Teaching with Heart

“‘Warn the whole Universe that your heart can no longer live without real love.’ Those words from the poet Hafiz are the reason you must buy this book, as the best possible field guide to accompany you through the brambles, over the chasms, up and down the treacherous slopes that every teacher with heart traverses every day of the year, while carrying society’s most sacred trust.”

—DIANA CHAPMAN WALSH, president emerita, Wellesley College

“As a poet and a teacher, I’m always looking for what is essential and how it can be of use. Teaching with Heart inspires and models the use of what matters in life and community.”

—MARK NEPO, author of The Book of Awakening and Seven Thousand Ways to Listen

Teaching with Heart honors the heroic optimism of teachers and their belief that despite the many challenges and obstacles of the teaching life, much is possible. The book is a collection of ninety treasured poems, each accompanied by a teacher’s brief personal reflection on how poetry helps them make sense of the challenges and possibilities in their work. Teaching with Heart is the highly anticipated sequel to the wildly popular Teaching with Fire, and like the original it will guide, renew, and inspire teachers.

Written by and for teachers of all levels of experience across the entire educational spectrum, Teaching with Heart explores the gamut of emotions teachers experience—joy, outrage, heartbreak, and hope—helping teachers to make sense of the ups and downs, and to stay invested and inspired, especially during difficult times.

This anthology includes a rich variety of poems from Emily Dickinson, to William Stafford, to Maya Angelou, to Mary Oliver, to Tupac Shakur, and moving commentaries that speak directly to everyone who teaches, exploring the questions, challenges, and triumphs that lie at the heart of the profession.