Teaching Poetry

The air thickened,

and the humidity increased,

making it difficult to breath .

Smoke arose in the sky,

overcasting the clouds,

so that nothing was to be seen.

Road closures emerged,

and caused havoc,

with emergency procedures in place.

I stood on a hill just past my house,

and yelled to the trees,

“Stop, stop burning!

Can’t you see!?”

Enraged now, I continued

“ You will soon reach my home,

and burn right through me!”

With a gust of air,

and a loud breeze,

the trees spoke up,

“Are you seeking,

to speak to me?

If so, what is it that I have done,

for which you are blaming me?”

“It is you, who is responsible,

for this ghost town,

where you hear no laughter no more,

no Robins chirping,

no school bell ringing,

no horns honking.

Yet, you ask me,

what it is you have done?”

I respond with the flames still,

blazing behind me.

The trees spoke up once again,

but this time to silence me.

“I did not set fire within me,

but look within yourself,

and question why you do not see,

the cigarette within your hand,

with which you speak to me.”

Immediately looking down,

seeking to justify myself,

I put out the small blaze,

only for my home to be burnt down hours later,

with that very same blaze.

Where would we be without eachother, you help me see.
Without you, you have no idea how lost we would be.
You rest on my nose ever so lightly, you help me see the world even more brightly.
Without you I’d so lost, I will try not to lose you at any cost!

:

Eat with your elbows off the table
Eat with your fork pointed down

Eat with your mouth closed
Eat only in between conversation or questions

Eat slowly
Eat smaller mouthfuls

Eat so that you don’t spill
Eat everything on your plate

You live underneath arguments

Between pages of old magazines in waiting rooms

The buzz of the lighting

Hospital halls that smell like coffee and hand sanitizer

IVs, tubes, sedatives, beeping

You are there the whole time

Beyond all the adjectives that describe love

I stand beneath your mother,

the SUN.

You

burn and boil

until I tan.

Why so much silent anger?

north and south

east and west

you release your particles.

Yet

I suffer, suffer, suffer

until I sprint away

from your poisonous effects.

You are a poem

The part I skip over in my novel

A mysterious blob of words

Why can’t you clearly state what you are trying to portray?

Instead you force me to guess your meaning

Yours is plight that unravels without shame

Or simple gobbled gook

What is your charm?

Where is your depth?

You make me feel vulnerable

How to respond without cliché?

You foster the capacious soul

and dismantle the world

It is much safer to hide behind my book and think inside my box

Sitting under a great elm

Looking out past the horizon

I watched,

Engrossed

As the sun slowly set behind the ocean.

The colours were brilliant;

A plethora of shades

Of red, and orange, and yellow.

As I sat, I began to think of you.

The way you laughed

The way you smiled

The way you held me when I was a small child.

I think about how you were present in every moment,

How you lived life to the fullest and taught me

To just be.

Then I start to think about how cruel the Fates were

When they stole you away.

Those cursed sisters.

If only they would allow me to see you

Even for a fleeting moment

Just to hear you laugh again

To see you smile again

To hold your hand in mine

One last time.

In my anger and pain, I called out to the sisters,

“Why?”

To which they replied

“Cruel fate.”

I left my love in your morning coffee

swirling between the undissolved grounds and cold milk.

There for the grace of God go I.

… But why?

You know me,

Because I love to talk,

And think,

And tell you about it,

And rethink,

And wonder,

And pause,

And continue,

Because there’s so much happening

All the time,

And there’s never enough time,

So why stop when I…

You have to stop.

A full stop.

Don’t go on.

Please.

That’s enough.

A breath isn’t enough.

But I give plenty,

So you’re never short of those

When you’re with me,

Because I believe in breathing,

So I never stop breathing,

Well never stop anything really

When there’s more to do

There’s more to say,

And that’s what I always say

When I’m saying things,

And I’m always doing that

You know…

I know.

I know it’s nice to stop.

You should try it.

Well, I don’t know about that

Because there’s a lot going on,

And I can’t miss it

When it’s all happening,

So maybe another time

When…

Just try it.

We can try together.

Well, ok.