Stories Poem by Frank Avon

The stories we read
in our English classes
are not the heart
of the story.

When stories are read
by thirty kids,
they rewrite the stories
in thirty ways;

and the stories they share,
like pebbles tossed in a lake,
combine and intersect
with stories they make

from what they've seen,
and what they've lived,
and what they've missed,
and what they've guessed.

The story they tell
will be their own story -
the one they live in -
the walls of their world.

The stories that grow
among the kids we teach -
these stories - they are
the heart of the story.