NEW POET

I taught my students

how to write poetry

this past week. First,

I shared some of my philosophy

and then we read

a few modern poems

because I knew the old ones

would put them to sleep.
Next, I made them

write some little word

pictures, some portraits

of what they saw

outside of the classroom.

They were gone for maybe

twenty minutes, wandering

around the campus like
little neophyte Ginsbergs and
Kerouacs, observing

and cataloging images.

When they came back

they had a handful

of little word pictures.

As they turned them in

one girl read a few

as they came up her row

and then she looked at me

and said I didn't think

these were going to mean

much but I just read
some and there were

a few that were

so powerful and intense.

Now she knows why

I always say that

poetry has saved my life.