Eva Poole-Gilson, Area Coordinator of Inyo County, Eulogizes Big Pine Classroom Teacher
Eulogy, in memory and honor of Gabrielle Guerrero Orsello
Honoring a late Big Pine teacher
By Eva Poole-Gilson
Special to The Inyo Register
Last year, 2019, Molly Fisk, poet laureate of Nevada County, California, received a grant from the Academy of American Poets to fund workshops to encourage students to write poems in response to our state’s recent wildfires. The grant funded 22 poets from California Poets in the Schools to lead the workshops.
That’s how I got involved. CPITS – founded in 1964 and originally housed at San Francisco State University – is the “umbrella” I’ve taught under for years. My work with CPITS, now called CalPoets, has brought me happy days – I’ve lost count of how many. It’s introduced me to many wonderful young students. And, ah yes, to many fine teachers.
For sure one of the sweetest of all was Gabrielle Guerrero Orsello.
I’d been in Lone Pine last Sept. 5, and as twilight came down, I headed north on U.S. Highway 395 back to my home in Bishop. Just a few miles beyond Independence and the old Mt. Whitney Fish Hatchery, I couldn’t help but notice in the darkening light a glowing golden orange rectangle high to my west, against the Sierra.
FIRE! Definitely. And definitely where it didn’t belong.
Alone in my little Honda I began taking deep breaths; I felt I couldn’t get enough air. Memory dropped meanly, quickly down on me: Feb. 5 and 6, 2015. That memory wrapped around me like a bad jacket; the long, tight hours with my dear friend from Swall Meadows who lost her home those days – in what came to be known as the Round Fire.
It was only a memory, but it was a choker.
The September 2019 fire I was riding toward eventually got named: “Taboose Fire.”
I kept a close eye on it for weeks, until it was considered “contained.” It was allowed to burn out. But it made me nervous for a long time.
It made me think of the Big Pine children who must have witnessed its shocking start as I had, and who must have continued to see its slow, smoky demise, as I had, for weeks.
I decided to see if I could take the Fisk program to them.
I called Big Pine School. “Who is the teacher of the fourth graders?” (I’ve always especially liked working with 9 and 10-year-olds. In my life, that’s when I met lifetime friends.)
Good fortune; Big Pine’s fourth grade teacher was Gabrielle Guerrero.
I didn’t know her, but I liked the sound of her name and asked straightaway to be connected. Thinking to be speedy and convincing, I launched right into what the Fisk program and I were about.
She broke in, “Oh that would be wonderful! We’re working on a poetry unit right now. You’ll fit right in! Let’s meet.”
For five magical days I witnessed Gabby’s rapport with her young students. She shared her energy, sensitivity, and knowledge with them minute by minute. She entered into their studies; everything they said, questioned, read – all of import to each of them was of essential importance to her also.
They responded with minute by minute respect, curiosity, and a wide willingness to learn. They took to sharing in the way that she modelled, the kind of risky sharing that poetry requests. Truly, Gabby was an outstanding teacher!
She won and retains my highest admiration.
My five poetry sessions with Gabrielle and her students were five hours of excited delight. You’ll see here below some of the poems then written by her students.
(Editor’s note: These are the first of a collection of poems by Gabrielle Orsello’s fourth grade students, which will continue to appear in future editions.)
Squirrels
By Calvin Spratt
When I eat a nut
100 squirrels
beat me up!
Mom
By Calvin Spratt
You are
An ice cream cat
A little marshmallow
Better than my favorite pet
I love your brownies
You take me to football
You are my ice cream cat
Dear Future
By Waylon Mairs
I wish you bacon for brunch
Snakes in soup
Birds singing
Clams in cups
I love you future
A bunch of browned
Bananas
My Last wish
FIX CLIMATE CHANGE!!
For Nana
By Alice Carmona
You are a rainbow
To unlock me and
To see the stars inside me
You help me out
The best you can
You are a rainbow
I like your
curly dirty blonde hair
To see the stars inside me
Dear Futurr
By Alice Carmona
I wish you
Happy dancing trees
With the birds singing
Chirping happily
Hopping bunnies
With floppy ears
And swimming fish
Happy puppies
Big or small
They are all the same
Just like us!
Dear future,
By Sidonie Spoonhunter
I wish you
Friends a dog
Will do, a lick a
Slobber filled with
Joy on your cool cheek
Will bring you happiness
Birds a tweet in
The morning will wake
You up their soft fragile
Wings flap to a beat
Hot summer days playing
In the pool reading books
In the sunlight and no school
For Cha’a
By Sidonie Spoonhunter
You are
A summertime poppy
My sugar and spice
Better than a late night sunset
I love your toast
Freshly made because,
You’re my summertime poppy
You’re sweeter than Appa!
My own lollipop!
Better than a late night sunset
Greater than chocolate
On a very late night
You’re my summertime poppy
I’m a small butterfly
You’re my big pink flower
Better than a late night sunset
Better than candy bars
Sweeter than sugar!
You are my summertime poppy
Better than a late night sunset