Belinda by Stanley Kiesel

Poem 21 (Pandemic Day 35)

belinda

This five year old burglar

Has stolen me out of myself.

Without socks and in an

Emaciated dress, she

Twitters and warbles and

Whistles and pokes the 

Sun in the ribs.

This culturally-deprived

Mexican child dances

Upon nothing. Fortunately

Joy has no need of soap 

Or water--nor a ribbon

In its hair (children

are its ribbons).  It needs

Only the indestructible

Assent. And Belinda,

Little cicada, sings

Without any operatic

Ambitions. Life would

Not be worthwhile

If one could not throw 

Snowballs at the Mona Lisa.

Stanley Kiesel, The Pearl is a Hardened Sinner: Notes from Kindergarten, Nodin Press, 1976

When I became a licensed media specialist in 1977, I was hired by Gladys Sheehan, Director of Media Services in the Minneapolis Public Schools to work in two schools; Hiawatha and Minnehaha.  I started at the end of December, when the librarian moved to Toledo. (Something I always think about when I travel to Ohio)  I spent two days a week at one school, two days a week at the other and rotated the 5th day between the two.  I had two media centers to run and classes to teach in both buildings, two principals and lots of staff to serve.  For a new librarian, I had bitten off a lot.  

Stanley Kiesel was a Kindergarten teacher at Hiawatha during the time I worked there.  He had been born in CA and had taught Kindergarten in Los Angeles before he came to Minneapolis, where he would spend many years as a poet-in-residence.  Unfortunately, I didn't really get to know him well.  I remember being aware that he was a published poet (The Pearl... was first published in 1968 by Scribner's but was expanded and reissued by a local Minneapolis publishing company just before I came to teach with him) and he seemed like a nice older man and that, folks, was that.  He went on to have several novels for children published.  The War Between the Pitiful Teachers and the Splendid Kids,1980, was well received by critics and loved by its select readers; although it was too absurd and imaginative for many, including me.  

What I've come away with though, from my small connection with him, was his passion for his students.  That kind of passion was shared by so many of my teaching colleagues over the years in the challenging situations that the Minneapolis Public Schools presented us with.  What was different, is that those children's lives, which came to blend and blur and fade away for so many of us; were captured so clearly and indelibly by Stanley in poem portraits that can still impact us many years distant from their time in the sandbox and the story corner.  Belinda's life was meager, financially, but rich with her character, and ultimately enriched by the caring of her teacher.