Success Stories
Poetry Book
Proposal
Nancy Carter Davis was born
to Robert and Dixie Carter in Allen County, Kentucky on December 26,
1954. She
has three sisters and two brothers. Her mother
remarried following her father’s death in 1964, and she has a
stepfather
named Ernest Hinton.
Nancy and her husband of 32 years,
Curtis, have two daughters. Rebekah, her older daughter, will be
graduating
from WKU in 2005. Whitney, her younger daughter, is a sixth grader at James E. Bazzell Middle School. Both of
her daughters write poetry, also.
Nancy was educated by the Allen
County School District until 1972, when she graduated. She attended WKU
receiving an AB in English and Allied Language Arts and a MAE degree.
She has taught 25 years in the Allen
County School District.
She attended the first Writing
Institute at WKU in1986. Later, the Writing Institute became known as
the
Writing Project.
She is in the process of writing a
book which will include poetry she has written. The book will include
her
childhood poetry, as well as poetry written in her adult life.
As I begin the effort to write a
book containing poems and advice to teachers, I am thinking about how I
became a writer and a lover of poetry.
My favorite poet since high school
has been Emily Dickinson, but I also love Robert Frost, Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow, and Alfred Lord Tennyson.
Since I have degrees in English, I have been exposed to excellent writers and poets for many years.
When I think back to my childhood, I
remember reciting “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer, in front of my class during
third
grade. I grew to love both trees and poetry.
The first story I remember
writing was when I was in fourth grade. It was a simple, little fictional story in which I
daydreamed that I had been abducted by
“Potato People” who landed in my back yard in a space ship.
The first poem I recall writing was
done in fifth grade. Mrs. Ann Stewart was
my teacher and she was very kind and patient.
In sixth grade I was overjoyed to be
elected editor of our classroom newspaper. My
teacher, Mr. Hacker, even let us include jokes. When we finished
each monthly edition, Mr. Hacker typed
it and ran off copies for all of us on the ditto machine.
Seventh grade came and I recall
being terrified when I was told I had to write a soil conservation
essay. I wasn’t even sure what an essay
was! Somehow, with help, I made it
through. I
think I needed examples of essays from which to model before I started that assignment.
Sometime, during those early years,
I wrote the oldest poem I
have in my collection. It is still one of my favorite poems.
And I Know The night is still
And
I can hear:
The
frogs croak,
The
crickets chirp,
The
mockingbird sing.
And
I know God is near.
Then
midst the stillness
I
can see, hear, and feel:
A
blinding flash,
A
deafening roar,
An
unending fear.
And
I know God is real.
Then
from the sky
And
the heavens above:
The
thunder ceases,
The
clouds part,
The
moon shines.
And
I know God is love.
Now,
from the depths of my heart
I
can always find:
A
whisper of hope,
A
prayer for faith,
A
promise of Peace.
And
I know God is mine.
Nancy
ELaine Davis
juvenilia
Another poem I wrote a few years
later is “The Puppet”.
Sometimes I
refer to this poem as Linda’s poem. Linda is one of my best friends . She and I were playfully arguing
about poetry one day. She kept insisting that
the only thing poems should be written about was love, while I kept
insisting
that a poem could be written about anything. She challenged
me to write a poem about
Pinnochio, so I went home after school that day and wrote “The Puppet”.
The
Puppet
Sad,
little, lonely Marionette,
Puppet
on a string,
No
hopes, no fears, no dreams,
Knowing
not a thing.
Hang
stiff, still, and straight,
Spine
against the wall,
Try
to speak. Try to move.
Marionette,
you’ll fall.
Lie
quiet and still, Marionette,
Lie
there in a heap,
Painted
face against the floor,
No
one can see you weep.
Poor,
little Marionette,
They
say you cannot fear,
I
picked you up and brushed you off,
I
saw a shiny, wooden tear.
Nancy
ELaine Davis
juvenilia When I was teaching in the classroom, I
always
allowed my students to do recitations ,
too. One excellent poem to get middle school students to start out with
is the
poem “Achilles Deatheridge” by Edgar Lee
Masters. This poem is fun to
do in pairs, because it is dialogue and the
ending of the poem has a unique twist to it.
Achilles
Deatheridge
“ Your name is Achilles Deatheridge?
How old are
you my boy?”
“ I’m
sixteen past, and I went to the war
From Athens,
Illinois.”
“ Achilles
Deatheridge, you have done
A deed of
dreadful note.”
“ It comes
of his wearing a battered hat,
And a rusty
, wrinkled coat”
“ Why,
didn’t you know how plain he is?
And didn’t
you ever hear
That he goes
through the lines by day or night
Like a sooty
cannoneer?”
“ You must
have been half dead for sleep,
For the dawn
was growin’ bright.”
“Well,
Captain, I had stood right there
Since six
o’clock last night.”
“ I cocked
my gun at the swish of the grass,
And how am I
at fault
When a
dangerous looking man won’t stop
When a
sentry hollers halt?
“I cried out
halt, and he only smiled
And waved
his hand like that.
Why any
Johnnie could wear the coat
And any
fellow the hat.
“ I hollered halt again, and he
stopped
And lighted
a fresh cigar.
I never
noticed his shoulder badge,
And I never
noticed a star.”
“ So you
arrested Him ? Well, Achilles,
When you
hear the swish of the grass,
If it’s
General Grant inspecting the lines,
Hereafter,
let him pass.”
Edgar Lee Masters This is the poem I wrote for my older
daughter ,
Rebekah. Not only is she graduating from
college, but she is also to be wed in September. We have been making
several
trips with her to the airport , as she travels back and forth to
California.
Quickly, quietly you go through security,
with your
pink handbag and matching shoes.
We watch you
walk in peaceful tranquility,
wondering
when you’ll call back with news.
You don’t
look back over your shoulder,
though we
stand silently watching you go.
Our pasted
on smiles fade to nothingness,
now that
you’re gone smiles don’t have to show.
We know it
is time for you to fly,
you’re grown
up and ready to test your wings.
We know you
have a sweetheart waiting,
as we wonder
what life will bring.
You have
worked so hard all through college,
studied the
books and made good grades.
You have
been named to honor societies,
you will
never know how proud we have been made.
Yes, the
bright lights and the beaches beckon,
as does
California and the groom.
But, we will
always love and miss you,
no matter
how far nor where you roam.
So, do not
forget the values we’ve taught you,
just know,
we’ll always be waiting for you to come home.
Nancy
ELaine Davis
March
23, 2005 My
E-Mail
address is ndavis@ allen.
K12.ky.us.
Now that you have read these poems,
I need to know what you would like from me. I try to write poems that
are
easily understood by children as young as those in the fourth or fifth
grades.
I intend to include poems written during
my youth, as well as some poetry from my adult life. Do you need help
with free
verse? Do you need help with verse that rhymes? Do those of you who are
in
charge of portfolios need answers to questions about
the poetry your students have written? Let me
know what help you need.
--Nancy Davis, Project I