What I know about sports can basically be summed up on a single page with a lot of white space. I have the basics: football is played with a ball that is pointy at both ends and all the other sports basically have round balls. There are usually two teams and they run back and forth on some kind of field or court in order to score points. After that, keeping track of fouls, plays, what various players are called and are supposed to do is pretty much beyond me. But, in small town, rural America, sports are what kids do.

Where I grew up, there was plenty of sports oriented students, but there were many other things to be involved in and you didn’t have to be in a sport to have a “team.” Many of my students play multiple sports but many of them also have one that is their favorite. The first poetry project I looked at yesterday was one on basketball. As the students presented in class, I was struck by how many projects included sports and they’d written some awesome sport poetry.

One other theme that came through loud and clear was agriculture. I’ll share some of those later this week-they are near and dear to my heart. Although some students only turned in partially finished projects, for the most part, my students did some incredible work. We also enjoyed lots of cookies, brownies, and fruit gushers. They love those elementary school snacks. Today we return to the fickle Romeo who has put all thought of Rosaline, his one true love, out of his mind because he saw the fair Juliet!

And Ash Wednesday’s breath prayer: I repent…in dust and ashes.