I decided to celebrate Valentine’s Day by sharing some of my favorite poems with you.
I love some of you, I like some of you, I tolerate some of you, I grit my teeth with a very few of you. That’s how I show “grit.”
But the poems I post today are for all of you. For today, I love you all. You read what I write, you share your frustrations and your victories. We are a community of people who care about education, care about children, care about the future of our society.
So, please indulge me while I share what I love on this day.
Feel free to send your favorite poem as a gift to others.
Here is the fabulous, unforgettable, all-time best love poem:
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, from Sonnets from the Portuguese
How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.
I love thee to the level of everyday’s
Most quiet need, by sun and candle-light.
I love thee freely, as men strive for Right;
I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.
I love thee with a passion put to use
In my old griefs, and with my childhood’s faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost saints, — I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life! — and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after death.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Beautiful… KC
Love..Like..Tolerate..Grit
You must chuckle at some..:-)
Happy valentines Day 🙂
Neanderthal,
Some comments give me a belly laugh. Nothing like teacher humor. When you have seen it all, nothing left but to laugh. Out loud.
Just as long as you do not JUDGE us on ONE TEST! 🙂
I DO CARE WHAT OTHER PEOPLE THINK!!! Here is my gift! Happy Valentine’s Day Everyone!
I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge.
That myth is more potent than history.
That dreams are more powerful than facts.
That hope always triumphs over experience.
That laughter is the only cure for grief.
And I believe that love is stronger than death.
Storytellers Creed -Robert Fulghum
Five years ago, now, I had to put down a little Puerto Rican sato . His buddy (another adopted dog) and I had ten years with him. We have all been through a lot, but to lose this little brown dog who was scared of mostly everything but me and our life, was a loss more painful than I ever imagined. My vet held my hand and said, “He knew that you loved him. That is all that mattered.” Dogs are our valentines every day of the year.
Love is perhaps the only reason to fight against the war on public schools. Love for community, for possibility, for sharing a deference to a whole that is more than the sum of its test scores. Love for our children and the people who invest in them with time well spent and a caring, unassuming approach. Love for people above ideals.
Safe travels!
One of my favorite poems–and one every Common Core supporter should “closely” read.
Introduction to Poetry Introduction to Poetry By Billy Collins b. 1941 Billy Collins I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide
or press an ear against its hive.
I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out,
or walk inside the poem’s room and feel the walls for a light switch.
I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author’s name on the shore.
But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it.
They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.
Share this text …?
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Billy Collins, “Introduction to Poetry” from *The Apple that Astonished Paris.* Copyright � 1988, 1996 by Billy Collins. Reprinted with the permission of the University of Arkansas Press.
Thank you, thank you , thank you, for everything you do. You inspire me and countless others….and for that I love you too.
“I love some of you, I like some of you, I tolerate some of you, I grit my teeth with a very few of you.”
Gosh, now you’ve got me worried which category I’m in. I suspect all of the above, at different times (or maybe all that the same time).
Dienne: ah, but some of us love the unpredictable…
😃
And then there’s the unexpected treat for the imagination:
Don’t let that horse
eat that violin
cried Chagall’s mother
But he
kept right on
painting
And became famous
And kept on painting
The Horse With Violin In Mouth
And when he finally finished it
he jumped up upon the horse
and rode away
waving the violin
And then with a low bow gave it
to the first naked nude he ran across
And there were no strings
attached
[Lawrence Ferlinghetti, #14 in A CONEY ISLAND OF THE MIND]
😎
P.S. Keep up the posts. I’ll keep on reading them.
Yeah, that made me wonder, too. I’m not so sure I’m ever on the good list though, which at my age, I’ve learned to live with, but it rather disturbs me to think that I might be the reason why someone develops grit.
I
through
blue
sky
fly
to
you.
Why?
Sweet
love,
feet
move
so
slow.
John Ciardi
A woman of valor makes the world change
Her strength is the content that guides through the days
Defined by her actions that bring light to all dreams
Valor is something that’s defined by her deeds.
Her valor is golden, sparkled and gray
She stands up to the challenge no matter the way
It can’t be held back or defined by her age
Yes, a woman of valor makes the world change.
For valor’s not held by the young or the old
But by the deeds of the heart that give and unfold
It’s merit and honor that hold no disguise
Like the creation of being in the blessed Holy One’s eyes.
For valor is the color of the song of her soul
As she changes, creates and turns light into gold
Divine is Her Presence, be it joyous or sad
— A Woman of Valor —
May offer little, but it will be all that she has.
For only her heart will know the depths of her soul
That nurtures and blossom and forever unfolds
And holds in its essence new life and new gain
Yes,
A woman of valor makes the world change
A woman of valor makes the world change
A woman of valor makes the world change.
That is absolutely beautiful and inspiring! Thank you for sharing.
And the original….
A woman of valor, who can find? Far beyond pearls is her value.
Her husband’s heart trusts in her and he shall lack no fortune.
She repays his good, but never his harm, all the days of her life.
She seeks out wool and linen, and her hands work willingly,
She is like a merchant’s ships; from afar she brings her sustenance.
She rises while it is still nighttime, and gives food to her household and a ration to her maids.
She considers a field and buys it; from the fruit of her handiwork she plants a vineyard.
She girds her loins with might and strengthens her arms.
She senses that her enterprise is good, so her lamp is not extinguished at night.
She puts her hand to the distaff, and her palms support the spindle.
She spreads out her palm to the poor and extends her hands to the destitute.
She fears not snow for her household, for her entire household is clothed with scarlet wool.
Bedspreads she makes herself; linen and purple wool are her clothing.
Well-known at the gates is her husband as he sits with the elders of the land.
Garments she makes and sells, and she delivers a belt to the peddler.
Strength and splendor are her clothing, and smilingly she awaits her last day.
She opens her mouth with Wisdom, and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.
She anticipates the needs of her household, and the bread of idleness, she does not eat.
Her children rise and celebrate her; and her husband, he praises her:
“Many daughters have attained valor, but you have surpassed them all.”
False is grace, and vain is beauty; a God-fearing woman, she should be praised.
Give her the fruit of her hands, and she will be praised at the gates by her very own deeds.
This is indeed one of the all time greats. Another is Edna St. Vincent Millay’s “Love is not all.”
Thank you for sharing! Here are some of my favorites that i wish to share with you!
[i carry your heart with me(i carry it in]
BY E. E. CUMMINGS
i carry your heart with me(i carry it in
my heart)i am never without it(anywhere
i go you go,my dear;and whatever is done
by only me is your doing,my darling)
i fear
no fate(for you are my fate,my sweet)i want
no world(for beautiful you are my world,my true)
and it’s you are whatever a moon has always meant
and whatever a sun will always sing is you
here is the deepest secret nobody knows
(here is the root of the root and the bud of the bud
and the sky of the sky of a tree called life;which grows
higher than soul can hope or mind can hide)
and this is the wonder that’s keeping the stars apart
i carry your heart(i carry it in my head)