I walk into tomorrow’s school armed only with poetry, hoping I have enough ammunition to get out alive. Gwendolyn Brooks for cops on campus. Carl Sandburg because this school is dangerous. Sara Teasdale wrapped round a student body that 'has problems with violence.'

Where to start with summing up all this travel nonsense. . . . I’ve visited 17 states since January, towns as big as Chicago and as small as Nantahala. I’ve seen thousands of faces I may never see again and said the poem "Whirligig Beetles" so many times I could do it in my sleep. We went through three rental cars and drove somewhere in the neighborhood of 25,000 miles. That’s a whole hell of a lot of road.

Start with the face of a child. . . . Perhaps the 5th grade boy from Brewton, Alabama who stole the show as the hero in "Jabberwocky," or the tall shy girl at Dulles High School in Sugarland, Texas whose frightened face nearly stopped me cold. Each opens stories of trial-and-error pulling performers of all sizes to be stars for a brief moment. The determined silence of a girl too cool for poetry until she discovers that a woman with skin as black as hers won the Pulitzer for writing a poem -- who told these kids they couldn’t dream? We try to unteach this error in mere minutes before passing on to the next town. Still, there are those whose dreams are bigger than I could imagine, who bowl me over with a sudden outpouring of creative energy and love. I can only hope that no one breaks this spirit by telling them to "sit down and shut up" too often.

So what did I get out of this? A new perspective, a world of stories, and a clearer picture of who I am. I didn’t keep a diary, so this is the collection of scribblings and typings and other such "tour doodles" that tell the story of the journey.

1/4
Ciro and I made it to Tulsa, OK today. We have our first show tomorrow at Eugene Field Day School, which according to our contact person "services three housing projects in the area," very multicultural and very poor. I’m looking forward to it. They should be a lively group. Ciro's a bit nervous, but our first run-through this evening went pretty smoothly and we're planning to run it again in a little while. I’m fretting more about the teacher workshop on Wednesday since they've apparently been reading and passing around the book that most of the material comes from. I need to dig up a new set of poems for them to use that they haven't seen scripted already. It shouldn't be a big deal, but I have to worry about something.

1/8
This week went great! Eugene Field is an amazing little school that not only teaches the kids academics but helps them solve race issues and build a multicultural community. We dashed back to Asheville through rainy Tennessee to exchange our car because the trunk was leaking and the brand new windshield wipers on Hertz's brand new Taurus weren't good for anything but making a bigger mess. We drove all night last night because we didn't want to hassle finding a place to stay in Memphis again, it being the King's birthday and all. So far, so good. Ciro and I seem to make a pretty good team. I even managed to sound intelligent for the teacher workshop that I was so worried about. The teachers there especially loved us, I think. They were discussing funding for bringing us (specifically Ciro and me) back next year.

Tonight I think we're gonna be lazy before a full day of rehearsal tomorrow. Maybe I’ll even get some writing done!

1/15
We’ve spent the week in Tennessee and even visited Graceland. (Okay, we didn't go in, but we did drive by and stop at the souvenir store to get a spoon for my grandma and a key chain for that Elvis fanatic Allison, who is living in my apartment.) The temperature has been pretty moderate here, but this weekend we plan to dip even further south to New Orleans before making our way to Houston for a show on Tuesday. (More time in Texas, surprise, surprise.) The only hitch is a show at Dallas Christian School later in the week. They want us to "clean up" poems like “The Cremation of Sam McGee” because in it they say "oh, God how I cursed that load" which is "taking the lord's name in vain." Looks like we'll cross paths with another team that's been bopping around Louisiana, so we're gonna try to meet up and have lunch or something.

You want to hear something interesting about Tennessee? Hmm. What to tell. . . . oh, don't trust street maps to tell you what the names of roads are or where they go. We've spent a lot of time driving around to find streets that don't go where the maps say they do or have three names. They seem to really like Mexican food here, but whenever they say "really, really hot" you're lucky if you can taste the spices. Oh, and the accents are my-ah-ti the-ahk.

1/17
We drove down the lovely Natchez Trace, stopped in Tupelo for a fabulous home-cooked meal (that only cost $6 total to stuff both of us) at a place called the Lunch Bunch, and visited the birthplace of Elvis (another key chain and spoon, but this time we did go in the tiny two-room home). We spent the weekend in New Orleans and spent too much money, but had a great time.

