SEP-TIM-BEERRRRR!

Holy Toledo Batman, it's already September 3rd!!!!  Well needless to say, this is the first blog of the new school year!!!---Hip hip....Hoooraayyy!! Right, right??  

Well the year has started off pretty good and pretty smooth.  Due to the fact of having a second job, I was only at the school Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  So that was ok, and all, but I really would had preferred to be at GBMS!!  Upon the meetings and "so how was your summer?" we learned we would only have like four kids.  So it was told to us, that those four would be going out to classes and such.  Therefore we (as paras) would be going and supporting classes and what-not.  And that sounded all well and good; my only concern was when I was told there would be a possibility that I would have to "fill-in" when necessary.  Granted, I don't have an issue with that, but I would like to receive sub-pay if that situation occurs.  Eh...it is what it is.  So there is a doodle, I believe, somewhere in one of the three notebooks, I've been using, however there won't be one right now. 

Right now, there is poetry.  I started writing this poem earlier this week, and I think I finished it today...if its good with you great, if not, I'll still be fine-tuning it, so stick around, it may get better. 

A Few Days....

When your walls ain't 

bare, 

and all four pockets contain a bit more

than lint, 

listen to that calling.

It's more than the clothes,

& toys, & gadgets, & gifts;

have you found peace, have you 

found happiness?

Is it hounding you 

hanging from brand new hooks,

freshly purchased from your 

amazon wish list?

Last time I checked,

amazon doesn't sell joy.

I google things; 

cars, clothes, people, and a bit of bling (from time to time)

and many often times beauty.

But the results for beauty 

are never what I want.

My beauty is rarely found

in the faces of so-called super-models.

Naomi Cambell can take a back-seat to 

super-novas,

and Heidi Klum can hardly compare 

to new buds on a freshly potted

potato plant

Pause--

Don't drown, swim hard; 

Believe.

Some epithets and sayings 

can be words of wisdom;

a lowered hand can be a helping hand,

helping you up, saving your soul.

For life can be a 

succubus of issues

crashing your karma

till nothing is left 

but drift wood in rivers

with 3 eyed catfish

void of whiskers-you 

you still have wishes. 

Hope is out there somewhere
Just don't seek it out on  
Amazon, or Google--
You might want to get real analog,
step out your door,
and physically ask your neighbor...
Hi, my name is Poet402,
do you mind if I ask you something
Hope you guys liked it.  

If you guys wanna hear it, check out my soundcloud....

Summer Update for Your Eyes to Decide (Poetry Inside)

Sorry folks, got no doodles, because it's summer, so I got little time to doodle.  However, I have gotten back to writing some poetry, doing a bit of music, and enjoying the warm sunshine.  I have decided to take a break from facebook and just do some posting over here.  I'm doing this mostly because for the last several weeks, no one has checked this, I haven't tweeted anything out about it, so to the majority of the world, this site remains dead.

To give you a true update on how my summer is going, I have worked on one of my short stories, and really just busted tail at my job.  I'm only there part time, but part time is really feeling like full time, and I'm ready for next week to start so I can get a break.  But I think that's enough about the summer, here's some poetry for your eyes to decide on what's good...or not.  Enjoy

Ms. Stone’s Training Wheels

Round & Round
we travel with sun’s shadows
meeting us in wind’s
whisper

Connections are infectious
when one is alone…

Connections are infectious
when one is alone,
& the only friends are
a pack of Pall Mall,
& a cup of hot tea,
to tell your troubles to;
or your triumphs, as they
trickle in.

Life is good,
as long as you’re grounded.

Beauty is brown hands
wrapped around brass;
fingertips lightly touching
pearl keys.

Subtle breath breathing in & out
in rhythm to ivory tapping
fluffy like elephants
doing ballet

It is morning in Dubai
& sand grains in California
dunes, move a 7 year old’s
carefully crafted castle
to the edge of a
purple painted imagination

It is morning in Dubai
& sand grains in California
move a 7 year old’s
carefully crafted castle
to purple painted imagination

Feel the salt water
on my tongue &
nothing ever tasted
sweeter—
Movements & shadows
as planets position themselves
to another
universal adventure.
Ms. Stone’s wheels have formed,
and she is off,
off riding to find
her glory;

off riding, to find her,
glory.

