Poetry

by Megan and Gillian (in their teens) How to care for children and keep them out of trouble 1. Supply them with books 2. Supply them with good books 3. Give them reading material 4. Let them read 5. Take them to the library 6. Find lots of good books 7. Teach them to read […]

Dear Grandparents D, Thank you for the beautiful music box that plays “Jeanie with the light brown hair” on it. It is pleasant to listen to it and I also enjoy looking at how it works. I also like that you give me something when it is not even my Birthday or Christmas. It is very […]

Phil Kendell and I taught Kiddy Lit together. We usually had supper before class. One night we omitted the meal, we both knew the book well. We met two minutes before class, realized we had ordered a comic book for Tom Sawyer! What to do? We rapidly changed plans and spent the evening discussing various […]

My avid sisters got their driver’s license at age 16, I did not. I saw that, once you could drive, you got sent to town with a list of errands. But at 18 I started Beloit College. My dad said, “I’m not driving a kid of your age to town every day.” So, I got […]

This fan letter came a while ago from Kitty A limerick for you (title given by writer) There once was a poet from Beloit, whose writing was especially adroit. She taught a long time; Her career, a good climb. Many writers did she anoint! 2025 Jacqueline Jackson

My mother kept me practicing even when I didn’t want to. I remember once in a violin lesson I was trying to play “Brindisi,” a terrible piece musically, but marvelous for problems of technique. My teacher had told me to memorize it, and I’d made a half-hearted attempt. Suddenly, in frustrated rage, I grabbed “Brindisi,” crumpled it up and […]

My friend, Rodd Whelpley, has discovered various farm cams online but, he says the viewer can’t experience what you did growing up on the farm. “One can’t hear the whoosh of the milk as it leaves the udders, smell the cow patties that the animal drops, feel the hair on the backside of the cow, […]

(Chorus follows every verse, by students in a 1976 Fantasy Class) Wilbur and Charlotte and Templeton the rat; There goes Peter Rabbit with a beautiful white cat; From a distant asteroid came the Little Prince; Said we all must hurry now, a matter of consequence.   Goin’ down to Narnia: just follow the yellow brick […]

Winter Solstice by daughter Damaris Jackson For those of us who still go out and yearn for signs of sun return on winter solstice, mystical, The balance-pause at end of breath; It seems that we should brush a nest In snow for pinecone eggs to rest, Or catch the hands of trees On fleetest impulse […]

What can be more leisurely than cows wandering in tall grass or lying down chewing their cuds or getting up to wander andante behind the herdsman up to the barn to be milked? 2024 Jacqueline Jackson

Dairy Rhythms 2, the Milkhouse The milkhouses tunes play all at once, Weaving in and out: machine time quick, quick, quick sorta-fast, sorta-fast and slo–o–o–o–owly. The andante paddles of a pasteurizing vat Travels to the ceiling and ripples poco-a-poco down the ramp of cooling coils cantabile into the bottling tank the bottles rise, fill, lower […]

The barn is on slow-cow time; the loudest the scra-a-ape of the manure shovel as it follows the manure trolley which makes its trip around the barn ceiling; the fastest the brush-ush-ush of the clean up broom in water filled gutter with the lip of water flowing ahead in leisurely flood crest; and the barn when, […]