GST BOCES congratulates

Michael Czarnecki

poet at

Frank Pierce Early Childhood Center

Michael Czarnecki,  on left,  stands with Jennifer Batzing,  principal of Frank Pierce Early Childhood Center

Click on the photo above to view a video featuring Michael at work with the children of Frank Pierce Early Childhood Center

Michael Czarnecki is a poet who has been making a living as a poet, publisher, and oral memoirist for twenty five years. He's given hundreds of readings throughout the country and started working in schools in 1990 - frequently within the GST BOCES region. 

Most recently,  he was a poet in residence at Frank Pierce Early Childhood Center in the Corning Painted Post School District, where he worked with the children on creating poems to be put into a book entitled "Pierce Panda Paws Poems."  The title was conceived by a teacher at the school, Mary Bacalles.  Below is an example of one of the poems on which the students collaborated.  The pre-schoolers focused on counting,  naming animals,  and alliteration in this poem.  The poems will be set to music when visiting musician Joe Crookston comes to the school.

One leopard likes a leprechaun

Two turtles swimming in the goo.

Three elephants flipping upside down.

Four penguins playing in the mud.

Five butterflies bumping into a tree.

Six snakes sneaking watermelons.

Seven giraffes going to the North Pole.

Eight mice swimming in the water.

Nine horses hunting for food.

Ten tigers going on a treasure hunt.

Teaching Assistants Mary Keck (in green), Emily Arnold (in pink) and
Janine Smith (in gray), help the children during Michael's visit.

Following is a sample of Michael's writing which offers a glimpse into his world which is, in Michael's words,

 

a 50 acre homestead on Wheeler Hill,  where I live with my wife,  Carolyn and two boys, Chapin, 14 and Grayson, 18, (from which) I go out into the 'dust of the world,' as the old Chinese poets would say, doing the work of a poet and oral memoirist. I travel down the road and then settle back in on quiet, peaceful Wheeler Hill amongst my old-order Amish neighbors and not far from my daughter, Cassandra, 10 year-old grandson Caleb, and granddaughters, 3 year old Brook and 1-year old Sidney. The best of two worlds.

Fifth Day of a New Year
Michael Czarnecki
January 5, 2002

African music on the radio, boys sleeping, Carolyn reading a novel on the futon behind me. I sit at the new used desk I bought earlier today from the Salvation Army. Wood top, metal sides, drawers that slide smooth and easy. Finally a solid, spacious setting for the computer, printer, my paperwork. As the music plays I tap fingers on wooden desktop. A pleasant percussive sound I didn't envision when purchasing. Hollow resonation when tapping above empty chair space below. Solid heaviness where drawers lie underneath. A functional desk - a makeshift drum - all for $10.99!

I step away from the desk for a moment to put another chunk of firewood in the heating stove - seasoned oak from trees cut in the woodlot a couple of years ago. The old Kalamazoo wood cook stove is now cool - hours after supper - hours till breakfast fire and hot coffee. The oak chunk I placed in the heating stove will burn for hours.

Another year has passed. Snow once again covers the ground. Hairline recedes a little more, white hairs infiltrate my beard. Earlier today Carolyn moved hay mulch, dug a few carrots out of the ground. Crisp fresh sweetness in early January. Jars of tomatoes, pickles, beans line shelf in cupboard. Seed catalogs arrive daily in the mail. A continual turning of seasons, cycles, lives. One year behind, another gathering steam. My boys sleep soundly in their room as I soak up warmth from stove and gaze out window into the dark winter night.

sudden gust of wind
glass pane on front door rattles
mouse scratches in wall

 

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