DMC: "Instructions for My Mirror" by Michelle Heidenrich Barnes

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INSTRUCTIONS FOR MY MIRROR

Love what you see
Be patient and kind
Keep expectations in check

Reflect my best self
Reject my objections
Cast no doubt or shadow

Focus my light
Frame my true beauty
Remind me that I am enough

© 2019 Michelle Heidenrich Barnes. All rights reserved.


This poem does not give instructions to just any mirror, I wanted the poem to be in the voice of a struggling teenager addressing their own mirror. It was inspired by my daughter Miranda's Girl Scout gold award project, "The True Face of Teenage Beauty"—a photography-based project dedicated to increasing awareness of the inaccurate media representation of teens.

As a parent of one of the most beautiful creatures on the planet, it's rather shocking when your daughter responds to the interview question, "Why do you feel like you need/want to do something like this project?" with this:

To put it simply, it’s because I’m a teenager, 

and my friends and I hate ourselves.

Gioia De Antoniis

It's heartbreaking, actually. I may not agree with her self-view, but I'm not going to argue—she feels what she feels and I need to respect that. (Read her entire interview with Christine Boatwright at See Mama Read.)

When I think back on my own pressure cooker years, I, too, remember the need to look perfect, to do everything right, to become an individual while still trying to fit in. At some level I still struggle with self-esteem issues, though at this stage of my life it's probably got more to do with my own expectations than society's expectations of me. I don't know. It's all pretty confusing.

What's not confusing, however, is my determination to help Miranda get the word out about this cause that is so near and dear to her own heart. If you have (or know) a teenager, would you please share Miranda's website with them?

https://mbarnes03.wixsite.com/teenagebeauty

She has a nifty slider app on her About page that perfectly demonstrates the impossible standards of media misrepresentation, as well as an eye-opening Profiles page, and an excellent Gallery of teenage portraits. Miranda would love help in spreading the word about her project. If at all possible, ask the teens you know to get involved—to send in a photo and/or message with their thoughts on the topic so that Miranda can publish them on the site.

Is it only media representation that makes teenagers feel "ugly" or "invisible"? As adults (parents, educators, etc), what can we do to help?

We're entering into our final week of this month's challenge from Elizabeth Steinglass to "write a poem giving instructions to an inanimate object about how to do its job." Daily ditties this week included poems by Rosi Hollinbeck, Donna JT Smith, Margaret Simon, and Dianne Moritz. Carol Varsalona, Catherine Flynn, and Buffy Silverman posted instructional poems on their own blogs this week. Is yours on the May 2019 padlet? All poems on the padlet will be included in next Friday's wrap-up celebration!

The winner of last week's giveaway for a copy of There Was an Old Gator Who Swallowed a Moth by B.J. Lee, illustrated by David Opie (Pelican Publishing, 2019) is...

MARGARET SIMON

Congratulations, Margaret!

Thanks to Dani at Doing the Work that Matters for hosting this week's Poetry Friday roundup.

Thinking About World Thinking Day

Purchase the teacher/librarian edition
or the student edition at Amazon.com.

Would you believe it's been nearly a year since the release of THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY FOR CELEBRATIONS? (Pomelo Books, March 4, 2015)

Apparently some of us have been too busy celebrating to notice.

I did notice, however, that this bilingual collection of 156 holiday poems selected by Sylvia Vardell and Janet Wong was recently included on the 2016 list of "Notable Books for a Global Society" by the Children's Literature and Reading Special Interest Group (CL/R SIG) of the International Reading Association!  Party on!

I'm fortunate to have two of my own poems included in this fun educational resource. Last May I shared the first, "Look For the Helpers," in celebration of World Red Cross Day.  Today I'm sharing the other for World Thinking Day, this Monday.

World Thinking Day is celebrated annually on February 22nd by Girl Scouts and Girl Guides worldwide.  It's a day of international friendship— an opportunity to connect with the Girl Scout/Girl Guide sisterhood, ten million strong across 146 countries. They learn about different cultures and customs, and also discuss important issues that affect girls and young women around the globe, like lack of education or clean water.

I was a Girl Scout leader for four years until our troop disbanded due to some of the girls moving away and others changing schools. It was a wonderful, cohesive group for the time it was together, though, and one of their favorite activities was taking part in World Thinking Day. Here they are the year we chose Guyana to research and celebrate:

Girl Scout Troop 1520

Do they look like a great bunch of girls or what?

And here's my poem from THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY FOR CELEBRATIONS to commemorate the event:

Thinking About World Thinking Day
     by Michelle Heidenrich Barnes

We are Girl Scout Troop 1520:
ten girls from a family of ten million.
Around the world, we join together—
across Egyptian deserts,
the rainforests of Guyana,
and Australian bushland.
We taste Irish soda bread,
Indian dal,
and fresh coconut from Fiji.
We learn customs and crafts,
games and traditions,
and explore how we are different,
yet very much the same.
We make a friendship circle
with our sisters across borders, 
and promise each other
to make the world a better place.

As I did with World Red Cross Day, I also created a video for the occasion. It's significantly less polished than my "Look For the Helpers" video, but I recruited some scouts from my daughter's new troop to help me out, and boy, was it fun! You can watch it HERE.

Find this video and other goodies on PoetryCelebrations.com – home and party central 

for THE POETRY FRIDAY ANTHOLOGY FOR CELEBRATIONS.

Thank you for all the feedback and encouragement in response to last Friday's blog post!

February's DMC challenge from David Harrison is well underway. This week's featured "ditty"-inspired ditties included ones by Jone Rush MacCulloch, Janie Lazo, Jane Yolen, and Karen Eastlund. Carol Varsalona posted one this week on Beyond Literacy Link and Linda Baie has posted another today at TeacherDance. See you here next Friday for our wrap-up celebration!

And speaking of celebrations... Donna JT Smith is hosting a "Between Other Celebrations Celebration Day" over at Mainely Write.  Let me grab my party hat and I'll meet you over there for the  Poetry Friday roundup!