Words and stories sneak into our lives in curious ways – sometimes soft as a cotton-candy whisper, sometimes bold as a cackle echoing in a quiet cranny. For me, they are part of my every day – in the books I read and the words I write, the games I play, in the classroom, tucked between a stack of papers, or hiding in the voices of young minds. They shape curiosity, spark imagination, and help build a gentle classroom code of wonder, wordplay, and unexpected lessons.

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Coming Up With….

Class {Room: Code}

I was in tech once –
a hunter of bugs, a breaker of code.
Then I added an ‘a’
and became a teacher.

That joke – it got old quickly –
from cacophony to cackling
to courtesy chuckling –
but here is what I learned:

Once a bug hunter, now a bug dodger,
I manage moods instead of memory leaks,
catch attitudes instead of exceptions,
and deploy hugs like hotfixes.

I am a therapist, pro-bono,
orchestrator of outbursts and motions,
a wide receiver of attitudes, hugs, snot-sprays
(forever sleeving a week-old sneeze)…

I carry stationery but never stay still,
tacking honorary degrees willy-nilly:
nurse, snack-keeper, data-organizer-
ones I never thought I’d wear;
always a collector of curiosity,
an engineer of lessons that test
young minds with a classroom code of wonder,
of logic and laughter.

~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

Cachinnating in Crannies at Codswallop

There we were, a clutch of cackling chasmophiles,
creeping cattywampus ’round corners and crannies
of cryptic churches and cake cafés,
our chatter tinged with curious cryptomnesia—
half-remembered quips we claimed as concoctions—
when suddenly one cackled some outrageous claim:
“Codswallop! Codswallop!” we chorused, cacophonous,
convulsed in cranny-cracking cachinnation

~ Vidya Tiru @ LadyInReadWrites

A Delightful Lexicon for the In-curably Curious

• Chasmophiles – Lovers of the deep and hidden: We tiptoed like chasmophiles into the cathedral’s echoing nooks.
• Cattywampus – Crookedly, crazily, delightfully askew: The chairs lay cattywampus, as if elves had rearranged them overnight.
• Cryptic – Cloaked in shadow or mystery: I stared at the cryptic message on the note, hoping it would reveal its secret to me if I looked long enough.
• Cryptomnesia – When memory masquerades as new thought: I laughed at a joke, unaware it was cryptomnesia, borrowed from half-baked memories.
• Codswallop – Jolly nonsense: “Codswallop!” we cried, tossing absurdity into the afternoon sun, where it bounced off a cloud and landed in someone’s cake.
• Cacophonous – A messy, merry clamor: The bells rang cacophonous, clashing with our own choruses of glee.
• Cachinnation – The grand roar of laughter: Our cachinnation rolled through the quiet crannies, disturbing the pigeons rooting there who all took off in wild flight!
• Cranny – A tiny nook for secrets: We discovered a delightful cranny in the bookstore, perfect, it seemed for all the cats there.

Catching Up on Coziness

And Now, the End of This Post

Dear reader, which poem or book recently made you pause, laugh, or look at something differently? Have you ever turned a skill or experience into an unexpected act of creativity? Like a bug hunter becoming a teacher or a coder composing verse? Where do your words wander when wonder calls?

Share your thoughts in the comments and let me know.

I am linking up to A-Z, Blogchatter, UBC, NaPoWriMo.

And you can find all my A-Z posts (this year and previous years’ as well) here:

A to Z Challenge Posts