Keats, Frost and the poet, Paul Baillie

We have lately been drowning in an ocean of our children’s homework. Between science projects, art projects, preschool “writing” assignments, daily math and reading worksheets, the piles of paper seem to be never-ending. Backpack exploration and binder upkeep are now daily duties that Paul must bear the brunt of.

Nothing has thrown us more than Max coming home with an assignment to write poems for his 4th grade Writing Celebration. For more than two weeks, Paul has struggled to help Max come up with an idea and write a few lines. Last night was his last day to complete two poems and I was determined to force his creativity.

I asked him about poems that he studied in class and without skipping a beat, he recited, nearly perfectly, Robert Frost’s Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening. Nothing about Max has impressed me more than hearing him repeat,

And miles to go before I sleep

as if he understood the poet’s meaning. We talked about what the poem was about and suddenly he said, “I’ll write about Winter! Do you think that would be ok?” I nodded and he got to work on a melancholy piece about frozen rivers and long, dark days that he called December.

His writers block came again when I asked him to get started on his second piece. As 6PM rolled to 7 and 7 rolled to nearly 8, I desperately suggested, “Why don’t you write about an experience you’ve had?” “Like you mean football?” “Yes,” I answered, “or a trip, or an activity, anything you want.” A few minutes passed before his pencil touched paper again but he finally looked up and said he wanted to write about the time we went to the Natural History Museum in NYC. When he finished, he asked Paul and I to sit down so he could read us his finished work:

boop boop goes the ferry,
beep beep goes the taxis,
woosh woosh goes the subway
clop clop goes the horses in Central Park

Paul instantly added his ending

“Hey buddy can you spare a dime said the homeless dude on the corner.”

I couldn’t help but burst out laughing. Thank goodness Max has his father’s sense of humor.