History Written by Parker A. Poodle ™ Copyright ©2021 Sarah Becker Poetry and the Pandemic by Parker A. Poodle ™ In this parent fatigued pandemic I, Parker A. Poodle, a reading education assistance dog, have been asked to help you “Spin your imagination a little faster.” To assure children “The shallowest breath will generate/ a haiku, limerick or well-pruned lyric.” Hospice nurses now write lyrics to help them cope with the Covid crisis; write poetry to process their ICU experiences. As of January 14 the total number of U.S. Covid-19 cases was 23,214,472. The number continues to climb. Covid-19 has taken a measurable toll. We have fought its spread for months and all are tired. Of social distancing, virtual distancing; stay at home orders and remote learning. School and library facilities are mostly closed and school test scores have declined. Home confinement is hard, I know! “I stare at the page, waiting for my wattage,/ wondering if it’s time to invest in/subsidized solar scripting,” British poet and pal Elisabeth Rowe penned. “Time rolls over/ like a puppy in the sunshine/ things I am paying attention to/ become weightless,” Rowe wrote In the Garden. Not so now. Most humans—it seems—feel weighed down, pandemic plagued, and overloaded. How can I, a canine assist? I encourage you to express your feelings in writing; to use poetry to explain the day’s exploits. To maybe cure what ails. A narrative poem is one that tells a tale, a story. A historical story perhaps, or—in the case of the pandemic—home life. Elise Paschen, editor of Poetry Speaks to Children, describes poetry as a “journey of discovery…filled with range—historically, poetically, and visually. Poetry is like a diving board, a place from which to plunge into [life’s] depths.” Poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806-1861) wrote To Flush, My Dog…