Welcome to Ethical ELA, a podcast about teaching English language arts, emphasis on language and art. I am Sarah Donovan, founder of Ethical ELA, and in this episode I talk to Iowa educator Allison Berryhill about reciprocity in writing and her experience hosting the February 5-day writing challenge. Be sure to listen all the way through to hear two poems that will fill your drive to work this Monday morning with joy and inspiration.

For more poetry ideas from Allison and to read poems written by English teachers across the country, stop by Ethicalela.com. We hope to write with you during the next 5-day challenge with Michigan teacher Jennifer Jowett, which begins March 14th.

And remember what Annie Lamott says:Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life; they feed the soul. And don’t we all need a little soul nourishment today? Be well, teacher friends.

What I Have I Lost by Allison Berryhill

I did not lose a breast.

I lost my passport.

I lost the diamond from my engagement ring.

I lost the photos of the trip to France

The summer I was 16.

The same summer I lost my friendship with Ann.

But I didn’t lose my breast.

The right one

No longer here

Tissue disposed as

Human waste

Burned in the incinerator at the University of Iowa.

It’s gone, to be sure.

But I gave it, willing sacrifice.

Not a loss

My soft and tender cup

Of motherhood,

womanhood

Identity.

Its loss (not loss!)

Is as precious to me

As the breast itself

Ever was.