Sometimes in my writing classes we'll do an imitation writing. We learn best by copying the masters, right? One poem I like to introduce my students to is "Learning to love America" by Shirley Geok-Lin Lim. I also like to teach my students by writing with them. Last year at this time, I wrote this imitation. I'm trying to decide now, a year later, if I still feel the same way. I've experienced some inspiring hope in the weeks since the election, but I've also read horrifying news stories, and not the fake kind. America Love (in the style of Shirley Geok-Lin Lim) because its bravado knows no shame because the flat farmland of Iowa makes infinity feel like a possibility and because of mountains and swamps and rivers and oceans because I can use my voice because my sons are now citizens and call this desperate land their own because we all need a place to belong and I want them to know Home because I believe in change because I witness a powerful uprising and because I have to have hope or I would wither up and die because it is time -K. Witt
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September 2020
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