Note: To protect the privacy of our members, e-mail addresses have been removed from the archived messages. As a result, some links may be broken.
Find Lesson Plans on getty.edu! GettyGames

Purple

---------

From: Sears, Ellen (ESears_at_TeacherArtExchange)
Date: Fri Nov 30 2001 - 14:39:55 PST

A friend shared this with me -
Ellen

Purple

In first grade Mrs. Lohr
said my purple teepee
wasnĖt realistic enough,
That purple was no color
for a tent,
that purple was a color
for people who died,
That my drawing wasnĖt
good enough
to hang with the others.
I walked back to my seat
counting the swish swish swishes
of my baggy corduroy trousers.
With a black crayon
nightfall came
to my purple tent
in the middle of an afternoon.

In second grade Mr. Barta
said draw anything
he didnĖt care what
I left my paper blank
and when he came around
to my desk
my heart beat like a tom-tom.
He touched my head
with his big hand
and in a soft voice said
the snowfall
how clean
and white
and beautiful.

         Ō Alexis Rotella 

---