Stand: For Every Teacher I Ever Had or Hadn’t was written for and premiered at TEDxABQED on January 11th, 2013. I want to thank the great folks at TEDxABQ (& the badass team of volunteers), the African American Performing Arts Center, and every teacher that has set out to change world one child at a time. Find out how you can be part of TEDxABQED at http://tedxabq.com/education.html.
Listen to the audio of the poem here.
Written for TEDxABQED and premiered on Friday, January 11th, 2013. Look forward to the video of the entire day of talks at www.tedxabq.com, coming soon…
Stand – hakim bellamy
You stand
Somewhere between
Who they are
And what they could be
Not an obstacle
Quite the contrary
But they can’t tell
Their only hint
Is the way you stand
You appear ready to fight
And dammit if sometimes…
They do not know it is for them
You are hands down
While they are hands up
In front of you
You take their best shot
And every morrow
Come back for more
Please
You are the space between
The end of every question
And good manners
Between a demand
And a smile
Between please and thank you
Between boredom
And the bathroom
Between bathroom and sh…
‘tuff we let pass for education in this country
You stand between pass
And fail
Between pass
And learn
Between pass
And future
You stood between Dr. Maya Angelou
And her degree
Her traumatic muteness at 8
And her ability to speak at 13
Between Anne Sullivan
And Helen Keller’s ability to speak what she sees
You stand between every single student
And their “Story of Me”
Stood with Mary Duncan in Nashville, Tennessee
Between a 4th grade Oprah Winfrey
And THE Oprah
And in 1989 you stood on her show
As she said thank you
I thank you
For standing between the spike
And the punch bowl
Between the wallflower
And the wall
Between the two kids
Getting a little too Lambada on the dance floor
Between the black board
And the clean slate
Between a paycheck
And a living
Between social promotion
And social skills
Between high stakes testing
And a high stakes life
You stand
With a backpack
More camouflage
Than campus
Always at attention
Even in a room full of pupils that lack it
You are a frontline
Of lessonplans waving sayonara from flagpoles
At half mast
You are marching orders
That have accepted
to stand
Between our lil’ angels
And the gunmen who have come
To give them wings
Between neck
And bedroom closet
Between bully
And believer
You stand between a sensible work week
And beyond the call of duty
Between the drugs
And our children’s self-esteem
Between banned books
And burnt out
And sometimes…
Between the bar
And the weekend you desperately needed
Like two days ago, already!
You are a Monday through Friday
Stand in parent for ME
And for every moment you surrogate life
I am away on my knees
Begging for you
And my child
To succeed
For as long
As you’ve been on your feet for me
I will stand for you.
© Hakim Bellamy December 31st, 2012
Hakim Bellamy is a two-time Poetry Slam National Champion, and has been named “Best Poet” by both the Local iQ (Smart List 2010 & 2011) and the Alibi (Best of Burque 2010 & 2011). As an educator and performer, he is interested not only in the poetry lessons he teaches his students, but the lessons which Poetry has taught him.
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
