Notes from Public School - Day 170

from Trevor’s Encyclopedia of lost things

“Taki,” said her mother one frozen winter evening, “You know a new baby is going to be be coming to our family, don't you?”

“Yes, aakaa, I do. 

I see the baby growing in you.”

“Feel,” said her mother.

Taki placed her hand gently on her mother’s stomach.

The baby pushed it’s tiny foot against her hand.

It was like a ripple in the Chukchi Sea, the calm summer sea when she stood at the water’s edge and tossed stones as far as her arm could toss them.

“Aliugnagaa,” whispered Taki.

“Wow.”

She was astonished.

She was filled with wonder.

The ears of her heart were tuned to astonishment.

The eyes of her heart were focused on wonder.

“Paglan,” whispered Taki again.

“Welcome.”

“The new baby is coming soon,” said her mother.

 “Yes, aakaa, I know,” said Taki.

“I’m ten years old. 

I know things.”

Her mother chuckled.

“Little Light, let me look into your eyes.

You look into mine.”

 “Okay, aakaa.

But why?”

“Well, Little Light, you know your aapaa and I love you very much, don't you?”

“Yes, aakaa, you tell me every day.”

I want to tell you again. 

I love you.”

“I love you too, aakaa. 

And I love aapaa.”

“That's what I want to talk to you about, Little Light. 

I want to talk to you about love. 

Love is an astonishing thing. 

Love is a wondrous thing.

You might think, "There's only one of me, so aakaa and aapaa can give ALL their love to me. 

But when my brother or sister comes, then there will be two children, so aakaa and aapaa will only be able to love me half as much.

That kind of thinking is a right kind of thinking when you're talking about things, like the muktuk that comes from the bowhead whale that keeps us alive during the winter.

If I have two pieces of muktuk, and give one away, then I have only one piece left, don't I?”

“Yes, aakaa, that’s right. 

You do.”

“You might think love works the same way as muktuk does. 

And in a way it does.

The bowhead whale gives itself to us, and we give the bowhead whale to the people, until everyone is fed or all of the muktuk is gone.

This is the Iñuit way.

It is the way of love.

But in a way it doesn’t.

 When you give love away, you don't lose a part of it.

You gain more of it.

It would be like having two pieces of muktuk and giving one of them away and having three left! 

Love is like that, Little Light.

The more you give away, the more you have.”

And in the cold quiet of the Arctic darkness, Taki understood her aakaa.

For she knew astonishing things.

 

She knew wondrous things.

She knew love.

Notes from Public School - Day 169

One of my favorite Latin quotes is Esse Quam Videri.

It is the state motto of North Carolina.

It is inscribed on the side of my college ring from UNC-CH.

It simply means ”To be, rather than to seem.”

In Trevor’s Dictionary of Latin Words (🙂), it means “The essence is more important than the video.”

And that’s not so simple, is it?

We live in a society that is upside down from this beautiful way of being, huh?

All of our senses are hit every minute of every day with the message Videri Quam Esse, “To seem, rather than to be,” “The video (photoshopped of course) is more important than the essence.”

But today one of my students reminded me of Esse Quam Videri.

She reminded me of the essence of teaching.

She reminded me of the essence of being a teacher.

“Here Mr. Barton,” she smiled at the end of the day. “This is for you.”

She handed me a handmade letter.

Oh how I love these kinds of letters.

See what she created.

Hear what she said.

Dum Spiro Spero.

While I breathe, I hope.

Poetry Reading at M. Judson Booksellers

 Since I was a little boy, I’ve dreamed of reading my writing at a bookstore and signing my book for my friends.

Thanks to the good folks at M. Judson Booksellers on Main Street in downtown Greenville, this dream is coming true.

Ah, my heart is flying like kite by the ocean.

Please join me for this evening of poetry and friendship tomorrow, May 16th, from 5:30 - 7:00 PM.

From 5:30 - 5:40 PM, I’ll be reading 4 poems from my book Left Foot Poems.

From 5:40 - 5:50 PM, my friend Juan Gonzalez from  Spanish Writers will lead a Q and A about the poems in the book and the way I see and hear the world around me.

From 5:50 - 7:00 PM, I’ll be signing and selling Left Foot Poems in the bookstore.

The cost of the book is $15.00. 

You can buy it through Venmo @teachandwrite, PayPal @juniperzine, or with cash or check.

10% of all profits will go to support The South Carolina Justice Project.

I’ll be serving slices of bread and glasses of lemonade/limeade from the Swamp Rabbit Cafe and Grocery to celebrate the poem “We All Need Bread.”

