Poem of the Week, by Jim Daniels

Poem of the Week, by Robert Hayden Poem of the Week, by Langston Hughes

Poem of the Week, by Jim Daniels

A long time ago I decided not to grade my students on their creative writing, even though creative writing is what I teach. Grading someone on their talent usually means they’ll write what they think they they’re good at, smart at. Push out those boundaries, I tell them, try something new, something you’ve never tried before. Who knows what you might come up with? What they come up with is sometimes astonishing, and when they surprise themselves with it the whole room fills with light and energy and power. Smartness and talent are cool to witness and to experience, but beyond that, who cares? So many other things matter so much more. Like kindness.

Dim

– Jim Daniels

Today my son realized someone’s smarter

than him. Not me or his mom —

he still thinks we know everything —

one of the other kids, Nathan. Making fun

of him at the computer terminal

for screwing up at the math game.

Other kids laughing at him. Second grade.

I’m never gonna be as smart as him,

he says.

I’m never gonna be as smart

as half my students if we’re talking

IQs. He doesn’t want me to explain.

He wants me to acknowledge

that he’s dumb. He’s lying in bed

and taking his glasses off and on,

trying to get them perfectly clean

for the morning. I’m looking around

his dark room for a joke or some

decent words to lay on him. His eyes

are glassy with almost-tears. Second grade.

The world wants to call on him.

I take his hand in mine.