As I taught I learned much about how the students felt about themselves and school. My first books capture this in poetry with the voices of both students and teachers. Throughout these years my relationship to all students, all teachers, all humans, and all life began to touch on the Universal. This has resulted in my latest work, “Journey.”
I truly want to make all my poems available to everyone. So, this web site is your introduction. Please look, read, and use!
Sincerely,
Arden G. Thompson
Neither frogs
nor saints
fear to die –
frogs because
they have no selves
for whom to fear,
and saints because
they no longer have
selves to die.
Somewhere
between these two,
in chains of paradox,
walk you and I. (page 83)
The poems in Watching Ants alternately sing the thoughts of students and teachers. The words are clear, penetrating, and immediately understandable by readers from eight to eighty. The reader understands because the reader has been there. The poet is the singer, but these are your songs.
The National/State Leadership Training Institute on the Gifted and Talented had this to say about the first edition of Watching Ants:
“Collection of poems, written to and for children of all ages, offers a solid foundation upon which to build an effective affective curriculum for the gifted/talented.”
Arden G. Thompson developed and taught gifted and talented programs in Maine public schools for 29 years. She taught the Microcosmos Strand at the University of Connecticut’s Confratute – an intense summer program attended by teachers of gifted and talented students from all over the world. Her poetry inspires all ages.
The hope of tomorrow
lies in the arms of today
alive and squalling
with rage
and promise.
(Watching Ants, page 93)
Books by Arden G. Thompson 