"Hard Time"

The other day, on the cover of the Wall Street Journal, was a highlight regarding an English teacher assigning her class to create a poem, relying exclusively on words excerpted from a newspaper article. I thought it was a wonderful idea to jump start creativity and get things into gear.

This is the poem I created, with words extracted from "Love In Good Times And Hard Time" published in the Globe and Mail Feb 14/05.

Young women, unrealistically armoured with unique hope and wistfulness
Mystified buoyant Pollyannas, grim fatalists absent
Somehow existence frantically spun around
Harsh gallery glass reflected a little girl, watching.
Wounded, she innocently daydreamed of wet stone,
Convinced any kind of guard displays weakness
"I can wait" she said, resolved.
Still having greater tests, she had come a long way.
Some scream, some cry, some concede and survive.