Honorable Mention: Rochester Auditorium Theatre

Honorable Mention

The Theater

by Rebecca, age 12

Penfield

The Auditorium Theater is the place to go
When you want to see an amazing show

When I was little I saw “Blue’s Clues” and “Bear”
Then I saw “Wicked” and “Lion King” there

My friends were a part of the “Wizard of Oz” cast
All who watched surely had a blast

“Lion King” was really great
I hope to see it again at a later date

“Wicked” is my favorite, I saw it three times
Sorry, I can’t think of any other good rhymes

My mom helps us get tickets really cheap
She makes sure we don’t go to shows sure to put us asleep

Next year we’ll see “Shrek” or “Billy Elliot”, either one would be great
Which one will we watch? I’ll just have to wait

On the third floor is MJT Stages, a small theatric endeavor
However, it’s a great place to see shows whenever

I’ve been to camp there for many years
It’s helped me overcome my acting fears

So that is the one of the greatest places around
You should head over there if you’re ever in town

Joe’s Commentary: The Auditorium Theatre certainly is a special place to visit. Rebecca has written a very convincing poem with perfect end rhymes. It makes me want to head to the Auditorium Theatre to have some thrilling experiences. Rebecca, thanks for sharing your poem with readers. Keep on writing poetry. This is a very good poem. Congratulations, Rebecca!

Confession Is Good For The Soul or Blog

Confession is good for the soul, and good for the blog—perhaps! I have nothing to confess personally about J.D. Salinger. I know he’s not doing a lot of writing right now, but I have been waiting for some new stories by him—stories that he agreed could be published after his death.  I wish the lawyers involved would get their acts together. I am looking forward to those stories. 

But I do want to take some time here to applaud Salinger for what he did for me when I was 16-years-old. It changed my life. 

I confess that I wasn’t always a book lover. The book that changed my life was Catcher in the Rye. I couldn’t believe how authentic J. D. Salinger was as a writer. And I read Catcher at the perfect age, the same age as Holden. I wanted to be like Salinger as a writer, and never be a phony. He really turned me on to reading and writing. 

Now that I enjoyed literature I also wanted to teach. I did happily teach for thirty-three years. And, now and then, I actually dream at night about finding my class and teaching again. Then I wake up sad in the morning with no class and no official teaching responsibilities. 

Nevertheless, I try to get into classes and do poetry performances as much as I can. But it’s challenging to work around the I-got-to-teach-for-the-test teachers. They need to realize that teaching about “Egypt” isn’t as important as making poetry connections and establishing rapport with kids that are hungry for words that shed life on their own existence on Planet Earth.  

At the end of my “Tribute” section on my Web site, I have a poem written by a former student, Jay Perrin, that is priceless. What a superb gift from a student on the last day of school! You will find the poem by following this site… 

http://www.consideration.org/sottile/for-teachers/tribute.html