(c)2014 C. Barbee

This is a piece that I placed to a track and put some sax on it.  I'm currently working on trying to figure a way of doing it live, memorizing it and fitting it all together.  I'm not sure which sax I want to use for it.  I'm thinking BB, but she may be too big of a sound for it live, so I may try Ms. Stone...it is called Ms. Stone's Training Wheels, so I may go with her.

Tweet Poem

Followers be lookin’ for a universal tweet to change their lives…

Fyi…it don’t exist in this madness

Got u squirmin in ur chair y it ain’t there…u speak, addin’ to the savage

And be in the cloud w/o average speakin’ to fleetin’ winds…like the scarecrow in da wiz,

u can’t win   

Speaking of tweeting and such, I ran across this on my mac, and thought, what the hell.  I know this was something I put out on twitter, so you can enjoy this one, it's pretty short but eh...it works, or not--you be the judge.

Rules to the Game

Our duty is 

massive, 

mending the membrane 

of souls broken,

backsliding on 

steppers stoops, 

unable to scale 

that crystal stair—

We snatch 

lead and ink

trying to ignite 

the enigmatic emotion

to attempt, one more time.

Noticing the 

harbor of hurt

that hardened muscles 

pumped in 

from black robes;

brown eyes reveal

the bench, gavel, 

and decision. 

Earth ain’t easy,

life ain’t fair,

and Mars is some 

far off fantasy

wishing we could 

vacation there.

The

medulla oblongata 

got lacerations

and is bleeding out—

Snap, snap.

Attempting to suture

that stem cell

back to the 

system.

Saluting failed attempts,

it is 8 fingers and 

2 digits,

with nipples crossed

hoping for

the mammals’ rise.

Like the good doctor’s 

electrodes, 

we unpack the chemistry 

set

next to cauldrons 

in scientific laboratories

laboring for our

next creation to take on life.

Rule #1—

doctors will lose good lives.

Rule #2—

doctors can’t change 

rule #1.

But we ain’t 

doctors with fancy degrees

and rarely used Latin language;

we are poets!

Privy to prophet’s prognosis

that anything 

is possible, 

when protons make contact to 

the atmosphere.

Abracadabra and allacazam!!

We metaphysically speak magic

into manifested electrodes;

electrocuting the evil 

which lunges at brown eyes 

on Monday and Sunday.

We be damned to 

take any day off—

Rule #1—

Poets Change Lives!

Rule #2—

People can’t change,

rule #1!

(c)2014 C. Barbee

I actually performed this poem last year I believe. (I've been doing that for some reason) But I'd performed it with out perfecting it, and it came off pretty good I thought.  At the time I performed it, people really responded well to the piece, especially the parts about the rules.  So since I don't think I had titled it at the time, I just titled it "Rules to the Game".  

Because It's Never Enough

Once,

I had a guitarist tell me, 

I was too much

of an artist

to be in his band.

Apparently I'm 

too vocal

as a saxophonist--

so I told him,

Fuck you!

I'm more of a

poet--

   anyways.

I think this one here is more of a thought than more of a poem.  It's actually something that happened to me. I placed an ad on craigslist as a saxophonist looking for a band.  I sent this dude mp3's, we emailed each other, and had a actual conversation.  But apparently, like the poem said, his band felt I was too much of an artist to just play sax.  Oh well...fuck him, maybe I'll expand this thought into a more concise poem one day, maybe not.  It's getting close to 5:30 am and the sun is rising for the 5th of July.  So I'm guessing this is a good time to shut it down and get back to sleep.  Hope all is well in your world if you happen across this.

Peace and Blessings.

Last Days....

So these were the last two days...not too bad.  Overall, it was a pretty productive year.  We got just about all the  boys out to at least one class--except for one.  We had our ups and our downs, the video above shows one of our ups, yippee skippee...lol In any case, I have a pretty strong feeling that I'll be back for next year, a bit wiser, a bit tougher, a bit ready to handle getting up and doing the damn thang...lol.  So here is the last doodle, some pictures a another video.  I hope that you guys will keep coming to the site through the summer, because I will still be working with kids, just in a different capacity.  Ok, on to the fun-ness!!!

So the 2nd to the last day of school was pretty fun.  We played bean bag toss outside, and the boys were pretty good.  We made end of the year awards with fun titles, like one got the "You can't handle the truth" award, or the "dictator" award.  In any case, it was a good day, we did our bit of cleaning, and not much else.  I think we may have watched a movie--so glad it's done!!

