On Poetry
My knowledge of poetry doesn't extend much further than the works of Raymond Carver, Charles Bukowski, and Kahlil Gibran. The subject was never something I particularly enjoyed teaching, and my students knew it. Even so, some poetry has affected me deeply. In my junior year of high school, Bryant's "Thanatopsis" was taped to the inside of my locker. Shelly's "Ozymandias" was the only poem for which I had the passion to teach.
And yes, I wrote a little of my own poetry along the way.
I'd like to share that poetry now.
Poem for Students
The million words of English are too few
To express the near infinite amount
Of thoughts that cross our minds. This poverty
Often leads to writer’s block and tied tongues.
A needle in a haystack, located
Quicker, matches not the illusive word.
So when you find the one you need, rejoice:
Your soul has found expression, your mind, peace.
Did you know that the word ‘paradise’ comes
from the ancient Persian--pairidaeza?
It means walled garden. Well, here are the walls,
And you all, my students, are the garden.
So, in conclusion: choose wisely, choose well,
And when in doubt, invent a brand new word.
Tennessee Welcomes You
Hell is Real
Go to church or the devil will get you
Do you know where you’re going when you die?
Jack Daniels
Old No. 7 Brand
Tennessee Whiskey
Future home of...
Grand Opening!
Going Out of Business Sale
Marijuana. What’s good about it? Nothing.
METH = DEATH
Get help now!
Interstate 40
Interstate 440
Interstate 840
Confederate Graveyard Ahead
Ku Klux Klan Organized in This Law Office
Lorraine Motel
World’s best pecan pie
Baked fresh daily
Purity: Of Course!
Islamic Center of Murfreesboro
NOT WELCOME!
Love Your Muslim Neighbors
The Enlightened Travelers
On an afternoon in Point Reyes Station
I came across a camper van
covered in lotus flowers,
the symbol for “Om,”
an outline of Burning Man,
and the phrase,
“Live outside the Matrix,”
written on the waste disposal valve
for the can.
The Tiananmen Address
(A Bold Stand Against the End of History)
Three score and five years ago
Chairman Mao brought forth on this continent a new nation,
conceived in Communism,
and dedicated to the proposition
that the Party controls all.
Now we are engaged in a great struggle for our collective memory,
testing whether that nation,
or any nation so conceived or so repressive can long endure.
We are met in a great square where little happened.
We have come to ignore this square as the final resting place
for those who stood opposed so that nation might die.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we do this.
But in a larger sense,
we will not dedicate --
we will not consecrate --
we will not hallow --
this square.
The foolish men,
living and dead who struggled here,
have soiled it,
far below our awesome power to add or detract.
The world will forever note,
and long remember what we say here,
but it will forget what they did here.
It is for us the Party, rather,
to be dedicated here to the unfinished work of the erasing of which
they who fought here so erroneously advanced.
It is rather for the Party to be here dedicated
to the great task remaining before us --
from these traitors we take
increased devotion to our own power --
that we highly resolve
that these dead did die in vain --
that this nation,
under the Party,
shall maintain the status quo --
and that the government
of the Party,
by the Party,
and for the Party,
shall not perish from the earth.