New Orleans wins the award for most annoying housekeeping staff. At 9:30 am on a Saturday they started down the hall gossiping from one end of the floor to the other and banging on doors shouting "housekeeping!" Then, since my door was locked and I didn't answer and Ciro had a "do not disturb" sign out, they called at about 9:45 am to ask if we wanted room service. I said "no"; they said "well I’ll just bring you some towels then" and I said "no thanks, I have plenty of towels." Then about 5 minutes later they're banging on my door again and this time I just yelled "What!?&uot; back. "I have towels for you," she said. "I don't need towels," I said. "Well then could you sign this thing that says you requested no service today?" Fine, whatever. So I signed for my room and Ciro’s room and an extra one in hopes they won't bug us tomorrow. But, sure enough, around 11 am they are banging on Ciro’s door again. Grrrr!!

In general, we spent too much money and then beat it out of New Orleans to Houston today. This is a particularly swanky new Comfort Inn with bathroom telephones and microwaves and coffee tables and such. Most importantly. . . plenty of space to rehearse which we will be doing a lot of tomorrow since we have our first high school shows this week.

1/27
We’re floating around in the bayou country (Morgan City, LA) stuffing ourselves silly with tasty Cajun dishes. Things seem to be going pretty smoothly for us. This week is tough, though. We're definitely in the deep South. At the second school today the junior high kids came into the gym and chose where they wanted to sit. When they were settled the left side was 90% black and the right side was 90% white. One of our contact people mentioned that the Klan had been there recently and that probably had something to do with it. It was frightening to see that racism and segregation is still that prominent in this day and age. What year is this anyway? Oh yeah, 1998, when the lead news story is Clinton's sex life.

2/2
Dodging RVs down the highway
trying to cross this state
in our circular roundabout backtracking way
much like Fleischman’s Whirligig Beetles.
My back hurts from too much car sitting,
waiting to get where we’re going.

2/7
We didn't do much partying in Ft. Liquordale due to the nasty storm. As for the Florida blue hair, well, yeah there's a lot of it. I did see one rather interesting blue hair though -- a great blue heron flew up and stood about five feet from me just staring at me as if I was supposed to entertain him or something.

2/8
We're now in Cocoa Beach, Florida where the sand is white and doesn't taste very good. It's breezy but pretty warm and sunny. Nadine (who was here last year) warned us that the Cocoa High kids have a bad habit of throwing things at performers. I’m hoping we won't have to deal with any of that nonsense. Our hotel is right next to Ron Jon's world famous Surf Shop. Now, I’d never heard of them before, but they are certainly huge. They sell everything beach-related plus some and are conveniently open 24 hours a day. So at 3am when I have a sudden urge to buy a swim suit, surfboard, or Frisbee I know where to go.

2/10
I played in the ocean today and filled Ciro’s pockets with shells. Yesterday's shows were really tough, but today was a blast. We got to perform in a glorious theatre space that is shared by several schools and the community and had a nice large audience of 600 or so for each show. Today's kids were really cool.

2/14
So, I return to e.e. cummings’ sea
where he says we find ourselves
no matter what you or me
we’ve lost.

2/16
We're finally getting to play with little kids again. It's nice to have some variety after weeks of mostly junior high kids. They're fun too, but it's nice to get hugs from the little ones after the show. I’ve gotten a bit of writing done. The beach did wonders for clearing my head.

2/17
I really hate Val Day. Ciro & I went for a walk on the beach and went to see Good Will Hunting that night (a very good movie, I might add) and then found a cozy little local bar (with semi-live, semi-karaoke music from this guy with a guitar and a sound system who was actually doing pretty good covers, but seemed lacking in any original material) where we got well drunk for the first time in weeks. Actually it was probably the best time I’ve ever had on that day. There's only one year that I remember when I actually had a "date" and we spent that in the emergency room trying to get me treated for one of the worst ear infections I’ve ever had. Otherwise I’ve spent that day pretty much by myself. So this I guess was a huge improvement.

2/19
Childhood memories of smoked oysters and kippered herring served on Ritz crackers.
A dainty dish for dad’s and daughter’s.
Mom whining and struggling to make our communication better.
I almost believed her,
was fooled through college until I learned
she was wrong.
There is nothing wrong with how my dad and I communicate.
We understand each other in the language of food and fast cars.
Laughing together over our inability to please Grandma
and our frustration that she’s never understood us.
We send love notes in conversations about computer errors.
It’s not our fault these messages are encoded mime that others can’t browse.
He plays golf and races cars to travel,
while I play words and race music to the same end.

2/25
We were invited to dinner at Wanda and Jerry Rayfield's home tonight. Wanda teaches at the school where we did workshops today and we'll be working with her classes tomorrow. It was really nice to sit down to a home cooked meal and have a conversation with somebody other than ourselves. Overall the people here in Alabama have been really nice to us. We had one show down in Gulfshores and they put us up in a two-bedroom condo right on the beach that night. The place made my apartment look small. They even had a washer and dryer we could use for free! We finish up in Alabaster on Friday and then head north to Iowa for the next two weeks. I’m a little disappointed because our original schedule would have sent us into New York City next week and I’ve never been to New York. I’ve never been to Iowa either, but I thought New York would have been more interesting.

