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Recently I have connected with Jennifer Laffin of Teach Write. She invited me to be a part of a team encouraging teachers to write. Our monthly Twitter chats occur on the first Monday at 7:30 PM EST with the hashtag #TeachWrite. (Our next chat is Oct. 2, 2017.) I subscribed to her personal blog as well as her professional one at Sweet Writing Life. She wanted to commit herself to a more disciplined daily writing routine, so she started a daily word prompt. She tweets the word at #DWHabit. This was today’s tweet:
I am not sure I will have the time to respond every day, but today, I took the word explain for a walk. My students teach me over and over again that sometimes I need to stop, take a breath, and backtrack before moving on. Sometimes more words just muddy the waters. This is a first draft poem.
Explanation
I don’t want to explain again
and again. Words hit the air,
make waves that dissipate,
fall
before your ears
catch them.I’d rather you look
into my eyes
to understand,
feel in your heart
a knowing.My breath is tired
of moving
so fast, so I stop.
Pause.
Fingers to my lips
forbid me to move on.When I hit the reset button,
I can hear your confusion.
I am the one
who needs to retrace my steps,
start over,and listen.
Thanks for this prompt, Jennifer.
If you choose to join Jennifer and me practicing our daily writing muscles, tune in to #DWHabit or follow Jennifer on Facebook.
Reflections on the Teche 