Poems of Love and Longing
:: Trio
:: This Silent Language Between Us
:: The Message
:: Light
:: Eyes
Esther Kamkar: The Clay And Glass Arts Foundation's grant made it possible for me to teach Personal Narratives in Poetry and Clay to 10 children in an under-served community in the area. I found out in the first session that one of the 4th grade girls, a Spanish speaker, had some serious learning disability and was writing like a 1st grader. She wrote without vowels, 'flower' became 'flwr', and she didn't want anyone to look at her writing in her journal.
I asked her to come and sit next to me and told her that I know some famous poets who don't write, they
dictate their word. I wanted to be her secretary and would write down her words in her journal for her.
She was two big eyes and a wide smile, very pleased and bragging that she had a secretary. She could not stop talking her poems for me to write down. "Please be slower, I cannot write them as fast as you think them", I would beg to her delight.
I think that was the turning point for her. She made beautiful clay tiles and a head with braids. I'm glad I was there at that moment and invented that idea to be the secretary. Who knows how many more years she would remember that moment.
:: Design by Waterman
:: Logo woodcut by Barbara Leventhal-Stern
