This post is a combination of 3 things:
First, 8th graders at my school recently participated in a Poetry Slam. I got the privilege of listening in to some performances. Being the writer that I am, it inspired me to write some of my own poetry.
Second, it’s been my experience that the body sometimes expresses emotions in ways other than tears. Panic attacks are an extreme example, but sometimes the stress comes out in other ways–like gaining weight. It made me wonder: when we see people who are overweight, what do we think? Do we judge them for their life habits, or recognize there may be something going on under the surface?
Finally, I’ve been thinking lately about the immense amount of care required to be an effective teacher. To know and understand and love so many students—even when they do things that make you want to pull your hair out, or when you answer the same question fifty times—takes a special type of endurance. I’ve heard so many people talk about teachers who are burnt out and who don’t care. I don’t think any teacher starts that way, but many of us end that way. And why? Because caring about someone else is not an easy thing.
I hope you enjoy the poem.
When You Meet Me
When you meet at me,
—before we speak—
what do you see?
A face fuller than it should be;
a smile smaller than it could be;
freckles,
betraying days of sun and sand.
Do you see small eyes?
Dark hair?
Silver strands peak through like secrets.
It’s evidence,
but what of?
A scale would measure pain.
Each pound a sorrow;
forgiven, not undone.
I carry the weight of care on my body.
Every roll and curve is a worry;
energy,
tucked away
until I should need it again.
Can you see the hurt that weighs on me,
or merely my weight?
The lies that shaped me,
or only my shape?
Do you assume
I am the sum of my parts,
or will you let your first assumption
be rewritten
by what you find in my heart?
My body may be the cover of my book
but my story is so much more
than the title.
I am defined by Love,
not my look.
But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not consider his appearance or his height, for I have rejected him. The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
~1 Samuel 16:7 (NIV)
