I’m learning to fly, but I ain’t got wings. Coming down is the hardest thing. All I know of flight and fright is that both need to be ridden out into the eventual and veterate truths provided by gravity and by grace: […]
Author: paulwhankins
I am a Teacher Consultant with The National Writing Project. I currently serve as a State Representative to The Assembly on Literature to the National Council of Teachers of English. I help to moderate a site with my students at Silver Creek High School called RAW INK Online. Follow me at Facebook-paulwhankins or Twitter-@paulwhankins
Dear One and the Phone Call (That Never Happened)
Since we first made a connection with one another, master poet and classroom teacher, Lee Bennett Hopkins had always invited a phone call. “Call me sometime” an email would end. Lee, Dear One, was among the first of many within the poetry community to extend condolences upon my father’s passing. It was Dear One who […]
The Greatest Labor-Saving Device Ever Brought to Light
The Greatest Labor Saving Device Ever Brought to Light When I was sixteen, I worked at Glen’s supermarket. It was a local franchise in northern Michigan named for the family who owned it. A family that named their all of their offspring “Glen.” It was a simple concept. Glen A., Glen B., Glen […]
“You are a Light in Our Lives”: For Madalyn on Her 17th Birthday
Our Madalyn turns seventeen today. As a young girl, Madalyn would introduce herself as “Maddie-Doo.” It just kind of stuck with me, and when she took an interest in art (drawing), it became natural to just start calling her “Doodle.” And I still do. I’m the only one who does. It’s what many would-be father’s […]
National Poetry Month: Haiku/30: The Soot & Spit Dry Season
I think it happens every April. Jumping into National Poetry Month with fidelity and excitement and then hitting a period of fallow and of enervation. It must come of everything April brings with it as far as school is concerned. Everything of a school year that culminates does this in late April and through May. […]
National Poetry Month: 16/30: “When I Wring the Wadding”
Naomi Shihab Nye invites the would-be poet/writer to Let Your Title Open the Door within the section, “Writers Select Titles” in Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s Poems are Teachers: How Studying Poetry Strengthens Writing in All Genres. Of course, I must take pause to recognize the poetic gift that is Naomi Shihab Nye. I got to […]
National Poetry Month: 15/30: “This Work Remains Untitled”
I’ve always loved discovering that the title of an album is actually a lyric embedded in one of the albums tracks. It’s like a little discovery that helps to solidify the title of the album for me as the listener. Jagged Little Pill is an example from the 90’s is an example of a […]
National Poetry Month: 14/30: “Speak, Soot & Spit”
Poetry friend, Sara Holbrook pops into Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s Poems are Teachers: How Studying Poetry Strengthens Writing in All Genres within the Writers Craft Beginnings and Endings section. Holbrook invites young writers to “End with a Surprise.” Here is Sara’s poem from the book: “Brave” Red means stop. Look both ways. […]
National Poetry Month: 13/40: “Soot & Spit: SensuS”
“Decide How Words Will Look on the Page” is the invitation from page 124 of Amy Ludwig VanDerwater’s Poems are Teachers: How Studying Poetry Strengthens Writing in All Genres. April Halprin Wayland provides the mentor piece here with “Morning Dog.” As a part of a category called Writers Play with Language, it is important […]
National Poetry Month: 12/30: “Silence”
In Amy Ludwig VanDerWater’s Poems are Teachers: How Studying Poetry Strengthens Writing in All Genres, the section which suggests that Writers Play with Language is a poem by Deborah Chandra. Chandra’s piece invites the would-be poet to “Personify Animals and Objects.” The idea and poem here led me to think about J. Ruth Gendler’s […]