This morning, I had a delightful two-hour breakfast and conversation with two colleagues. . . long-time friends, actually. We talked about technology and tools and the integration of these within the learning community. Then, I sat down tonight and picked out this little poem about what might happen if we shared one of our common tools with the bird community. A sort of trade, if you will. . .here is that poem. A little raw with some need for tightening here and there. . .but I like the ring of it.
21st Century Outtakes: Part One “For Whom the Working Bird Tweets”
I gave a bird a hammer;
this may sound odd to you.
But I thought it to be a suitable tool;
I wanted to see what he would do.
He looked at me with puzzlement;
for this was something new,
and he may have thought me a darned fool
and. . .well. . .perhaps you do too.
He regarded its wooden handle
and its handgrip, rubber and blue
he thought the shine of the metal cool;
he looked at it; he looked at me, and then he started to coo.
He waddled toward the working end;
and the next thing that I knew
the business end of this building tool
was coming quickly into view.
He’d struck me right between the eyes
with a swing most good and true,
a something he must have learned in school,
the proper wielding and use of tools.
And when the world stopped spinning,
and my bird friend came back into view,
I had to ask him, “What was that for?
You nearly knocked me cuckoo!”
He dropped the hammer on the ground
And took a moment or two,
before leaving me with this sage advice,
that I’m compelled to share with you:
“You wish to tweet,” my dear friend,
he said as my lump still grew,
But you don’t really understand how it works;
you will when I am through.
A tweet’s something we send aloft
into skies gray or blue
but never to mettle, we simply wouldn’t,
and harsh tweets we eschew.
Your mating call—you know? Your tweet?
Should be easy to construe.
And not left for the others in the trees
to try to guess your point of view.
We keep our tweets soft and sweet,
for what we want to imbue
is a simple sense of ‘come-in-unity’
a hoot a who, a cockle-doodle-doo.
And of your Subtweets?!
We birds say, ‘Hullaballoo!’
So, I choose to take your hammer, sir,
and show you what it could do.
So take this lesson along with you,
as we say ‘Toodle-loo.’
A tool’s a tool as it’s used, my friend,
We should never misconstrue.
Let’s use our tools wisely,
for you hadn’t, sir, hitherto,
until the very moment you were brained
and the world cried ‘Peek-a-boo.’
So, to wrap it up nicely,
and to let these words endue
remember—birds of a feather flock together,
and there are people following you.”
And that’s how I remember it,
it’s the best that I can do
because when I asked for clarification,
He already cried “Adeiu.”
But he left me with the hammer,
before he climbed into the blue.
Leaving me with this reminder
that I can share with you.
“A tool’s a tool as it’s used,” he said,
And I believe that’s true.
Cause I still have that lump right above my eyes,
to feel when I need a review.