3/1
We did stop in Galesburg to visit the birthplace & grave of Carl Sandburg. (He had it good -- his three-room hut was twice the size of the one Elvis was born in.) It's snowing right now. I’m hoping I can keep from getting sick since I’ve just spent two months in 60-70 degree weather and this week's expected highs are no more than 35 degrees. (We did find a great little herb shop in Birmingham on our way through where I picked up some echinacea tea.) Yep, it’s a blizzard. Very slow driving from Des Moines to Ottumwa. I think the fastest we managed to go was 45 on the plowed highway marked 65. The wind has been blowing constantly and it's still snowing, so it was hard to keep track of the road more than anything. The little Sable handled it very well, though. I think there was only one or maybe two times we slid at all. We safely finished what we'd expected to be a 2 hour drive in about 4 hours or so. Looks like school here will at least be delayed if not closed tomorrow. Fortunately our contact person is married to the superintendent so she'll call us when he decides what to do in the morning.

3/9
The snow storm finally stopped today. Schools were closed today, of course. But it looks like things are melting nicely today.

3/10
I'm stuck in Iowa right now (until the end of the week) in nasty cold weather with too much ice and snow.

3/21
We're in Chicago this weekend. We finished our first residency this week. We performed Monday for the 1st-5th grade at 7-Hills Doherty school in Cincinnati, OH and then by Friday had helped all the kids to create their own show. It went very well. My favorite was a little 1st grader named Julie who performed Shel Silverstein's poem "Dreadful" even though she had a bloody nose. She was already hysterically cute screaming "someone ate the baby!" So her determination to do the poem while bleeding added a gruesomely adorable touch to her final line, "I simply don't know who would go and (burp!) eat the baby!"

4/10
How was school today?
            I got shot mama.
Oh, sticks and stones you know the rest. . .
            But, the playground words have turned to bullets.
I walk into tomorrow’s school armed only with poetry,
hoping I have enough ammunition to get out alive.
Gwendolyn Brooks for cops on campus.
Carl Sandburg because this school is dangerous.
Sara Teasdale wrapped round a student body that "has problems with violence."
Even at the low-income, minority schools they’re not sure if Langston Hughes could keep them alive,
and Maya Angelou knows all about the race issues here.
But the man Thomas Hardy killed knew nothing about this kind of war that leaves school children in Arkansas, Oregon, Washington dead.
Still I march in to the next state’s school with only words under my belt.
When did we stop teaching kids to communicate?

4/22
Ciro and I have a weird schedule this week in Sugarland, TX. For the past three days we've had shows at 7:30 am and both yesterday and today we then had a four-hour break between the 2nd & 3rd shows. The middle schools start at 8:50 and get out at 3:50 and the high schools start at 7:30 and get out at about 3 pm. Kind of screwy I think. I guess it has something to do with the number of kids they are bussing being greater than the number of busses. Not much else is new right now. I'm trying to keep up with contact calls and hotel stuff for next week and Ciro is trying to get well and we're both trying to avoid spending too much money at the ubiquitous malls in this area (I swear there's one at nearly every intersection, with Barnes & Nobles or Borders and Old Navy and Gap, etc).

4/28
Ciro's cold is now in his chest and I seem to have developed the sniffles, but i'm battling it already with echinacea and stuff to try to keep it at bay. We're in North Carolina now and battling a whole new set of pollens (it's colder here that it was in Texas) while trying to do shows for the hill folk.

5/3
Worn beige tile streaked gray
mismatched worn bare to the backing
where Japan, Minnesota, Texas appear in the space between
on a water soaked floor. Mud tracks in
and water sprays from holy pipes.
We’re all just trying to get clean and dry.

5/10
My real name is hidden under blue ocean
Yesterday my name was Lachesis
Tomorrow my name will be wonder
Once my name was spitting dragon
But I am always two feet on the ground head in the clouds singing.

5/12
We've been in golf territory the past week on the coast of the Carolinas. Seems like all the billboards have been trying to convince us that their course is the best in the country. We're in New Bern, NC - the birthplace of Pepsi. Other than that it's not very interesting. We did drive up to Kitty Hawk in the rain yesterday and saw a model of the Wright's contraption. I think I've seen a similar model at Boeing's museum of flight, but oh well. The best part was seeing the little rocks that marked the first three puddle jumps before the fourth one where it really flew.

The kids are ready for school to be over next week and are wired for sound. Ciro said you could probably run a city off the energy produced by our first audience today. I'm ready to fly back to the Northwest at the end of next week myself. Touring has been fun, but I’m ready to click my heels and return home, since none of the tornadoes we've passed through have taken me there.

--Wendi Loomis

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