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Is God in My Seatbelt?

~ Susan Knoppow ~ Leave a comment

This Friday’s poem is a revision of something I wrote MANY years ago. The 4 year-old is now nearly 18. Her curiosity, fashion sense and religious questioning are still intact.

Is God In My Seatbelt?

Four-years-old, and she really needs to know.
I pause, mid-buckle; running late
for preschool. We have been talking
about how God is in trees and fish,
her baby brother and sunflower seeds.
But a seatbelt? I don’t know.

Tell her yes,
says my rabbi friend – some smart person
invented the seatbelt,
and God was in that person.

I bring it up days later, but my daughter
has moved on to other things –
like which bracelets match flowered socks
or how to keep a headband on a stuffed tiger.

She nods gravely, humoring me for being slow.
What I really want is gum, she tells me.
Can I have some while we drive?

Favorites

~ Susan Knoppow ~ Leave a comment

Joe and I hatched the idea for  Friday poems over coffee in Ferndale one afternoon. Let’s just write, we agreed. No comments, no praise. Just send a poem every Friday. See where it takes you.

favoritesThree months into the experiment, I’m hooked. Even when I put the piece together just before lighting Shabbat candles or grab a stanza from three years ago and polish it into something more presentable, the Friday poem always refreshes me for the week. It reminds me that I’m a writer.

Here’s this week’s contribution, composed in a parking lot between a doctor’s appointment and Josh’s archery day camp awards ceremony.

May all your favorite bands stay together
– Dawes, “All Your Favorite Bands”

May you get to the bottom
of the strawberry box
without a single moldy surprise

May you catch a firefly
on a balmy night full of fireworks
over the wide green golf course

May you finish your favorite book
sprawled across the hammock
in that shady spot behind the garage

May your dog snuggle
close in your bed
without hogging the covers

May your chocolate chip cookies
emerge from the oven
with crisp edges and gooey centers

May you hear “I love you”
every day of your life
the way I mean it this morning

Swings

~ Susan Knoppow ~ 3 Comments

The problem with being a writing teacher is that sometimes you forget to write.

Or maybe that’s my problem with being a writing teacher. I like to believe my colleagues find time for their poems and essays, carving out precious minutes at 6 a.m. or after everyone else goes to bed.

At 6 a.m. I’m running through my dark neighborhood.  At night, I sleep. In between I work and shop for groceries and make sure everyone gets to music lessons on time. Except for a few lines in my journal before bed, writing moves to the back of the line – behind the dog, behind camp registration forms, behind laundry and doctor appointments and scrubbing tomato sauce off the stove. Continue reading →

I Was Suzy Weiss

~ Susan Knoppow ~ 2 Comments

This entry first appeared on the Wow Writing Workshop website.

Last month, high school senior Suzy Weiss penned an op ed piece about getting rejected from the college of her dreams for the Wall Street Journal. The piece attracted national attention and landed her an interview on the Today Show. Wow Writing Workshop CEO Susan Knoppow understood what Ms. Weiss was going through; she wrote this blog.

Dear Suzy,

I feel your pain. In 1985, Brown University told me no.

To be honest, I blamed Amy Carter.

So what if she was the former president’s daughter? I was certain Amy had snagged my spot. She could have gone to college anywhere. I belonged at Brown. I didn’t get into Yale either, but I wasn’t mad at Paul Giamatti or Mira Sorvino; I hadn’t heard of them yet.

I was destined for Rhode Island. I had no doubts. How could Brown say no to me?

Continue reading →

Doberge Cake

~ Susan Knoppow ~ Leave a comment

The first cousin I met was Stephen, who scooped a crawfish out of a giant warming tray and held it up to show me: “Just snap off the head,” he said, demonstrating as he spoke. “Peel back the shell, and pop the meat in your mouth.”

I tried one. Then another. Easy.

It was my first visit to New Orleans, my first encounter with my boyfriend’s Southern family, and, at age 26, the first time I really felt like a foreigner. Continue reading →

Lipstick

~ Susan Knoppow ~ 1 Comment

While the earth breaks the soft horizon
eastward, we study how to deserve
what has already been given us.

William Stafford, “Love in the Country,” from Stories that Could Be True

Sugared Maple was, without question, the right shade of lipstick.  The Clinique lady in her white lab coat shook her head at Twilight Nude, the color Amy had been wearing for years.  “I would never recommend that for you,” she said with a frown bordering on disdain.

Amy wears very little makeup. But we had time to fill before the memorial service, and she needed a new lipstick. I was in Chicago for the day. She was there for three, to pay her respects and begin to mourn Irene, her second mother, the beloved nanny who had raised her from the age of six months.

Continue reading →

The Real Life Baby Book

~ Susan Knoppow ~ 2 Comments

Some milestones we really care about
(in no particular order)

First time blowing your nose

First soccer game when you re-tie your own shoes

First trip to the library alone on your bike

First time baking cupcakes from scratch without help

First lip gloss

First unsolicited apology to your brother

First day packing your own lunch

First time you care about your haircut

First time you comfort me