 ¡Muchas Gracias!

Notes From Public School - Day 165

“Happy Birthday, Mr. Barton!” said student after student as I walked into school at 7 AM.

“Ah,” I said, “I’m glad I get to spend it with you.”

I meant what I said, you know.

Here’s one of the many reasons why.

One of those students handed me a letter and 2 pods of Dunkin’ Donuts coffee for our school Keurig machine.

Most of you know I teach at a Title I school.

That means over 9 out of 10 of our students and their families struggle against economic poverty every day.

So I deeply appreciate any and all gifts my students give to me.

I love those coffee pods.

I love that letter.

Look closely and listen carefully to what they say and mean.

 

The coffee pods say, “I KNOW you like coffee, Mr. Barton, because I see you drinking it every day and notice it puts a smile on your face.”

They mean my little student knows me.

It’s a beautiful, wonderful thing to be known.

The letter says, “I will remember you as brave, strong, beautiful and a good writer.”

It means…well, it means everything.

My heart is full.

I’m one lucky teacher.

Notes from Public School - Day 163

from trevor’s encyclopedia of lost things

Taki was beautiful.

I use the word beautiful in the sense of the old Latin phrase ESSE QUAM VIDERII, to be is more important than to appear, the essence is more important than the video.

The essence of her was more beautiful than the video of her.

The inside of her was more beautiful than the outside of her.

Don’t get me wrong.

She was beautiful on the outside, too.

Her brown eyes were the color of the plowed ground.

Her dark hair was the color of a moonless, starless night.

Her skin was the color of the bark on the ancient trees below Point Hope.

But oh how beautiful she was on the inside.

Her heart beat slowly and steadily in the arctic cold around her.

Her mind thought deeply and widely of ways she could help the world.

Her soul was undeterred by the frozen, rocky land around the Chukchi Sea.

Yes, she was beautiful.

Yes, she was beauty.

At her still point.

In her essence.

Her family's house was made of yellow painted wooden slats with a red tin roof.

A small chimney rose slightly through the center of its ridge.

It sat on the edge of the pack ice beside the Chukchi Sea.

There were four windows, one for each side of the house.

She sat by the fire in the front room, warming herself against the cold.

She looked out over the sea. 

The moon reflected off its surface.

Broken ice moved slowly with the tide.

Whales sang to each other in the deep reaches of the water.

She sighed at the beauty of it all.

She stared at the horizon. 

She was silent.

She listened.

She heard a whistle from the sea.

It was the song of a bowhead whale.

“Listen,” sang the mysterious whale.

“Listen with the ears of your heart.”

Left Foot Poems

Trevor Scott Barton

Left Foot Poems 

Here’s my first published chapbook of poems!

There are 40 poems in around 100 pages in the book.

In the poems, I look closely and listen carefully for beauty in the plain, genius in the simple, wonder in the ordinary and courage in the human.

The book is small enough to fit in your back pocket, but the poems are big enough to fill the whole, wide world.

For $15.00, I’ll hand deliver or send a signed copy of the book to you.

And if you’d like, I’ll also write a personalized poem just for you.

You can give me a topic, and I’ll work to make it into word art.

Please send your request to my e-mail address - trevorscottbarton@gmail.com.

I’ll be happy to send your signed book and personalized poem to you through the USPS.

If you’d like to pay electronically, you can send the $15.00 through PayPal @juniperzine or through Venmo @teachandwrite

If you’d rather pay by check, you can send it to me through the mail -

Trevor Scott Barton

16 Don Drive

Greenville, SC 29607

You do not have to pay until you have the book in your hand.

Thank you for supporting indie writers like me and local art!

In good friendship with a tender heart,

TSB

auribus cordis audis - listen with the ears of the heart

Notes from Public School - Day 156

On my first day in my new village in Mali, West Africa, a family invited me into their courtyard. 

It was a humble place, with two huts made from mud bricks and covered with thatched roofs. 

There was a cooking fire between them. 

There was one chair made from bamboo, the most expensive of their possessions, and they offered it to me to sit in it. 

There were few chickens, a sign of poverty within the poverty of one of the poorest places on earth. 

The family cooked a chicken for me in the rice and peanut sauce we shared for supper. 

As I sat in that bamboo chair among my Malian friends, and as I placed my hand in the common bowl with them and shared the best food they had to offer, I committed myself to treating all people with the same dignity, respect and love with which they treated me, especially those who are around me from Mexico, Central America, South America, the Middle East or any other place in the world. 

Thanks for being my example, my Malian friends!