I decided to post the first poem that ever earned me anything.
A while ago I started to post a series of articles on reading and writing poetry with the hope of encouraging people who dismiss poetry as self - indulgent twaddle to try looking beyond the intensely personal style of verse that dominates modern poetry and the try to tempt poets who nornally do not venture beyomd free verse to look at other styles. I stopped because the non - existent navigation and indexing system at gather meant people arriving late would have trouble following the continuity thread. After a two month nightmare of network problems I have at last addressed they way in which we may make gather more attractive to people whose concentration span is longer than that of a goldfish, but before I continue, here is the sonnet mentioned above.
. Mr. Edwards was an English teacher who insisted on reading his own sonnets to the class as a way of trying to convince us the sonnet form was the most fine expression of the poetic muse. He put me off sonnets for life and many others off poetry for life. In short he was a bad poet. This sonnet to Mr. Edwards written when I was fifteen (but tidied up since) was the first verse that earned me anything. It earned me two weeks in detention.
You read your sonnets to indifferent ears
teacher, your passions are your own concern.
We come to this class intending to learn
a love of words that will last down the years.
So write your verses but leave them at home,
bestow a hunger for knowledge, curiosity,
impart wisdom wisely, impartially,
paint words multi coloured not monochrome.
We pupils are young and in no haste;
in time we will develop our own taste,
so do not impose your prejudices,
we admire the qualities your verse misses.
Scribble on then teacher but earn your wage,
your words ever lie dead upon the page.
More Poetry
Ian Thorpe at Author's Den
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Comments: 6
For most of my English teachers it would be harsh, Johnny Law, Terry Southern and Barbara Copley were all brilliant and when I told Barbara on getting a lit. degree qualification that I hoped to make a career in writing she said "well go and live a lot and try to forget everything you've learned. Did Shakespeare have a lit. degree? (I was very glad to forget Paradise Lost)
And anyway, I was young when I wrote it and the young do not have sensitivity in their job specification.
Try this, write erotic poetry. Drop hints that you write erotic poetry. And then when they ask to read your poems, refuse to allow it. That way you will drive them crazy.
BTW I wasn't a teacher, I became a management consultant.