I drove for miles on a two lane road through rolling hills of farmland, wheat, I think, but I’m no farm girl. And sky. Acres and acres of pewter sky.  The GPS finally said Wilbur was 5 miles away. My friend Renee  Riva and I strained into the distance.

“Do you see a town?”

“Nope, nothing, not even cows.”

Three miles away and still no town. We drove over one last rolling hill and there was Wilbur nestled on a hillside. The school has K-12 th grade in one light and airy buliding.

Think of all the learning going on in those rooms! On the walls there are pictures of graduating classes all the way back to the forties! Imagine walking down the hall past pictures of your parent and grandparents.

I spent a delightful day talking with Wilbur  3rd, 4th and 5th graders about writing, and making our own fantasy maps. Renee shared news about her new book, Taking Tuscany, that comes out this spring. We loved every minute of it. Thanks to our host Mary Beth Gaub, the wonderful faculty, and the student writers of Wilbur for being so welcoming to two girl from the ‘burbs.

A friend sent me this quote, and it’s too good to keep to myself.  As we move from an industrial to a creative economy, perhaps poets will be kings.

“I say, ‘Get me some poets as managers.’ Poets are our original systems thinkers. They contemplate the world in which we live and feel obliged to interpret, and give expression to it in a way that makes the reader understand how that world turns. Poets, those unheralded systems thinkers, are our true digital thinkers. It is from their midst that I believe we will draw tomorrow’s new business leaders.”

-Sidney Harman, cofounder, audio-equipment manufacturer Harman Kardon