April 14

#VerseLove Day 14, Tumble Down Poetry

In his introduction to today’s #verselove prompt, Andy Shoenborn states, “I believe a poem rests in wait within each of us.” As a neophyte poet, these are reassuring words. Andy asked us to write a paragraph of prose about a pair of shoes we’d never forget, then to “look for naturally occurring repetition, alliteration, striking images, and moments of emphasis fit for enjambments” and from there to create a poem that tumbles down the page. Here goes.

When I was five years old, my family lived in a remote location in southeast Alaska. Our food, as well as all other merchandise, was delivered in semi-regular fashion by boat, and later by small cargo plane. New clothing was a rare novelty, and something to be treasured. For whatever reason, I had been granted the purchase of a bright red pair of Mary Jane style shoes. I was delighted by this extravagance, and excitedly tried them on. From the get-go, they were tight, a bit pinchy. But, there was no way I was going to return these shoes to wherever they had come from. My mom queried me on whether they were too tight, but I insisted they were fine. Sucking in my breath and stiffening my upper lip, I gleefully went off to skip and play. I have no memory of how long I was able to wear these shoes before I truly outgrew them, but for a moment in time I was as grand as Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.

Magic Slippers

A magical delight
a treasure
the mail delivery
a pair of red shoes
unexpected, yet
longed for

“are they too tight?”
“no! they are fine”
even though
they were not

brave face
no complaints
skipping
playing

because
these red shoes
were the most
precious thing
I’d ever owned

March 27

#SOL22 #27

As my eyes drifted around the circle of women, I was flabbergasted to realize I was one of only two wearing cute footwear with a heel. The rest were adorned in lovely clothing paired with flats, many of them utilitarian as opposed to attractive. Now, I am a total fan of comfortable shoes, and am most often found in my sneakers or Birkenstocks. Nonetheless, I imagine that many of these women are wearing their sensible shoes because they feel wearing heels will lead to an embarrassing turned ankle or tumble.

As I observed this scene, it renewed my commitment to keeping physically fit. As we age, we tend to lose muscle mass, balance, and mobility. But, it’s not a foregone conclusion. With consistent effort, we can immensely slow down the process and retain a lot of our youthfulness.

I’m off to yoga followed by kettlebells. I plan to be dancing in my high heels at 99.

 

November 27

Shoes = Empowerment

Like many women, I spent years sporting attractive dress shoes. This was followed by years of mostly “comfortable shoes.” After all, they are best for our back and foot health. And, comfortable shoes are, well… comfortable.

Imagine my consternation to recently acknowledge to myself that wearing “tall” shoes contributes to my sense of empowerment. Chunky, stiletto, wedge, it doesn’t matter as long as the footwear is stylish and… tall. I am relatively tall even when wearing no shoes, so those heels shouldn’t make a difference. But they do.

Maybe we should ask our students what makes them feel empowered. We might be surprised.

 

High-Heeled Shoes by Capri23auto is licensed under CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0)