Pass Around Exercise Jan 12, 2012

Teaching

Teaching used to be in the school house, everybody’s business,

but now it’s in the computer, only the business of my fingertips.

Teaching used to wear long skirts and high-button shoes,

but now teaching wears tie dyes and has dreadlocks with shells and feathers in her hair.

Teaching used to trace characters in the air,

but now characters come from movies.

Teaching used to rely only on phonetic devices,

b-b-but n-n-now we text and spelling don’t matter.

Teaching used to be about preserving and polishing the mausoleum of memory,

but now it’s about creating one’s own temple, however it may look.

                                                                                
                                                                                Carol, Emily, Eva, Sarah, Virginia
                                                                        used to, but now pass around poems
                                                                                                                late afternoon
                                                                                                            January 12, 2012
                                                                                            Innisfree Poetry Bookstore
                                                                                                                    Boulder, CO