Writing and Poetry

As a writer, I've had wonderful opportunities to meet and work with colleagues and teachers through the Acadiana Writing Project.  The AWP is a supportive group of writers at the University of Louisiana - Lafayette who were instrumental in my growth from a classroom English teacher to a  writing instructor at Louisiana State University at Alexandria.  


I've given presentations throughout the southern part of Louisiana, at several state conferences and at the National Association of English Teachers.  In these presentations I not only model writing for other teachers and give them lessons and ideas for their classrooms, I model my own writing.  Sitting down with pen and paper or computer when they do and composing something, anything that I would be willing to share with my peers.  


The following poem is one of those somethings.  I'll share a few more of my poems in the coming weeks.  In the meantime, I hope you enjoy this one.  Please leave a message either way, I'd love to hear from you.



Categorical Aftermath

Camille, Andrew, Charley, Ivan, Frances, Hugo, Jeanne, Katrina

Lettered. Numbered. Categorized. Alphabetized.

Twist their way into human memory.

Turn their wrath on human lives.

Entwine the human psyche.

Devastation of

Shattered lives

Drowning in mementos,

Coffered in attics.

Hunger thirst death

Take their toll,

Count their rations.

Wind, water, heat

Spin into

Mother Earth’s Darwinist theory

Force

Elders, illness, infants into weaklings,

Survival reliant on instinct and ability.

Faith, hope, dreams

Become ruins

Build into communities of desperation,

Buttress the losses,

Befit that restoration.

Cities rising like Phoenix burned.

Return.

Rebuild.

Restore.

Renew.

Human spirit.

Human lives.

Human survival.