Life of a Poet - Richard Walker

by Sherry Blue Sky

Kids, I have always loved the name of Mr. Walker’s blog, Sadly Waiting for Recess, the more so as Richard is a teacher and it conjures up such cute images. He has also been sadly waiting for an interview, for a very long time, so today we are finally sitting down with him, to see how things are in the land of  poetry, and public education. Richard  has some very  astute things to say about what’s happening in our schools. Sharpen your pencils, kids, and go to your seats. Mr. Walker is about to give a class!

                                        

Poets United: Richard, nice to be talking to you at last! I so love the name of your blog. What is the story behind how you named your site?

Mr. Walker, Sadly Waiting for Recess!

Richard: I’m glad you asked that question. A number of years ago, I had a student teacher, and he wanted to try teaching our fifth-graders to write sestinas. So, I said, “Okay.” We taught the lesson and the students wrote sestinas. Then, Susan Sibbet, from California Poets in the Schools (CPITS), came in to our class to teach poetry writing, which she has done with my class for many years now. We showed her what the students had already written. One of the poems in particular impressed her, one titled “Sadly Waiting for Recess” by a boy named Matthew. At the end of our time with her, after eight sessions or so, she always puts together an anthology, with one or two poems from each student, and they all get to keep a copy. Everyone liked Matthew’s poem, so it was a natural choice for the anthology.

Poem of the Week - Priorities (Sadly Waiting for Recess)

Poets United is all about Community.  We wish to celebrate and acknowledge individual poets who are part of our group.  This week's poem of the week  is Priorities which is written by  Mr. Walker, a teacher, father, husband and poet from San Bruno California who shares his poetry on  Sadly Waiting for Recess .

Priorities can be found within his blog:

Priorities

it's difficult sometimes
to know if what I do
is aligned with my priorities

life is erratic
like it's charting a course for me
that doesn't seem guided
by fate or design

I look for omens
signs to show me
that I'm doing the right things

even the occasional bad omen would be okay
something to fight against
an obstacle giving me
a short-term goal to focus on
something to measure myself by

but the fact is I don't believe in omens
signs from above or below
what's here and now
in the middle matters

teaching young people
writing poems
making my small portion
of this erratic life
brighter and more beautiful

at least I think so
that's the question I started with
isn't it?

but then I look
at my boys
and see what is reflected
in their luminous eyes

and everything seems
true and good
what I know
and what I do
the things that are me
appear congruent

and I wonder
why I question myself at all

I should take that
as a good omen

~ Mr Walker

I also felt I needed to include the next poem "With our Families" because it really kind of called to me.  I liked it's simplicity and how it mixed with a ringing twist of truth and importance.  For me a it started a river of memories and a poem that can do that with so few words has to be good.

With Our Families

while swimming at the pond all day
the three other men left
for a drink at a nearby bar

I would have said "no thank you"
but I still would've liked
to have been asked

~ Mr Walker


We hope you have enjoyed reading this week’s selection. Each week we select a poem from one of our members which we feel is a wonderful read. It is the poetry penned by our members and their willingness to share that is the core of our community. If you enjoyed reading this poem we can guarantee there will be many more like it so be sure to stop by next week and read the poem that has been selected for your reading pleasure.We hope that each of you will spend a bit of time each day reading some of the terrific poetry written by our poets.  It's all about community!