained one-liners.

"Manifesto"

I am a teacher who does not seek

straight-backed rows of tucked in selves

and compliance, but freedom

clanging like bells mirrored in

my students' eyes and laughter, only

their chimes are louder. Fire

sharpened and kindled

on the lives of one another, creating

a new, better world, where love

is possible, not dampened by the weight

of fill-in-the-blank dots 

and their own ellipses of quiet and pain.

I am a teacher who sees the homeless,

the would-be nameless, the broken and ashamed,

inviting them to the table to bring

more light in where none was before,

because each individual is brimming

with flame, no matter what the media

nor the politicians nor the neighbors 

nor even the families might say 

to strike that spark

out, rub it from the book like ink

whittled away to ash, ghost.

I am a teacher who says, we will not let them. 

So let us tell a new story,

where these hurts might exist, but do not last forever,

and we can pull our hands down from our faces

that some might have us hide

and despite the histories on our shoulders

we can look at each other the way,

perhaps, no one else does

in compassion and awe, our minds and mouths

full of language and understanding

that not all can be understood or unraveled,

but that, together, we are named

and perhaps afraid, but never 

alone.