how full the glass?

how full the glass(glas)?

The Middle Schooler

By Henry H. Walker

the middle schooler:

an incredible(inˈkredəbəl) person
fraught(frôt) with the challenges
of physical, social, and emotional(iˈmōSHənəl) changes,
just getting up and surviving(sərˈvīv) the day
can seem like a victory,
the sureness(SHo͝or) of being a child
held safe in a parent’s arms,
gone way, at least for awhile(əˈ(h)wīl
),
the sureness of being a child
awake to the wonder within a moment,
within a belief, within a world that is stable,
all shattered(ˈSHatərd) by the double-edged(ej) sword
that empowers(emˈpou(-ə)r) ability and disempowers sureness,

I love the middle schooler,
I see the wholeness of who each is,
despite(diˈspīt) the doubt(dout) and fear and hesitancy(ˈhezitənsē)
that can plague(plāg) every moment,

I am in awe(ô) of how often they can risk
and find enough faith(fāTH) to leap(lēp), despite the fear of falling,

this weekend I was in the mountains with ten middle schoolers,
each of whom is navigating(ˈnaviˌgāt) a way through their changes,
each of whom deserves praise(prāz) for how full each fills the glass,
and sympathy(ˈsimpəTHē) for how hard the glass is to fill.

http://henryspoetry.blogspot.com/2018/04/how-full-glass.html