Five things I did last week:

Rolled with an earthquake on a Monday morning in my classroom while my students were out at their music class. It was not THE big one, but it was a big one.

Realized I made a BIG mistake in preparing our class ceramics project. Now our birds with feet will be footless…or footloose as they fly freely with no visible feet. Determined to turn this mishap into a beautiful oops…with a surprise twist (yet to be announced).

Finished reading a book (a memoir). Started reading two books, one a self-indulgent crime novel that came up on my online library holds, the other a nonfiction book about leadership that arrived on my doorstep last week (a book I didn’t order–but I do know who did).

Closed the rings on my fitness app every day last week, every day in April so far, every day for the year 2025 (and 2024 and 2023…) Has this become an obsession?

Wrote a poem each day, posted a poem each day, taught children about poetry each day, found myself immersed in poetry each day, swam in the poetry (mostly avoided treading water), breathing in the words, stroking through the rhythms, floating in the words of others, splashing in a variety of forms, propelling myself to experiment, dive deeply, hold my breath and hope I don’t drown. And when I feel like I’m drowning, I find myself grabbing for a life preserver: another poem.

@kd0602