“One Windy Day”

I start this poem remembering a day full of the joy of learning, in graduate school…then reflect on how rare and precious that was in my education, and how I long to see it in my daughters’ days.

In April of 2020, living under stay-at-home orders, my daughters and I began the “Quarantine Sonnet” Project. Each day, we each tried to write a sonnet, and we posted them on the wall of our hallway!

One Windy Day

One windy day I walked in blowing sky,
My body glowing with a verse I'd read,
The saturation of the world dialed high,
Translations, patterns, spinning through my head.
In my professor's study we sat, three,
And showed our lovely words and theories planned;
The wind-blown words still whistled, wriggling free,
Ideas made us comrades, laughter and
The beauty of the world, and words, and thoughts.
We'd faced the day's bright battles of the mind
And sat together talking sounds and plots.
Such days, at school, were rare and rich and kind.

My children's souls must never starve and grey--
Our school will make each day a windy day.