Culture

The poems were told from the perspective of our students, ordinary children living ordinary lives, seeking to spread an urgent message, a call for all of us to live more fully.

When my oldest son, now a high school graduate, was in second and third grade, he was obsessed with the American Revolution. He watched a lot of episodes of "Liberty's Children," asked a lot of questions about people and places and things I hadn't thought much about since high school, woke up at 3:30 a.m. to get prime seating on Lexington Green for the reenactment of the Battle of Lexington and Concord, and yes, dressed as Paul Revere for his third-grade wax museum. In short, we became very well versed in all things Paul Revere in my house, including nightly readings of the famous Henry Wadsworth Longfellow poem, "Paul Revere's Ride."
That famous opening line, "Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere," the promise of the lantern in the belfry of the Old North Church -- one if the British regulars arrived by land, two if they arrived by sea, and then, of course, Revere's ride from Charlestown, through Medford, and Concord and Lexington, are as thrilling to readers now as they were then.

Of course, we know today that Longfellow's poem, written in 1850, contained more than a little bit of imagination and bending of facts. Longfellow himself was extremely well educated and would most certainly have known the true story of what happened on April 18, 1775, so why bend the truth? It's simple. Longfellow's poem tells the story of an "every-man" hero-someone who could be any of us. The poem's pace inspires its readers to feel a sense of urgency, a call to "rise up" and share the news, and a reminder that a well-told story can inspire change.
And that's what leads us to a poetry contest. In April, Ann Gennaro from the Office of Faith Formation and Missionary Discipleship approached the CSO with an idea. What if, she asked, we had a contest? I was, admittedly, reluctant. With seven weeks left in the school year, I did not think a poetry contest would be high on the list of "fun things" to do for students. Nor did I relish the idea of asking principals and teachers to take on one more thing during the busiest time of the year. But I'm also a fan of a challenge and a good contest, so I agreed.
The St. Frances Xavier Cabrini route of the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage would begin in St. Augustine, Florida, in May, travel up the East Coast to Portland, Maine, before making its way back down through Massachusetts and into Philadelphia just in time to celebrate America's 250th birthday. Could we challenge students to write a poem in the style of "Paul Revere's Ride" but connect it to the Eucharistic Pilgrimage? Aware that we had a limited amount of time left in the school year to make this happen, we crafted some guidelines, set a June 3 deadline, and sent the challenge out to our schools.
With about a week left until the submission deadline, we had no poems. A reminder email went out. Almost immediately there was a first response: a question. Could second graders submit poems? The second-grade class at St. Raphael's had just finished a unit on Paul Revere and were excited about the contest. We said yes, of course they could submit entries. A few more came in, five or six here, another 20 or so there, and by the time the deadline arrived, we had over 200 poems in hand. Those poems represented 13 different Catholic schools, students from grades three through five, all five regions of the archdiocese, and the work of one brave second grader.
Ann took the poems, split them among five of her colleagues and asked for them to read and score their assigned submissions. The original pool of 200 submissions was narrowed to 48, after which three other members of the Catholic Schools Office team and I selected the winners, with Superintendent McLaughlin serving as the tie-breaker. The poems were heartfelt, funny, and bold. Some closely followed Longfellow's text, others used it as a guide. All of the poems spoke of faith, Jesus, a call to spread God's word. The poems were told from the perspective of our students, ordinary children living ordinary lives, seeking to spread an urgent message, a call for all of us to live more fully. It is our hope that like Paul Revere's midnight message helped change a fledgling country, the message and words of our children will help change the world through kindness, belief, and faith.

LEAH RAMSDELL IS SUPERINTENDENT OF FAITH FORMATION OF THE CATHOLIC SCHOOLS OFFICE OF THE ARCHDIOCESE OF BOSTON.

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  28th National Eucharistic Congress in Chicago, June 1926Savannah Miller

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