Writing the Content of Our Lives- Part 2

The following poem was written as an exploration of retirement and my thinking that year.(See Writing the Content of Our Lives - Part 1) 

To help me play with ideas and discover new meanings, I borrowed the structure of Wallace Stevens's well-known poem, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird.  Click here to read his poem.

Thirteen Ways of Looking at Leaving School
With thanks and apologies to Wallace Stevens

by Robin W. Holland

i

It is time to go

the energy sapped

 in years of rushing

and dashing

ii

It is like snorkeling

until the skin is wrinkled

and breathing

is intermittent

yet satisfying

iii

The classroom is the theater

the play will continue

after the many me’s exeunt

iv

Twenty-two individual students are one

Twenty-two students and their teacher

are one

  

v

I don’t know which to prefer

The anticipation of planning

an exquisite educational experience

or the exultation of execution

or the afterthinking

vi

The waters raged outside

As the sky blackened

Past our window a blackbird flew

Inside we meditated

On the value of freedom

In our soon to be

independent country

vii

Train up a child in the way he should go

Spare the words and books and spoil the child

viii

Learned men of old

And wise women infused

With intuition

Opine in the town square

While their children wait

at home for a morsel to eat

and a single word

to call their own

ix

Higher orders

of angels proclaim

meanings and memories

and mathematic calculations

of poetic persuasions

and academic dissertations

x

It was a time of prosperity

And generous learning

Until the test devil and his minions

Entered our garden.

He rode high on his horse

xi

Once upon a textbook weary

Three children looked through lenses leery

In vain to find themselves

Among the photos

and theory

xii

Never let the children count the blackbirds

Before they hatch

xiii

It’s time to leave---

It’s end of the period

The bell is ringing.