And this was the last day!!!!  I was on time, for the last time, lol.  We went to the park in the morning, and I was joking with one of the boys about staying positive.  What I ended up doing was grabbing a leaf off the tree and smacking him with it, saying, "its the leaf of positivity, you will be positive!!"  He was laughing and it became contagious with some of the other kids.  I did take some pictures...and here they be!!

So all in all, it was a good year.  I am happy to announce that I will be doing my spoken word workshop this summer, and being paid for it--pretty exciting.  So be on the lookout for more post involving that experience.  So have a good safe summer all...I'm going to leave you with this last videos....they're just fun!!!  Happy Summer all!!

Ending This Cra-Cray School Year

So the time has finally arrived...the last week of school!!!  I am always curious as to who is more excited; the kids, the paras, the custodians, the security guards, the teachers, counselors, or administration.  I know for me, I am excited, and happy.  It has been a very trying year; my lateness, being at a middle school, feelings of settling, outrageous behaviors, and of course my bad ass wardrobe. 

 It has been a struggle, but as I sit here listening to Les Nubians I am a bit relieved, a bit unsure (because I don't know if they want me to return), and excited about new opportunities with my other jobs EYC and teaching poetry through Grand Design.  So the doodles are a bit dated, because I haven't had the time to update things, so we have to go back to Tues. 5/13/14...but we're at the end of the year baby!!!...Today's date is May 2, two more days of our boys then summer is official!!

So this doodle has a bit of poetry on it, yaayyyy!! I can say, if nothing else, this experience and our boys did give me some inspiration for some poetry.  I ended up writing a poem entitled drip, (which I'll post after the doodle), but one of the boys in his own way inspired me to write this because they appear to waste so much time.  The boy in question is quite bright and very creative.  Probably one of our most creative kids.  But in any case, I wrote this piece and ended up doing a second doodle, so enjoy.

Drip

Drop off, drop

out, drip

drop,

Droopy Delinquent

goin’ down due

to,

dominant disorder of

deficient….attention.

Your needs--

affective; your attitude,

defective, as you

attempt to

smile & smirk, your

slimy ass

through the jungle years

known as adolescence

Drip drop; Drop dip,

Dip down slippery slopes

as your mother’s hopes of

you

being, some kind of

hero to your (broken?) home--

Drowns….

Tear ducts

dominated by prison dreams

you conjured, at 15;

then 2 years later

became reality

Drip-drop, drop dip

drop off drop out

for you weren’t

diligent enough to

add, subtract, multiply, &

divide.

Your math skills

died due to

depravity & decapitation

of your ability to

decipher correct from

wrong; Riding

rails of downward spirals,

thought your site

would go viral

yet you ended up

becoming a victim--

violated by a capitalist

they bent you over

& fisted you

till

your economic

probability

dropped down

to a factor of one.

Drip, drop, Drop

drip; Drop-off,

drop out,

ousted to the

enclaves of the of the prison complex

never realized

they had place your ass

back on that slave ship

drop, dip

your education slipped

as they slapped that

“special ed” tag upon your

dipping drooping

jeans--

drip, drop;

dropped out--

allowed them to divide you

from economic advancement

subtracted from street life;

way of living illegal money hustling

hussled out as

your life,

dripped, dipped, &

dropped.


Hey, thanks for sticking around after reading that long ass poem, you're the best!! Are you ready for more doodles...yea?!! Great, here they are...part II of the same day!!

So the whole "Drip" theme kinda struck in my head, and I'm currently working on a short story about The Adventures of Mental and Drip.  Hopefully I'll have a rough draft by the middle of this month, and some more stuff by the end of the summer, I am kinda a writer you know....lol, here's the next doodles.

So May 19th is a important day to me.  It's Bro. Malcolm X's birthday, and I really enjoy posting stuff on FB about him.  Therefore, for the most of this day, I did that, as well as take care of my boys in the room.  They struggled alot on this day...how can I tell you ask...because there is not alot on this doodle.  May 19th is also the day I arrived in Denver three years ago--it was a life-saving experience, so I give much thanks for this day!!

It was just another usual day at the middle school.  One of kids had made a statement that the smoke detector was a camera, he was also busted for texting in the bathroom--silly silly boys!  On this day the school had their annual students vs. teachers basketball game.  I would have taken pictures, but my phone camera was acting up...sad face, because the teachers kicked the stuffing out the kids...lol 

Our kids were pretty good this day.  I was off in my own world because I had been working alot on my music and poetry (check soundcloud https://soundcloud.com/poet402 ) and they had an assignment to work on a website and do a video about all the character traits we had learned through the year.  It was a decent day....  and don't forget to check the soundcloud...I do music too--exciting...lol

On Tuesdays I also have another responsibility.  From this doodle, can you tell what I do on Tuesdays?

