A poem a day - require it

Some days I find myself
putting my foot in
the same stream twice;
leading a horse to water
and making him drink.
I have a clue.
I can see the forest
for the trees.

All around me people
are making silk purses
out of sows’ ears,
getting blood from turnips,
building Rome in a day.
There’s a business
like show business.
There’s something new
under the sun.

from Blessings by Ronald Wallace on The Writer's Almanac, May 20, 2016

Click the link above and read the rest of this poem. You will be happy you did.

The Writer's Almanac

Somehow my Facebook page now alerts me to new daily entries of the Writer's Almanac. And when I click on that link, the first thing to appear is a short poem. Most days these words do not fail to move me.

As a former English teacher, I've probably read (and coerced others into reading) more poems than the average bear. And after a decades long hiatus, thanks to the odd teamwork of Garrison Keillor and Mark Zuckerberg, I am reading poetry again.

I won't get much traction on this, but I would prefer that if school hours are limited that students read poetry rather than learn coding. I would rather they read novels than textbooks. That they learned to use math to study everyday living rather than simply take tests on calculus.

Schools should focus on creating human beings, not workers. The human mind is relatively easy to understand; less so the human heart.

Comments

[Kenn Gorman]

Well said!