| I left him many years ago. I thought it best that I | | | | I won't act this way when I'm grown I'll give my kids |
| should go. I was young and didn't know that love | | | | a happy home I hope no one can hear me cry P.S. I |
| would go away. 1 only wanted to be free, to have a | | | | love you and goodbye. |
| little time for me, but I was young and couldn't see | | | | With the narrative perspective of a young girl, Lana |
| that freedom can be shared. So I threw away my | | | | expresses many of the conflicts that complicate her |
| wedding ring, and went out to do my thing. Life | | | | role as a wife and mother. Writing poems seems to |
| would be one eternal fling when I was young. Now I | | | | be a large part of Lana's literacy experience. These |
| live here all alone In a house that's not a home With | | | | poems express themes from her life |
| no one I can call my own, And I've grown old. | | | | experience—marital conflict, broken family, sudden |
| Evident in many of Lana's poems is the value she | | | | moves, and a longing for a more stable environment. |
| places on her relationship with her children and her | | | | At all levels of education, particularly adult education, |
| role as mother and nurturer even though all her | | | | students like Lana deserve opportunities to make |
| children are grown with children of their own. In | | | | meaningful connections between life and learning— |
| "Letter to Tara," Lana writes from the perspective | | | | actively orienting themselves to the significant events |
| of a child, her daughter, empathizing with how a | | | | Omega Replica Watches and themes from their lives |
| young mind Omega Replica Watches might try to | | | | and gaining greater proficiency in written language in |
| make sense of the tumultuous world of adult | | | | the process. The process of mastering language as a |
| relationships: | | | | code, governed by rules, is much more meaningful |
| To Tara, my best third grade friend I'm moving but I | | | | when lessons can be derived from topics, themes, |
| don't know when Mommy and Daddy had another | | | | and writings that students themselves create, and |
| fight Maybe it will be tonight! | | | | "the rules" that govern these writings can be |
| Now she said to pack my clothes "Can't stay in this | | | | understood as critical thinking about what they want |
| place, heaven knows" I don't want to go, I want to | | | | to say. To echo Moffett (1968), the most timely, |
| stay But I was just too scared to say | | | | relevant texts in any literacy classroom are students' |
| She told me that I should be glad Not having to put | | | | own texts. And while Moffett speaks to primary, |
| up with dad I know I'm gonna miss him so And I bet | | | | secondary, and college classrooms, in light of life-span |
| he'll hate to see me go! | | | | developmental perspectives and the health and |
| Maybe I can come and play If we don't move too | | | | healing potentials of expressive writing, his advice is |
| far away So, promise me you'll stay my friend 'til I | | | | equally pertinent for adult education classrooms. |
| can see you once again | | | | |