Tag Your Dreams, Volleyball, Rebounding Luck

We are so happy that Jacqueline Jules could come back to YARN to help us celebrate NPM! See the first poems she published here, last March.

Tag Your Dreams

Photo courtesy of D'Arcy Norman (flickr.com).

Play tag
with your dreams.
Chase them
till you’re breathless.
Dreams
have strong legs,
but so do you.
Keep running,
with your arm out,
fingers reaching.
Don’t let them get away.

Volleyball

photo © 2008 Scarleth White | more info (via: Wylio) I serve by myself—
tossing high and jumping.
When my palm smacks the center,
the ball sails on my strength alone.
But it takes six on the court
to keep that tough white sphere
from dropping dead
on my side of the net.
Double hits are against the rules—
I can’t touch that ball again
until a teammate has a turn.
Like it or not, this game
needs more than me to win.

Rebounding Luck

photo © 2008 Ryan Fung | more info (via: Wylio) Shot after shot
rolls round
and round the rim,
as if an evil spell
repels it.
I want to stop and whine.
What’s happening?
But my feet follow the ball,
back and forth, back and forth,
till my heart
is beating with the bounce.
Don’t stop. Don’t stop.
The words pulse from the floor.
Don’t stop. Don’t stop.
Two seconds left,
down by one,
I grab that curse
and cram it
through the hoop.

Jacqueline Jules is a teacher, a children’s author, and a poet whose work has appeared in numerous magazines including “Cicada,” “Cricket,” “Christian Science Monitor,” “Cosmopolitan,” and YARN. Her books include “Unite or Die: How Thirteen States Became a Nation,” “Duck for Turkey Day,” “No English,” and the “Zapato Power” series. She is a member of a new group blog Pencil Tips Writing Workshop, designed to be a writing resource for teachers and emerging writers. Please visit www.jacquelinejules.com to learn more.