Showcase Poem

Last Saturday, EC had its second poetry slam of the year. The poem you are about to read is my reaction to 20 students reading their stanza about what writing is to them. The last student talks about how creative writing is what she'll be missing and then I recite thereafter....

I wrote it a couple of hours before the showcase... it's not polished, but it's emotion... enjoy



I miss vowels
A, e, I , o, u
Words now lacking essential sound

We need creative writing
In a world
in which
Creativity is replaced for efficiency
In which
phrases are truncated
Into alphabetic text
Eliminating emotion
(excuse me, to prevent
us from being “emo”)
Our basic human responses
Transforming into people
Incapable of laughter

I miss laughter
It’s been stolen by
The LOL’s of the world
Imagine a world where laughing
No longer erupts from our mouths
And a child never learns
The significance of their smile

Society wants info fast and quick
It profiles and assumes answers
We learn to judge books by their cover
Because reading takes too long, but
Sadly people are too lazy to enter
A bookstore or even afraid too…
Then never even bother to see the cover
So now we judge a book by its movie
We wait to be told what to do
We don’t need dictators to conquer us
We have already subjugated ourselves
Apathy now dictates us
And we lose the art of diction

And all the arts are fading to the wayside
Economy trimming what classes can be taught
So this could be my last
Creative writing class

This is the class I’ll be missing
Because these young minds
Feed into my mind so I can find
The time and energy to be me for EC

Teachers ask me everyday
To define how I can work this way—
Meaning the bombs of stress
and no moments of rest—
trying to keep my head as I face
the daily pace of the school year race—
and I usually say I just need to forget

The reality is I never forget
I internalize and let tension build
Hoping to be filled
With tomorrow’s promise
Rather than my mind’s darkness

I really have no significant other
To share a job no one understands
I don’t go home to unload on a spouse, hell
It’s a victory if I even get home

And that is what EC is…
People say I have a wife
And I’ve spent the past 20 years making EC look good.
From when I first took step on the football field
To maybe grace her stage tonight for the last time

I wonder what she has ever done fro me…
Cuz sometimes I feel she only takes
And takes and never gives, but the truth is
She gave me the most wonderful kids

Each one unique in personality and character

My English kids so young
Still looking to find their voice to make the right choice
The kids who’ll get in trouble every so often
But will make you proud in the end

My leadership kids
Who I wouldn’t hesitate to die for,
Who sacrifice everything to make
Their mom happy
Who use their voices to build
Our family

But I admit sometimes
I play favorites,
And the creative writing kids
Have a different spirit
That remind me of my younger days,
But yet they seem so much stronger
Today than I could ever have been…
I need to write
Writing is my tool
My medicine
My lens to the world

I write to massage
Away every kid who lacks the will to write
And failure is easier than living,
To massage away my anger
When I see a student
Hang a penis from the ceiling
Among the names of all my children,
To massage away these rare moments of doubt
When I wonder if I’d be happier
If I didn’t become a teacher,
To massage away the hundreds of voices
Who all need in their own way

I write to remind myself
There is still something of me
Behind the different masks I wear
In each period I teach

Creative writing is the place
Where I can let my guard down
And feel human and breath
For the sake of breathing

Creative writing saved my life
My freshman year of high school
And in that first sonnet I wrote
All the rumors, pains, and fake
Friends of middle school faded away.

Creative writing discovered my soul
reminds me to nourish it.
Though creative writing class
May begin fragmented
every quick write prompts
A connection.
Every poem strengthens the bonds
Every Friday a chance to be heard
In a society in which almost
No one listens anymore

So thank you
All of you
Especially those who bought a ticket
To hear our voices…
Thank you for listening…

As you’ve heard tonight
These voices here
Will continue to profess
Learn from them as I do each day

Let us memorialize the past this weekend
But remember we are never powerless
With the freedom of speech.