It's Friday, Prom-Day, For @CWPFairfield - Another Awesome Weeks Of Writing

It is awesome to be a frog and to hop from room to room to witness all the excellence of our teachers and young writers. It isn't only awesome: it is a total privilege. I simply shake my head in awe that we have 75 writers this week who are so focused on their master pieces that you can hear pins drop. They simply want to write.

Yesterday, a special guest showed up on our doorstep - Mr. Lambert Wangu of last year's Ubuntu Academy who said, "I couldn't wait another week. I needed to come early." So, we put him to work with From Page To Stage, the poetry workshop that has united kids from extremely diverse backgrounds (next year: Word Up: Diversity University - a lab on language, poetry, and word play).

When I stopped by to see the poets, Lambert was dancing and Charlotte shared some of their community poems, where each of the kids wrote a line (kids from Sudan, Congo, Syria, Greenwich, Hartford, Wilton, Fairfield, and Stratford).

Here's the one she said was her favorite.

From here, I see a father playing ball with his son.

I am making a collage, but it looks like it is going to rain.

(Me, always driving in the insane lane)

I bought rice, cookies, and pizza...

I smell fish,

(the rainy days are always the best).

Ali is helping Ryad to write a story.

I see a flag waving in the sky,

and I begin thinking of pink colors.

One day, I will visit Eritrea and Sudan once more.

Some of the kids in the lab are poetic geniuses with a love of language and they are working with kids who have been in the country less than a month. It's a word-fest and I couldn't be more proud.

10 poets, 30 little labbers, and 35 novelists. And here ends the work with the littlest writers. Next week, the big dogs come. Woof Woof Woof Woof.