Teach the young. I then instructed students to examine their lists of abstract nouns used to identify Ritter's characters. Using one imperative and one abstraction, students and I drafted several extended metaphors, using Harrison's poem as a model. I then read my own poem written to Tyler, the protagonist in Ritter's Over the Wall . Fear is ignorance dressed in its Sunday best.
Fear is the sound of a father's silent grieving.
Scale the wall. Fear is the absence of truth and compassion. Fear is plastered with layers of self-doubt. Scale the wall. Fear is a universal companion to sensitive souls.