Poetry Friday

Day 5 of NaBlPoMo and today my topic is picked for me. Why? It's Poetry Friday!!

I was sitting down and taking a break this evening when I stumbled upon a link to the New Zealand Electronic Text Center's collection of Best New Zealand Poems. I started reading through a few when I ran into the poem that follows. The opening line caught my attention as earlier today I had to climb up on a desk to pull down my overhead screen as it had yesterday escaped my grasp and sprung up to where it was completely unreachable from the floor. I can't yet pinpoint exactly what appeals to me about this one, but it stayed in my mind as I continued to read the others that followed, and as a result, I decided to capture it here for my Poetry Friday contribution too.

Even though it's technically been a short week, this week has felt long. In fact, I had to laugh at myself at the end of writing workshop today — just after proclaiming last night that we seemed to be back on the right track again, it all fell back apart today. Too many interruptions pulled me out the classroom and I definitely discovered this class can't handle even a minute without me present in the room! I'm glad it's the weekend and I can have a bit of time to recharge. Monday will be here again before I know it, and then it will be back to trying to get everything moving in the right direction yet again. I'm determined to get there!

But anyways: without further ado, here's the poem. Enjoy!

Busy With the Short Teacher
by Janet Charman

the short
teacher
stands on a box
to reach the top
board
and as she stretches up
to print
spills from her wrist
a thread of gold

the class quiet inside

while she
speaks
to a boy
in the corridor if you
work
you can pass

he comes back
in and sits
elsewhere

but throws his screw-up
at the rubbish tin on
his way
through

which
she
doesn’t notice
busy with
personification
and shushing
for speeches

asking
applause
applause for every fourth former finishing
and beginning
to video them
so
the ones who want to
can
try
again

break

and a standing student weeps
straight round her desk

embracing
them

the class

busy
with
don’t notice

The full round-up can be found at Teaching Authors this week, where JoAnn has gathered it all together.