It’s a long time since I went to school and memory can do strange things to what actually happened. The photo is certainly from my old school, but the poem takes teaching in a whole new direction, making school more bizarre than real …
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CLASSROOM
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three aspens 
tied with purple ribbon
I laid on teacher’s desk
she placed them in an inkwell
and used the stems
for letter-writing
fireweed she planted
beside a pond
for the flourishing of bees
honey we shared
behind the woodstove
on cold mornings
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first published in The Outreach Connection
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A Summer Father … Here is poetry … interweaving images culled from a wartime childhood with bittersweet memories of a “summer father”. Lynda Monahan
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About Joanna M. Weston
Born in England, she is now living in Shawnigan Lake, BC. She is married to Robert, an accountant, and they have three sons,
Andrew
Jon
Mark
... and two cats, Alice and Chaucer.
Joanna has an MA from the University of British Columbia. She has published in numerous anthologies and in magazines in Canada, the US, UK, and New Zealand, such as Canadian Women's Studies, Convolvus, Endless Mountains Review, Grain, Green's Magazine, Prairie Fire, Spin, Wascana Review, CBC Gallery, and many more...
Clarity House Press has published several of her chapbooks including:
Berry and the Birthday Band (2010)
One of These Little Ones (1987) – out of print
Cuernavaca Diary (1990) – out of print
Seasons (1993) – out of print
Watch-night (2005) – out of print
