Maria Stachenfeld

Mari Stachenfeld has worked as a teacher for 28 years. from substitute teaching in kindergarten (the most difficult of all) to teaching literature in college. Her PhD is in American Literature. She loves teaching, and she loves writing poetry, and reading it. She feels teaching and poetry are about spreading love and kindness, with some valuable information thrown in. Her work has been published in many small magazines and anthologies.

Breath

Sometimes

when words

race from my mouth,

arrowing the class

before me, a child

will smile at me,

her kind eyes saying,

“It’s all right, Teacher.

Take a breath.”