In Prison Stories, our poet in residence Katie inspires amazing writing from the women prisoners based on poems that she reads to them.  One of my favorite writing exercises she uses comes from the book “Find Your Way Home” by Becca Stephens and the women of Magdalene House in Nashville.  I love to create the performance script with the sometimes sweet, sometimes painful descriptions of where these women started.  Yesterday Huck showed me a similar poem he wrote in language arts class last week that was inspired by George Ella Lyon’s poem “Where I’m From.”  And while a little ten year old boy from New York City has a very different perspective than young women prisoners in Arkansas, I smiled at the memories he dwelled upon during the first few weeks of middle school.

“I am from the cedar chest,
from lemon lemon cake and holiday sugar cookies.
I am from my stomping upstairs neighbor,
a tiny little apartment.
I am from the sandy spot and
the magic tree
right outside my apartment window.
I’m from Grandma’s sugar cookie recipe and brown eyes,
from Aunt Jeni and Aunt Lori.
I’m from making the same expressions and going to events together
and from going to Kansas in the summer.
I’m from telling Uncle Ronnie, “Are you trying to be funny?”
and “Brush your teeth slower”
and “You are my sunshine.”
I’m from getting a Christmas tree.
I’m from New York City and Czechoslovakia,
cake and burritos,
from minnows in my mom’s hair,
shaking her hair out,
old little tiny baby clothes
and the cedar chest.”

I gave him 350 kisses after I read it.