2 Time Capsule: Awakening

Title:  Awakening:  the road ahead
Date: 02/21/2000
Setting:  Life after collage--during first post-college job
Form:  Free verse

Bridge freezes before road surface,
Slow road curves ahead,
Slippery when wet,
Hidden driveway,
Deer crossing,
Dead end.
As we look at the road ahead,
we can’t help but hesitate
and look back.

Nine years we have spent
in this womb;
Grown in the sanctity
of these walls
Pampered, pacified, spoiled
and on occasions
given a swift kick
in the ________.

We can see the hand outstretched
The hand which has held ours
for so long.
The one we fought,
yanked at and rebelled against,
wanting to pull away.
Now with it all too willing to let go,
We realize we have only our own
two feet
to hold us up on this new journey.

We've been warned,
of the pot holes,
the speed bumps,
the other drivers,
even of the road rage;
that of others and
our own.
We can only hope that as we come
to each new intersection,
We take heed of all
the hand has taught us.

The path will not be easy.
We know we shall
stumble,
fall,
bruise a knee or two,
But we will rise.
Stronger,
more courageous,
and more determined
to find our way.

Even those among us,
who may still be naive enough
to see only a perfect road;
who may still be foolish enough
to ignore the speed limit,
will soon be awakened
as they spin uncontrollably
on the black ice.
They too will gain control
And we will conquer
these obstacles.

We will succeed!!

Notes:  This time capsule has two stops. 

Stop 1--My first job had me working in a K-8 school.  I had the opportunity to work with grades ranging from 2nd all the way up to 8th.  Towards the end of my second year, I composed this poem for a group of students who I had had two years in a row.  They ended up reading the poem during graduation.

Stop 2--During my second job, I assisted a Language Arts teacher in a project she was doing with her class, the Cocoa Bean Cafe.  She had her students take the poems they had written, find images to reflect their words and create a PowerPoint that would run as they presented their poem at the Cocoa Bean Cafe (her classroom all decked up with snacks and cocoa to boot).  After, I worked with several of the students to turn their work into a vodcast using PhotoStory.  Of course before I could do any of this I had to test things out myself; so I took Awakening...and thus came, my first youtube poem.  (Not that there are many of them.) 

Artifact I:  This is an image of the poster created with this poem.

Artifact II:  My video of the poem.