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Memoria Miss White
by Tony Whitaker
Large gnarled hands
revealing her tender age
complementing a
youth-filled smile
brightening
the darkest day
Miss White
was really
a fairy queen
not an old and gray
first grade teacher
who
in disguise
skillfully taught
as she touched us
with her wand
of endless tales
Between the boredom
of numbers, spelling
and reading aloud
we sat spellbound
as she acted out
the plays
of her
younger days
when time stood still
among the brooks and hills
as kids in a simpler time
often did
Under her spell
we laughed
and danced all day
like mad children
gone wild
and we learned
-how to play
Though the day is dark
and gloomy
while raindrops glance
off the windowpanes
I think back
and smile at
a time
of my younger days
when time stood still
and I learned
-how to play
02/01/2007
Author's Note: Miss White. The best teacher I EVER had. She made learning fun. I still catch a tear when I think of that year and I want to go back, but we can't. So, here's to you, kid!
Posted on 02/01/2007
Copyright © 2026 Tony Whitaker
| Member Comments on this Poem |
| Posted by Alisa Js on 02/01/07 at 05:42 PM What an incredible testament to the memory of your teacher. Wherever she is right now, I trust her heart is smiling. This one touched the heartstrings, for sure!... aloha..;-) |
| Posted by Kristina Woodhill on 02/01/07 at 09:58 PM I can't help but also smile at the simple, pure name Miss White of this marvelously colorful woman you have portrayed! I suspect she taught you much more than "to play"! Thank you for this tribute! |
| Posted by Kathleen Wilson on 02/02/07 at 09:03 AM I love the very strong image of "large gnarled hands". And the following "revealing her tender age" (tender age usually having a different meaning--this being perfectly clear and powerful in the truth of tender in terms of vulnerable because old). I like also the extremes of this, like mad children gone wild" --it can't get much more extreme than that! Yes, she must have been trying to nourish the growth of poets instilling such wild abandon and taste for creative freedom... and she did! |
| Posted by Genevieve Sturrock on 03/26/07 at 12:53 PM ms. sutton was my first grade teacher...the kindest, smartest woman i have ever met. she taught me the magic of books and i've never forgotten her. great write! thanks for the reminder. |
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