Teaching, for the 46 years that I have been in the profession, is my passion, and for all those years, it was all about my students, all about nurturing them as readers and writers, all about championing them and featuring their work. It felt strange, in a way, to be featuring my work. I was grateful for the small but receptive group at the Louisiana Library Association conference in Baton Rouge who chose to come to my session.
Editor, Chelsey Shannon opened by sharing her own found poem taken from Tales From a Teaching life. One begins writing a found poem using only words, phrases, or lines, selected and rearranged from another text, and in her case, the text was lines that struck her from my book. It was fascinating for me as the writer, to hear what resonated for a reader. And for the audience, it was a delightful intro which gave a taste of the topics they'd encounter in the reading that followed.
I geared my choice of poems to share by considering my audience of librarians. That is, I read all the library-oriented poems, and as books are my life and libraries my passion, there were many. I appreciated the nods of familiarity, the smiles or recognition, and the best moment, which made me tear up, was sharing the poem, "The Book Fairy," because the former student and now-librarian who is the book fairy was in the audience. (That's her in her classroom as the book fairy, on Book Giveaway days)
I think that both of us had glistening eyes. It is a moment I will cherish.
We followed with an interview format, Chelsey posing questions about the writing, about my career, about my philosophy of teaching. We didn't get to half of the questions she prepared, but that, I guess, is a good thing.
Although this was a pre-pub presentation, if felt like the book's birthday, launching it into the world -- beyond those wonderful folks who had critiqued the manuscript in its many iterations over the two years that I worked on it, beyond the editors who read and reread it with their feedback. There's something about a first that is special.