Trapped
I feel sorriest for those kids who are trapped
by their families, their cultures, their societies,
who have lost hope and given up on themselves,
who feel that they have no options,
those students who make excuses for themselves
and try to find the easy way out rather than trying,
those who look upon their opportunities with disdain,
those who refuse to reach out for success.
I wish I could teach them how to raise their expectations
and challenge themselves to rise above their situations,
but I am swallowed up on my own despair,
knowing that my words mean absolutely nothing to them.
Month: April 2019
NaPoWriMo Day 28
Thy Will Be Done
Dear Lord:
I look to You for answers
that only lead to more questions
and I seek to understand
what You want me to do.
I have taken everything You’ve given –
the gifts and the obstacles –
and relished the opportunities
for personal growth that come with each.
But now You have given me cancer,
and I do not know what You expect of me.
All I can do is go forward day to day
being as strong as I can be,
making the decisions I think are right
but completely ignorant of Your will.
Guide me, O Lord, to know what to do,
to know what you expect of me,
to know how I can beat this cancer.
And as in all things, Lord,
Thy will be done.
NaPoWriMo Day 27
What’s Out There?
Do
you stare
into space
and dream about
the hidden wonders of the universe,
wondering if there are others out there
or if we are
all alone
on this
earth?
What
do we
hope to find
by searching for
answers outside of ourselves instead of
looking inside ourselves and each other?
Why do we look
anywhere
else but
here?
[Another poetry form I read about on the Shadow Poetry website. This one is a Tetractys, which has a syllable count: 1/2/3/4/10 – I wrote a quadruple tetractys: 1/2/3/4/10/10/4/3/2/1/1/2/3/4/10/10/4/3/2/1]
NaPoWriMo Day 26
Quinzaine
Make an effort to succeed.
Why not try to win?
Don’t you care?
[The quinzaine is an unrhymed verse of fifteen syllables: 7/5/3. I learned about it from the Shadow Poetry website. The first line makes a statement; the next two ask questions to explore the idea further.]
I don’t really like such short “poems,” but I thought I’d give it a try. My reason for not liking them is that they always seem to lack impact.]
NaPoWriMo Day 25
Invincible!
Today I feel invincible
invisible
as if I’m strong
with nothing wrong
as if nothing can hurt me now
like I know how
to have success
and not duress
I am ready for anything
that life can bring
I will not fail
I will prevail!
[This is my first attempt at “Minute Poetry,” which has exactly sixty syllables written in the stanzas of 8/4/4/4 syllables each. It is written in iambic meter and follows a rhyme scheme as aabb ccdd eeff. I learned about it at the Shadow Poetry website.]
NaPoWriMo Day 24
Your Best Friend
If
You Would
Stop And Think
For A Moment
You Might Realize
That I Am Not Your Foe
Indeed I Am The Best Friend
You Could Have In Education
Someone Who Cares About Your Future
And Keeps His Eyes Fixed On The “Big Picture”
Even If You Can’t See It For Yourself
I Look At What You’re Going To Need
To Be Successful In The World
And I Guide My Curriculum
In Such A Way As To Keep
Moving Your Ambitions
In A Positive
Direction So
You Can Find
Your Own
Path
[The etheree is a poetry form that has ten lines – each line increasing by one syllable. This is a double etheree, starting with one syllable and moving to ten, then reversing from ten to one]
NaPoWriMo Day 23
My Soul Society
“The soul selects her own society –
Then – shuts the Door – ” (Emily Dickinson)
In my Soul Society are only a very few
of all the people that I ever knew,
a few lost souls with whom I’ve connected
and several common souls that I’ve selected.
I have in my society a couple bygone lovers –
not all, just some who meant more than the others –
and, too, some friends I’ve known throughout the years
as well as colleagues I consider among my peers.
And truly there are several strangers in my soul
nameless, faceless people I do not yet know,
individuals I feel I will someday meet
who will add something to make my life complete.
All the others – the thousands of people I have known –
are not in my soul; they’re out there on their own.
It isn’t that I don’t want them in here with me,
but ultimately the soul selects its own society.
NaPoWriMo Day 22
Breathing
How many breaths do we take in a day?
A Google search suggests seventeen- to thirty-thousand.
So many breaths, and yet one day I will take my last
as shall you, and you, and you.
I measured and found
that I take 28 breaths in a minute.
Times 60, that makes 1,680 an hour.
Times 24, that equals 40,320 a day.
Times 365, that means I breathe
fourteen million,
seven hundred and sixteen thousand,
eight hundred times a year.
That’s a whole lot of breathing,
and I’m not done yet.
Today, I am 18,993 days old.
and that means that I have breathed
seven hundred and sixty-five million,
seven hundred and ninety-seven thousand,
seven hundred and sixty times
since I took my first breath out of the womb.
Give or take the odd gasp of terror
or excitement or suspense here or there,
of course.
And I’m not done yet.
No sir, I’m still breathing,
still intaking oxygen
and expelling carbon dioxide
spewing halitosis wherever I go.
I’m going to breathe on, keep on breathing,
one breath after another
after another
after another
until ad infinitum
becomes finitum.
NaPoWriMo Day 21
A Place to Be Me
In all this wide universe, all I really need
is a place to be me.
A place where I don’t have to pretend
to be smart or strong
but just a place to be who I am.
A place that holds me, that hides me,
that lets me be weak
that lets me cry tears of rage and despair,
a place to be myself.
My place needs to be able to hold all of me.
every aspect of me,
the happy me and the creative me
the curious me and the angry me,
every me that I am, was, and ever will be.
I need to be able to go there immediately,
whenever I have the need to flee
from the requirements of society
and just let myself be free
Free to close my eyes and still see,
A place where I can just be me.
NaPoWriMo Day 20
It’s Okay, I Hate Me Too
Some students claim that everyone hates me
and I’m actually fine with that.
Ultimately I’m not here to be their friend
and that’s a simple fact.
My job is to be their teacher,
to guide them on the path of success,
and since I place realistic expectations
this causes them some distress.
“What do you mean I can’t sleep in class?”
“Why can’t I use my phone?”
“I don’t want you to pay attention to me;
Why don’t you just leave me alone?”
I need students to pay attention
to the concepts I’m trying to teach.
Not because I’m a dictator or tyrant
but because I want them to reach.
To reach beyond their ability,
to expand their grasp of what’s real,
to seek for new understandings,
to adventure through life with some zeal.
So I have to harangue some students
and I have to discipline what’s wrong
and sometimes I have to call parents
and encourage them to also be strong.
So yes, because I am a professional,
some students claim that I’m mean,
but that’s because I see the Big Picture
while they are stuck in-between
Between the past and the future,
living in the right now,
and they want to get the best outcomes,
but they don’t know exactly just how .
So because they are lost, they are upset,
and they take out their grievances on me.
But it’s okay if they feel that I’m hated
Because I hate myself too, you see.
I hate that I can’t be a nice guy
filled with sunshine and smiles,
that I have to be a taskmaster
who punishes foolish juveniles.
I hate that sometimes I’m sarcastic
and sometimes downright cruel,
but it’s how a teacher has to be
if he wants kids to follow his rule.
WriterRyk 