A room full of teenagers
ready to learn
how to write songs
how to translate
their emotions
into music
how to turn
their angst
into notes
that float around
become light
and land easily.
I have compiled
a list of the different
types of songs
and begin explaining
and playing the examples.
I’ve chosen contemporary
tunes that they can relate to
and enjoy.
They are polite
and listen and learn
but a spark is missing.
Then we get to one
I think they’ll hate
and make fun of. I
hold my breath and start
Puff the Magic Dragon
and it’s like I flipped
a switch.
Their eyes light up,
their heads begin to sway
and some even sing along.
The room is dancing
with melody
and energy
and this imaginary friend
from their childhood
is alive again.
The song ends,
they grab their pens
and on plain white paper
they begin to capture
the secret longings
in a land called Honah Lee.
10 comments:
Linda, you brought me to a magical room filled with beasts containing themselves and listening intently, waiting for "their song" to excite them. Pausing with pens, rather than shooting flames...I love the reference to the song - I remember Peter, Paul and Mary carrying me away with it when I was a child (and I am mere mortal)!
- Dina
It's a great song, and you describe a wonderful moment.
Hey, this is really good. I'm a music teacher, and I know exactly what you're talking about here. You really capture it well. I like this alot.
I like that song too, it's sort of like peter pan, everyone whose ever been a kid gets it. It's rather sad really and I think we all get that too. The first sentence I ever learned in russian was the first sentence of peter pan "All children, except one, sooner or later must grow up."
Great poem, please keep writing, and keep teaching these kids, you're doing a great thing for them. Even when they're little punks.
When we lose our inner child, we lose our true loves and dreams. Glad these writers were able to recapture them.
Hi Linda! I love the way you took this story -- Puff is, indeed, magical, eh?
Nicely done. I had wondered where it was going!
One of those "teacher" moments to remember. I see it well.
What a sense of achievement to get that breakthrough. Inspirational.
You've just gotta love that Puff.
C.F.
That sure is a moment to remember, a break through, you never know what will amuse those little dragons.
Side story; when I was 13yrs old we had an old lady at our school , a music teacher who we thought was crazy. She couldn't control the class and she used to play a tune on the piano she called the laughing tune, it always had that effect on us and we would all giggle, then she would get mad and we would giggle more.So she would pretend to go and get the principal and we would watch her leave the room and walk around the corner, stand still for a minute then turn around and come back again, the principal never came and we laughed at that too. Kids can be real little dragons.
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