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…
“Let’s Not Be Scared, Let’s Be Prepared” Written by Parker A. Poodle™ ©2019 Every dog, every child needs a trusted chum, an adviser who can teach them the pees and queues. At age 16, never did I, Parker A. Poodle a Reading Education Assistance Dog, assume a howling need to explain a despicable decade increase in gun violence. Simply stated we must acknowledge America’s gun problem and teach children the particulars of personal and public safety. Including the new vocabulary—words like shots fired, active shooter, dangerous someone; inform, counter and evacuate. “Most children play with toy guns or use their hands to pretend they are holding a gun,” Rachel Schulson’s Guns What You Should Know explains. “Have you ever wondered about real guns?…A bullet shot from a gun can travel up to 5,000 feet per second. That means that if you and a bullet had a race, the bullet would get to the end of your block before you even took your first step…It is impossible to know exactly where the bullet will end up.” According to the U.S. Gun Violence Archive from January 1, 2019, to September 20, 2019, there have been 40,596 incidents of gun violence, including 10,744 deaths (26.5%). Today a hotel (Las Vegas), shopping center (El Paso), or movie theater (Aurora); office (Annapolis, Virginia Beach), church (Charleston) or school (Columbine, Blacksburg, Newtown and Parkland) is not always a place of safety. In October MGM International Mandalay Bay paid $800 million to 4000+ victims of the Las Vegas hotel shooting. About 228,000 students have experienced a school shooting since 1999—Columbine. “Let’s not be scared, let’s be prepared!” the National Center for Youth Issues, ALICE Training Institute suggests. I sometimes worry my dog house may not be safe should a dangerous someone draw near. …
Read America! By Parker A. Poodle™ Hello, Alexandria! I, Parker A. Poodle, am reporting from the backseat of my mistress’ car. We have just crossed the 14th Street Bridge en route to The White House. Massachusetts-er John Adams—slaveless property owner, husband of Abigail, father of three and dog owner of two—was the first President to inhabit The White House. His stay was short, four months. The election of 1800, Adams v. Jefferson, was bitterly fought. Adams dogs, Juno and Satan, were the first First dogs to dabble in Washington politics. To—how shall I say?—speak smartly, snarl angrily, perhaps pee on The White House lawn. March 2 is National Read Across America Day and, as biographer David McCullough confirms, children “should read history.” “If it should be the Design of Providence that you should live to grow up, you will naturally feel a Curiosity to learn the History of Causes which have produced the late Revolution of our Government,” John Adams wrote son John Quincy in 1777. “It will become you to make yourself Master of all the considerable Characters….” Reading Education Assistance Dogs are characters, of a type. We went home by way of the Alexandria library. Children are educated. Dogs are trained. I entered the library quietly. George Washington’s Breakfast, a book by Jean Fritz explains the library process. “The librarian smiled when she saw [a poodle patron] come through the door,” Fritz noted. “[I] walked up to the desk” and sat. The librarian “picked out four [children’s] books to take home,” then “promised that she would look at the rest.” “As [George] Washington was the father of our country and [Thomas] Jefferson the author of its ideals, John Adams was the champion of government,” Cheryl Harness wrote in The Revolutionary John Adams. “When the Congress…
Poodle-doo Written by Parker A. Poodle ™ ©2017 Sarah Becker February 2017 The weather is warming, springtime awaits, and the dogwoods debate their blooms. I welcome the change of seasons. March 2 is Read Across America Day and I invite all to sit with me beneath the trees, a book in paw or hand. I, Parker A. Poodle, am a retired Reading Education Assistance Dog. The dogwood is Virginia’s state flower (1918) and tree (1956). In preparation my lady and I strolled to Alexandria’s Duncan Library to check out their latest books. She entered while I waited outside. A seated bench mate put down his guitar and watched. I was restless and it showed. Not long before my arrival an angry passer-by thumped my rump and told me to pick up my poodle-doo. My lady stood poop bag in hand while I explained, in doggerel or clumsy fashion, that poodle-doo is American regional English synonymous with bird, a clipped-wing Mississippi bird to be exact. The word originated in 1906. He next called me a poodle-worm, American regional English for caterpillar with lots of hair. Maybe the passer-by thought I was Dog Town educated. Not so, though my lady is a Midwesterner. Poodles are “proud, active, and very smart!” Ask the American Kennel Club. With the AKC as my reminder I stood silently and let it go. It was then my bench mate spoke to me. “Did you come to the library to read?” he asked. “No,” I responded. “Only to research and later write.” My bench mate asked if I was familiar with the children’s book Rocket Writes a Story. Rocket is a dog and it is a book I often recommend. His favorite children’s book: Go, Dog, Go. In P.D. Eastman’s Go, Dog, Go the poodle is pink….