Tag: free verse

Throwing Things

Once I know what beliefs and emotions
are behind my kids’ bad behavior,
it is a million times easier
to craft an effective response.

Why is Fiona
throwing things in
the grocery cart? Is
she bored? Craving my
attention? Remember that
often kids don’t know why they
are doing something, so just asking
them outright might not work. But I’ve learned
over time that when my kids are acting really big
(screaming, for example) they are often feeling very small.

From Half Full: Science for Raising Happy Kids. Submitted by Marika Rose.

On The Shelf

Knowledge, Power and Educational Reform
Pedagogy, Symbolic Control and Identity
Education, Culture, Economy, Society

Sociological theory: A book of readings
Sex work: A risky business
Semiotics: The basics

Sixth-Form Colleges
Education for Sale
Born to Buy

Consumed
Branded
Trend

Book titles on my shelf. Submitted by Lucie Shuker.

In the Midst of Life We are in Death

In the midst of life we are in death.

Be ye faithful unto death, a crown awaits for you.
Satisfied when I awake with thy likeness.
Not lost but gone before.
Gone but not forgotten.
Thy will be done.

Not gone from memory
Not gone from love
But gone to his father’s home above.

The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away.
Thy will be done.

‘Thy will be done’ seems hard to say
When he we loved was called away.

Sadly missed.
She hath done what she could.

None knew thee but to love thee
Nor named thee but to praise.

After much suffering, rest. Peacefully
resting until the dawn breaks.
In the garden of memories we meet everyday.

Why do the robin and the butterfly
linger where you have lingered? Can they know
the knowledge, wit and charity that lie
here now and yet go with you where you go?

At rest. Wife of the above. Thy will be done.

Gravestone inscriptions in Histon Road cemetery, Cambridge, UK.

IS

is
it true
that postmodern people
do not believe in
absolute truth?
and if so
why cant we
find any real-life people
who fit this description?
and if there are none
but only straw men?
then who
is
our
enemy?
because
if we cant find an enemy
(where are all those atheists
when we need them?)
how will ministries
raise money?
or
even worse
if postmodern
people
are
actually
MORE open
to the story of God
than people
thought
then
why have
our churches failed so miserably
to attract them?
and
whose job is it
to communicate the gospel
THEIR JOB to understand
or OUR JOB to create
understanding?
and
therefore
does THE CHURCH
need
to change
the way it is
doing things?
but then
if
transition
means change
and change brings loss
and nobody likes to lose anything then
it may be easier
for the church
to just point the finger
at the emerging generation
and say that we failed
in the
Great Commission
and it is all your fault for
not holding to the paradigm
that has worked for our fathers
we have good news
for modern man
but not for you
sorry
if you can change
the way you process information
then we have a message
from God
for you
for
apparently
either God is not able
to speak to you in
your language
or
we
the church
need to go back
to the drawing board
and yet if we are honest
we have too much investment
in our drawing board
to rethink it
in todays
world
unless
of course
we begin to believe
that the story of God
is already making sense
to postmodern people who see
truth personified in The One Absolute
He Who Can Be Trusted
He Who Is
Is Truth
Is Way
He is
Life
IS

From Andrew Jones’s post on tallskinnykiwi, 5 December 2003. Submitted by Marika Rose.

Autosuggestion

why is the sky blue
why is michael jackson white
why is the sea salty
why is my computer so slow
why is a raven like a writing desk
why is my period late
why is there a dead pakistani on my couch
why is yawning contagious
why is friday 13th unlucky
why is the sea blue

Google search box autosuggestions for ‘why is,’ 21 Sep 2009. Submitted by Alan Mitchell.

Bagpuss

Once upon a time, not so long ago,
there was a little girl and her name was Emily.
And she had a shop – there it is.It was rather an unusual shop
because it didn’t sell anything.
You see, everything in that shop window
was a thing that somebody had once lost,
and Emily had found,
and brought home to Bagpuss.

Emily’s cat Bagpuss:
the most important –
the most beautiful –
the most magical –
saggy old cloth cat in the whole wide world.

Well now, one day Emily found a thing
and she brought it back to the shop
and put it down in front of Bagpuss
who was in the shop window fast asleep as usual.
But then Emily said some magic words:

Bagpuss, dear Bagpuss,
old fat furry catpuss,
wake up and look at this thing that I bring.
Wake up, be bright,
be golden and light;
Bagpuss, oh hear what I sing.

And Bagpuss was wide awake.
And when Bagpuss wakes up
all his friends wake up too:
the mice on the mouse-organ woke up and
stretched; Madeleine, the rag doll; Gabriel,
the toad; and last of all, Professor Yaffle,
who was a very distinguished old woodpecker.

He climbed down off his bookend and went to see
what it was that Emily had brought.

The voiceover from the beginning of UK children’s TV programme Bagpuss, 1974.