recreation as recreating

 a reboot

unplugged—

one way to describe

a break,

a refreshing,

recreation as recreating,

I have loved being wired to my students:

who they are and how the work of what they do

moves them forward on learning paths that open to them,

I am there to notice, to see, to appreciate, to help,

now they, and I, need to disengage,

to unplug, to shut off the screens,

and not dance, directed, across the keyboards,

the metaphor of rebooting works even better for me,

glitches appear in our operating system,

process slows as the circle spins,

as the blue line pauses in its hopeful march to the right,

the hardware, and the software, need a break, to reboot,

to start again, and find themselves anew,

we do, too, teacher and student alike,

we need a break:

to unplug, to reboot,

to let that of ourselves

below and before our consciousness

work out the kinks, stretch out the needed muscles,

so that we can wake up to a new day

and be ready to take and glory in the next steps forward.

by Henry H. Walker

September 30, ‘21