From the Publisher: “Dispatches from Frontier Schools is a collection of poems that pulls the reader right into the brutalities, and beauty, of teaching in a struggling charter school. With humor, wit, tears, anger, exhaustion, elation, and a refusal to give up, these poems highlight the struggles of a teacher trying to maintain her dignity and her identity and do right by her students and her own children-while being pulled apart by a system that doesn’t support or defend teachers. More than just an anthem for teachers, however, this collection is a cry for all women who try to give all they can to everything and everyone…”
More info About the Author: “Sarah Beddow is a poet, educator, wife and mother. She is the author of Dispatches from Frontier Schools (Riot in Your Throat), a memoir-in-prose-poems, and the chapbook What’s pink & shiny/what’s dark and hard (Porkbelly Press). Her essays and poems have appeared in Bone Bouquet, Menacing Hedge, Entropy, GlitterMOB,and elsewhere. Sarah is a founding editor of the Pittsburgh Poetry Houses, a public art project, and on the board of Awesome Pittsburgh, which grants money – cold hard cash with no strings attached – to people or groups with brilliant ideas. Sarah lives with her husband and two children in her childhood home.”
Author Site Don’t miss out: Celebrate the release of Sarah Beddow’s memoir-in-poems Dispatches from Frontier Schools at Voodoo Brewing in Homestead on Saturday, August 13th with an evening of poetry games, teacher appreciation prizes, and readings by Sarah, Margaret Bashaar, Halsey Hyer, and Nsai Temko!
Book Launch! “These poems are brutal, laying bare the tragic and terrible ways our country is failing us all. But they are also full of moments that are often missing in contemporary education – like humility, compassion, and empathy…” – Sarah Kain Gutowski, author of Fabulous Beast: Poems
In her memoir-in-poems Dispatches from Frontier Schools, Sarah Beddow creates a vital frontline record of American education as it abuts the pandemic. Here, we meet a woman teacher in full, frank embodiment: an educator unwilling to subsume herself entirely to the twinned demands of capitalism and data-driven academic achievement bearing down on her and her students by her charter school employer, yet one who still burns to offer her entire intellectual and energetic self to her under-resourced students…” – Rachel Mennies, author of The Naomi Letters
“These Dispatches unsparingly critique not just the institution, but the complicity of every adult working within it, including Ms. Beddow the teacher, who sometimes yells or slams a door. ‘I listened to my ideas come out of his mouth my own mouth / muted / And it’s like I am not here I am / divorced from my / thoughts I am told again and again to join the / team.’ An institution with incompetent management can tank the best teachers, run the best future leaders out the door. ‘But no amount of reflection will reveal to me how to be / professional in a system so broken it / shreds me leaves me a corpse in underwear and an ancient / t-shirt spread / on the classroom floor.’ The students will break your heart, but the administrators will crush it.” – Krystal Languell, author of Systems Thinking with Flowers
Dispatch
re: Gun Day
Gun Day is a proper noun here I wasn’t / around for Gun Day it was two years / ago midyear A gun was found in the parking lot and protocol said / search for a second gun if ever a first / is found They found a second / gun inside Today is training day what to do if Gun Day recurs / To train we listen to the 911 call from Columbine High School tracked over the security camera footage of kids running / The call is long 10 minutes 20 minutes /30 minutes The whole time kids / killing kids / and no adult comes into the building / to stop them / After Gun Day / Mrs. Carroll bought a gun She said she / never would buy a gun / good liberal and all I am / ungenerous / I bet it’s a pink fucking gun like those hammers and screwdrivers that come in Laura Ashley flowers so women / will buy them Mrs. Carroll bought / a gun after spending a day locked in a room / with her students while cops / searched the building But she still doesn’t know / how to use it / Years ago NPR reported on a new law allowing teachers to conceal and carry / The woman on the phone a teacher / was confident carrying her gun / into the classroom She knew / don’t have a gun if you cannot / will not use it When asked she confirmed / Yes / I will shoot a student / if he is threatening / Shoot a student she would shoot / a student she would shoot / I cannot predict the future but / I will never buy a gun / I will / never / own a gun / During the training Ms. Miller asks what to do if the students do not / comply with police orders during a Gun Day This is a good / question They do not trust the police They will not / comply And they are right This is wrong Someone will / shoot
Dispatch
re: Big Dick
I am fuzzy with rye and heating pad Yesterday Ms. Jay / walked into a chair or a desk and she swore in pain / Shit / Dick / Fuck And / just / so many dick jokes to be made But I went with / You know I could really use some / dick right about now When I bought / another bottle of rye at the state store tonight I thought of Claire / who I worked with at Tara Mandala She was / broke and we went to Whole Foods / She bought a giant bar of Kiss My Face / Big soap for the money / she said holding up the bar / to her face I grab the big bottle of Bulleit from the shelf / Big rye for the money Our / welcome back speech from the CEO last August was a / long long speech about baseball and / I couldn’t listen anymore because idgaf about baseball / but it ended with / 17 inches / 17 inches is our motto this year Apparently / that’s the size of home plate and something something / we / don’t change the size of home plate whatever It was a bad / analogy and I couldn’t follow beyond / the eight-minute anecdote about a ball player from decades ago But / boy howdy how many times did she say / 17 inches 17 inches / We at Frontier are committed to 17 / inches / It’s hard but we persevere A long hard year / A nice big dick for the money
Dispatch
re: How we scatter
come to share our worlds witchu
we come here to be dancin
to be dancin
to be dancin
baya
– Ntozake Shange
On my way to a job interview / at a / good / suburban school I drove up / the winding hill to the high school / choking back tears All along the drive / the district has posted yard signs for their / seniors Each senior / every one/ has a personalized yard sign with / their name and their senior portrait Their hopeful fall faces standing in absentia under the lush early summer green Last night / the teachers and administrators of my kids’ school district drove in / car parades honking and screaming and trailing streamers behind them through all / the neighborhoods of the district You Matter our elementary school principal had chalk-markered across / her back windshield And / I cried and cried We have done / nothing for our seniors We have been instructed / to do nothing We plot / otherwise We plot / to bring worlds to front doors We create grab bags of goodies / Kool-Aid and / cookies and finger puppets and invitations / to the senior celebration Zoom My own kids / helped me make dozens of copies of my smiling face cut out / and glued on a stick so / these seniors can still have a / graduation selfie with Ms. Beddow for the selfie wall We meet in the school parking lot out by the Giant Eagle / so no administrator will stop us We finalize / our routes load / the treat boxes into trunks We take a ridiculous picture where everyone is masked / and half of us have sun glasses on but we know / how hard we are smiling We / dance for another picture swing our heads push our legs/ to the sun We are too close but it is only for a / moment And then / we scatter
These poems are published here courtesy of the author and should not be reprinted without permission.
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