RACE TOWARD GOALS
Do you race toward goals with giant leaps,
bounding over small obstacles, scaling tall walls,
ignoring distractions and focusing on your destination?
Or do you prefer to race with a steady pace
of slower steps, marveling at small obstacles,
tunneling paths through tall walls for others to follow,
swerving to investigate intriguing distractions?
Maybe you do both at different times.
That's fine. As long as you keep moving,
you'll get there.
© 2019 Sydney O'Neill. All rights reserved.
Click HERE to read this month's interview with Karen Boss, Editor at Charlesbridge. Her challenge this month is to write a poem in second person, speaking directly to a kid or kids about something that you think is important for them to know.
Post your poem on our June 2019 padlet. While some contributions will be featured as daily ditties this month, all contributions will be included in a wrap-up celebration this Friday, June 28th. One lucky participant will win a copy of I Am Someone Else: Poems About Pretending, collected by Lee Bennett Hopkins and illustrated by Chris Hsu, available online for preorder, and coming to a bookstore near you on July 2, 2019.
This is wonderful advice, Sydney! I think all too often kids think/are taught that there's only one way to do things, to get where they want to be, and then they carry that tunnel vision into adulthood. I especially love your poem's ending.
ReplyDelete"As long as you keep moving,/ you'll get there." Good advice for all of us! It doesn't necessarily mean how you do it, but that you do do it.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of the different strokes/different folks old saying. The essence of letting a kid be who they want to be at any given point but still with an eye on a goal is terrific and great advice. Not sure you intended the superman metaphor in your first two lines, but I think some kids really aim to be that "star" like kid. I love though that you included marveling over small obstacles.....stop and smell those roses for sure. A poem of good reminding for what counts in life, Sydney.
ReplyDeleteFrom Janet Clare F.
ReplyDeleteA good poem to read into the mirror every morning! I'm definitely a plodder, and sometimes I think I'm moving a little *too* slowly. It's reassuring to step back and remember there are multiple ways to reach a goal.
ReplyDeleteAgreed! Though I'm the both at different times.
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