Pandemic poetry and prose
April is poetry month. After daily news of the dire circumstances in which our country and global community find themselves, some soulful healing seemed in order. Thus, I present some poems that address the pandemic from a humorous and optimistic light. This Covid-19 updated version of a Dr. Seuss classic addresses some of the new norms teachers are trying to adjust to: I will teach you in a room. I will teach you now on Zoom. I will teach you in a house I will teach you with a mouse. I will teach you here or there I will teach because I care. As teachers deliver instruction online, they seek assignments that are relevant. One such writing assignment was based on a New York Times blog which asked students to examine a picture. In it a student sat at a home computer amid stacked toilet paper looking out a window with enlarged red balls of the virus floating past. The attached exemplar poem was entitled, “What Happens Now?” What happens to baseball season and graduation? What happens next is worrisome in my imagination. At first, pajamas and Netflix all day seemed like the better deal.
No teachers. No essays. No mile run. Heck yeah, I saw the appeal.
But panic buying, canceled trips, new COVID-19 cases every day,
Strict lockdown rules, closed stores, and some people not getting paid.
When will we be safe to be within 6 feet of friends? Or to just shake hands? When will things go back to normal? Our original plans. I am hopeful that we will get to the bottom of this somehow, Yet, I just can’t help thinking: What happens now? Many resulting student responses, both poetry and prose, were published on the blog.
A viral poem by Kitty O’meara has also been widely circulated. Having retired from her work in palliative care, O’meara was worried for her friends who are still health care workers battling this virus. Looking to assuage her anxiety, she hoped to find something good that could come out of this time of being “together, apart.” Her poem describes a positive, purposeful version of staying at home that includes exercising, meditating, grieving and global healing. And people stayed home and read books and listened and rested and exercised and made art and played and learned new ways of being and stopped and listened deeper someone meditated someone prayed someone danced someone met their shadow and people began to think differently and people healed and in the absence of people who lived in ignorant ways, dangerous, meaningless and heartless, even the earth began to heal and when the danger ended and people found each other grieved for the dead people and they made new choices and dreamed of new visions and created new ways of life and healed the earth completely just as they were healed themselves. In the uncertainty and unknown of this viral pandemic, it’s comforting to envision a positive outcome rather than fear for the worst especially since the dead are beginning to have names and faces I know.
In a recent statement author, Jean Houston, encouraged everyone to be thoughtful, generous and proactive especially with neighbors in need rather than surrender to fear. She described how self-serving actions such as hoarding need to be avoided because our perceived separation is merely an illusion.
Uniting in strength is more encompassing than divisions of race, economic status, and political party. Jean said people should find opportunities to demonstrate the pervasive energy of collective caring. She challenged us to dream a new vision of who we truly are and what we can accomplish together.
Houston said, “Take all the precautions that are recommended, and at the same time be bold in your love, and constant in your faith that together we will pass through this challenging time. On the other side of it, we will look back and realize that we were part of an epic time in history when caring triumphed over fear, and goodness prevailed.”
The teachers I know are working diligently to connect with their students and offer lessons, whether they’re poetic or not, that exercise student minds in fun ways. Parents are encouraged to accept the PUSD district’s Parentsquare invitation so that communication lines can help connect more effectively to partner in this important endeavor of educating their children.