National Poetry Month Issue 8

Happy Poetry Friday! It's the second Poetry Friday of National Poetry Month 2011.

Last year for NPM, I profiled the state poets laureate. This year, I'm keeping it close to home -- featuring a different Maryland poet every day.

Ann Bracken is a poet and a special education teacher. She has been writing a series of portrait poems, character sketches of the teens she works with in a self-contained classroom.

Liam Sits Folded 

by Ann Bracken  

Liam sits folded on the floor

outside my classroom,

his six-foot  frame  crumpled

like a discarded origami bird.

Liam waits next to the lockers,

head back, mouth open, eyes closed

with his backpack propping him up.

Everyday he wears too-short pants,  

shirts faded and full of holes, 

and white, threadbare socks.

Liam’s glasses, thick and brown,

help him make sense of what he reads,

but cannot provide the necessary clues

to help decipher a grin from a grimace.

Without words of explanation,

Liam sees threats

instead of invitations.

“I can’t do this,” he tells me

over and over again,  stabbing

 the erase-end of a yellow lead pencil

into his arm.

When I reach my hand out to stop him,

Liam smiles in relief.

“I really don’t want to hurt myself,” he tells me.

“I just get so frustrated,”

and the stabbing starts again.

Liam sits folded at his desk

feet tucked up under him,

backpack ever strapped

and sagging on his back.

Folded into his world of contradictions are

piles of papers 

with words  running together

like melting crayons.

Yet when he draws a cartoon figure

I instantly recognize it as

Mama from A Raisin in the Sun.

“You see, the plant in the picture stands for hope,”

Liam tells me.

“To everyone else, it is a worthless, scraggly stalk with leaves.

To Mama, it’s a rich, red geranium.” 

Posted with permission of the author.

You can read more of Ann's work at the online journal Praxilla, and see a video of her reading her poem, "Wine and Water" at a Little Patuxent Review launch.

HS Writing Prompt
One of Ann Bracken's favorite sayings is: you could love anyone if you knew their story.

Write about the moment when you learned something surprising about an acquaintance or classmate, something that shifted your view of that person. Try to use at least one line of dialogue.

Lesson Extension
Use "Liam Sits Folded" as a companion to Lorraine Hansberry's play, A Raisin in the Sun. Which character in the play does Liam most resemble?

Our Poetry Friday host today is Madigan Reads. Stop by to check out other poetry bloggers' National Poetry Month projects.