Choices
by
Barry Norris
Barry was an HMI in Estyn. He is an award winning poet
and has had poems published in Welsh and English. He says,
'I feel I still carry a lot of that idealism with me and hope I
expressed it in the time when I was teaching and inspecting.'
the space in which a child can grow
the hole through which a child must go
the height to which a mind can reach
the syllabus to learn and teach
the courage of a difficult truth
the accelerated flight from youth
the beauty of discordant song
the rigidities of right and wrong
the joy of seeing a burst of paint
the pointed look of curt complaint
the poppy in a field of wheat
the painful back of a plastic seat
the wonder, awe, beauty, the best
the feeling safe among the rest
the love of learning for its own sake
the feeding of an economic state
each choice will make a different mind
the child is father of our future time