Poetry Friday-IMPERFECT poems about mistakes: an anthology for middle schoolers

Happy Poetry Friday!

With September already here, and the school year underway, I thought what a better time to pause and focus on this wonderful poetry anthology by Tabatha Yeatts, IMPERFECT poems about mistakes: an anthology for middle schoolers.

In an imperfect world, I think this is the perfect book to offer and share with middle schoolers, and also the rest of us, especially in our current times. IMPERFECT reaffirms the idea that we don’t have to know everything all the time, it’s okay to make mistakes, and that we can learn, grow, and move forward from making a mistake.

The poems within the book’s pages cover a vast ground of all different kinds of mistakes from ones helping us to make discoveries, mavens a.k.a. know-it-alls, ones that allow us to laugh at ourselves, and also poems that fill us with regret or hurt.

In addition to the poems, Tabatha has also included some rich back matter including, Making Good Decisions: Brainstorming for Future You, where she offers suggestions on how to navigate situations before they occur and who will support us in our decision making. She also offers suggestions on Apologizing Effectively, and has a handful of Poetry Forms You Can Try.

The collection itself is comprised of a vast number of poets, many from the Poetry Friday community, and well known poets too. Although I had been planning to post on this book at this particular time, I unfortunately made the mistake of not allowing enough lead time. That said, I’m offering you a small flavor of poems and a few quotes from the book–and you’ll just have to get your hands on a copy to read more … p.s. there’s also a story behind the cover, so run out and get a copy. p.p.s. you can also stop by the Team Imperfect blog for lot’s of perfectly lovely anecdotes related to imperfect things. 

 

WHAT GOES WRONG

Mistakes flower
Every hour.

Ice cream, dropped.
Joke, flopped.

Tire, flatted.
Jump, splatted.

Directions, lost.
Guidance, tossed.

Trousers, muddied.
Quiz, unstudied.

Pencil, broken.
Truth, unspoken.

Team, beaten.
Homework, eaten.

Laundry, pink.
Armor, chink.

© 2018 Tabatha Yeatts. All rights reserved.

 

The web of our life is of a mingled yarn,
good and ill together.
William Shakespeare

 

EXPERIENCE

This morning I looked at the map of the day
And said to myself, “This is the way! This is the way I will go;
Thus shall I range on the roads of achievement,
The way is so clear––it shall all be a joy on the lines marked out.”
And then as I went came a place that was strange,––
‘Twas a place not down on the map!
And I stumbled and fell and lay in the weeds,
And looked on the day with rue.

I am learning a little––never to be sure––
To be positive only with what is past,
And to peer sometimes at the things to come
As a wanderer treading the night
When the mazy stars neither point nor beckon,
And of all the roads, no road is sure.

I see those men with maps and talk
Who tell how to go and where and why;
I hear with my ears the words of their mouths,
As they finger with ease the marks on the maps;
And only as one looks robust, lonely, and querulous,
As if he had gone to a country far
And made for himself a map,
Do I cry to him, “I would see your map!
I would heed that map you have!”

© 2018  Carl Sandburg. All rights reserved.

 

TEMPTATION

I’m Temptation waiting to be released …
Come, sit a spell – I’m only half a beast.
I’d love your company,
We’ll bond wondrously.
Kiss honesty goodbye, a sad caprice.

Climb aboard – don’t think about your actions.
Mistakes are nil, only distractions.
Now, you can sneak that peek,
Mum’s the word, I won’t speak.
Almost there–you’ll never solve that fraction.

Awww Shucks, you didn’t cheat; want to change your mind?
There’s still some time–NO, stop, don’t be so blind!
Dash-it-all, we were close,
You and I, almost pros.
Wait, I’ll change my ways–Don’t leave me be-e-e-h-i-i-i-nd.

© 2018 Michelle Kogan. All rights reserved.

 

Perhaps it is our imperfections
that make us so perfect for one another.
Jane Austen

Thanks to Carol Varsalona for hosting the Poetry Friday Roundup at her blog Beyond Literacy Link!