So this was the last doodle that I've completed.  It's a mix of today 6-2 (even though it says 6-1) and Thursday of last week, 5/27/14.  So this is it.  We have two days left, so that means one or two more doodles.  It has been a pleasure doing this blog, and I may keep it up through the summer, and maybe next year.  Below are some pics of our room, and I'm putting them up because my teacher wanted one of us to take pics of the stuff we had on the walls for a record...so here they are.  Until next time friends!!!

End of the Year vid

So this video came from my phone a few months back.  I'm not trying to embarrass my teacher or the kids, we were having a bit of fun one day, and I was able to capture the events on my phone.  We are an A.N. room with a majority male population, and a male lead teacher--so of course there will be a bit of competitive spirit in the air.  I know this post is kinda random, but it's been that kinda year...

Random Pics, some repeats, and maybe some poetry, or commentary

Sooooo....it's Tuesday, and instead of doing an intricate doodle, I cleaned out my phone of pics from this year, and decided to post them.  Some of them are repeats, some not.  The other thing is I will post either some poetry, or do some commentary about the pics.  

 I decided to keep the pics kinda small as to somewhat protect the identity of the kids involved but, well...you get the jest right...hope so.  At the park we took a small group, and we had a good time.  We did have a snowball fight that day, which was....AWSOME!!

 Yep, I had some zip-line trip stuff on my phone, so, I wanted to make sure they were somewhere before I totally deleted them after.  So if there are repeats here, sorry, sometime a picture is like food, it gets better the second go-round!

This was a pretty fun day.  We had the boys work the majority of the morning and then go outside. (Don't worry, it was a beautiful spring day)  But this was a team-building activity we did with the boys.  Mr. Gilbert had a couple of pipes he taped together and filled with water.  The boys had to act as a team and carry the pipe around the soccer field.  They struggled, and only two gave up...I kinda felt like it was a win for them...they tried hard and the majority didn't quit.

So this is the end of the pictures.  I think I'll come back this afternoon and maybe do some more.  For now (5/14/14 @ 11:38am) this is it.











I wanted to come back to this doodle because I doodled an absolute fact.  At my school the criteria for passing onto the next grade level is to ATTEND 95% or better of the time, however the MASTERY OF CONTENT is ONLY 60% or better??....Is it just me, or is something not adding up?  So what my school is saying is "if you attend, you can pass."  At least that's my understanding of it, because what child really learns if they're only mastering 60% of the information?  So if you're at school every day, but not paying attention in your class, then you still pass???---sounds like some Affective Needs/SPED shit to me.

And unfortunately, this is a school-wide policy, not a special ed. policy!  I did say this would be commentary, not a fuss session, so I won't get all ethnic about what I think of the statement, however I will state it is not the best thought out statement.  Now I know with our SPED children, a 95/60 ratio may be pretty good, but this is due to factors such as unstable home-life, poor decision making abilities, and having arguments over how bad or good the Raiders are.  

My boys are super loud and it's pretty hard to concentrate here, so I'm going to check out amazon and feel better about my life.....

Survived the Week of the Sub 5/5-5/10

So as stated in the previous post (I believe) we had a substitute for the majority of Wednesday, and all the rest of the week.  To kill the suspense....we killed it!!!  For the most part, our kids (boys majority) did a great job of respecting the substitute and listening/following our directions/directives.  I was so very proud of them, they did surprise me a great deal.  Behavior- wise, we only had one "problem child", but the others did very well maintaining themselves.  Now I admit, I was pretty worried that they would blow their stack, or not listen to anything we said, but they didn't.  We had no major incidents, and not one time did the school security officer had to visit our room. 

(will be inserting doodles here)

So the week was like a fun week; we worked on some poetry, (I performed for the class :) ), we made paper-mache piggy bank, and of course we got some work in.  Here are a few photos of us getting our pigs painted.

 This was our wonderful Sub Ms.Tambiens...or Ms. T for short!

And today, Mr. Gilbert has returned and so far, so good.  The boys are pretty much behaved, the paras are relaxed, and we got donuts!!!...I'll update this entry later on

....And here is the doodle from today Monday 5/12/14