This week was the Open Write for Ethical ELA. I love how this event once a month inspires me to sit each day and write. I’m often surprised by what comes out on the page.
Fran Haley prompted us to write a bird story. To see her wonderful model poem and the prompt, click here. It brought back a memory for me.
Everyone has a bird story
Remember the time we saw the eagle
atop the bridge to Seattle?
A few days later, you read
the eagle died, a car hit it.Once we saw an eagle while canoeing,
elegantly soaring over our bayou–grand beauty
symbol of strength. Then you recalled
the Seattle eagle. That tragic death
hit us hard. He was “our” eagle.How can we claim ownership of a wild thing?
Margaret Simon, draft
Freedom is temporal.
The story remains.
Fran is not only a wonderful poet, writer, teacher, she also supports other writers and me with lovely comments. I feel the comments that most resonate with me are ones in which the writer makes a heart to heart connection. This was what Fran wrote about my poem: “I’d have mourned long over this loss as well. I find, as I grow older, these things strike deeper than they ever used to. Yesterday I came through a crossroads where woods had long grown over an old farm and it’s all being bulldozed for building houses, I presume. I thought of the majestic hawks and “my” eagle and wanted to weep – how far will the birds have to go to find a new home? “How can we claim ownership of a wild thing?” Because the wild thing is connected to us, to our essence, in some deep way; as the wild thing goes, so go we. I cannot help thinking of the eagle in your verse in another way, as our national emblem, especially in these true and haunting lines:”Freedom is temporary. The story remains.”
May this holiday season bring you lots of small moments of great joy!
Reflections on the Teche 