Freedom's Just Another Word

       Even at day’s end, a president’s work is never done. A president must show she can keep her head in a crisis.
      “A disaster, WOW! Oh my. It’s much worse than I thought. A Disaster Area if ever I saw one.”
      A president must lead by example, even if it means cleaning up her own room. Disaster contained. The nation is at rest.
                                                        from Madam President
                                        written and illustrated by Lane Smith
                                          Hyperion Books for Children, 2008
       
       I’ve said to many people and to myself that this blog is not political or controversial. I want to share my memories, say what I have learned so far, be conversational. Not influence anyone about anything.
        But today we vote. What we do this day will impact our lives and the lives of our children and grandchildren. 
       My third grade teacher, Miss Rice, asked us each to memorize a poem. We could choose the poem, but it had to be at least four lines long. I'm sure she gave us some choices, but I don't remember that part. I chose "Who Has Seen the Wind?" by Christina G. Rossetti. We had to learn a little something about the poet (I don't remember that part either) and recite it in front of the class. I still remember most of the first stanza. (There are three.) 
       Through the years, other poems have come into my life and head. Some stuck there. Most did not. One that *did* stick is "The Red Wheel Barrow" by William Carlos Williams. 
​       In case you don't know the poem, here it is:
                         The Red Wheel Barrow
    so much depends 
    upon 

    a red wheel 
    barrow 

    glazed with rain 
    water 

    beside the white 
    chickens
       I love the way he draws his scene right smack dab onto my brain., every time I remember it. 
       William Carlos Williams wrote lots of tiny poems like this one. He used them to show relationships. He used them to evoke emotion. He used them to show us how to get out of our own heads and experience the world. A world full of possibilities, of wonder, of pure joy.
        Today we vote. In honor of election day, I'm sending my parody of William Carlos Williams’s famous poem.
                             The Blackened Oval
    so much depends
    upon
 
    a filled-in
    oval
 
    blackened with contemplative
    thought
 
    beside a well-known
    name
 
                                                                   --stay curious!