Outside, below my sixth
floor window, campus sits
in a snow globe, just shaken.
Black figures walk
precariously, cars and buses
creep along lines of a mini-world.
But I am the one inside,
helping students plan next semester,
to peer into worlds of Whitman,
Thoreau, Wilde, past the glass
of their own bubble,
which I discern from my side
of the desk—tapping, turning
it ‘round and ‘round,
seeing what parts are movable
and which are fixed, and in my own
pleasure, seeing ahead in that crystal
that if they are lucky, when they step
from sphere to sphere, each writer
will shake loose what happily
obscures our all-too-clear vision
Ahhhhh!
ReplyDeleteTo be shaken, rewired, repurposed! We didn't know that was the purpose of our education. Do they know?
Rosaria, some know, some truly do not know why they are getting a degree. Or they know, and it is [merely] a stepping stone. But what do I know? I can't get in their heads and hearts. I do hear what they say. They are full of fear, some of them.
DeleteI do believe US education has, as you say, to look past their own bubble… I heard this morning that out of 65 western countries American students were rated 36 (before the Slovak Republic.) When I wanted to get my daughters into school in France the French Board of Education said they would have to do two years or remedial since they came from the US (Canada said one year only) – I wonder how many years it would be now! (lol) Of course in France and many other countries (I think I read most other countries with good education) don’t have sports like football – they concentrate on education. If you want to play football in them you belong to a club, not to a school. (There is no Sorbonne U Football team, have not hear of a Cambridge U or Oxford U one either, is there one?) But schools and universities make too much money from it here – so it won’t change soon – some schools already have no foreign language classes or music or art here…. I don’t think poetry is rated high by US corporations or the average American for that matter. They only care for what bring the mighty $.
ReplyDeleteVagabonde, it is a challenge to see the things you see (and I do) and try and find ways, small ways, to get students to stop and think about what it is they have, what they are doing.
DeleteAfter posting a snow globe yesterday (the day of this post) and seeing Jacquie Lawson's Edwardian snow globe each day during this advent season, I really "get" this poem, Ruth. It's fresh and timely...and a perfect metaphor for what you are doing there in your campus world.
ReplyDeleteI find what Vagabonde has written to be very sobering...probably because it's very true! (sigh)
Thank you, Boots. Of course your snow globe was fresh in my mind when I wrote this on my lunch hour yesterday. How could I not think of it when outside my window was a curtain of white? So beautiful.
DeleteWhat bliss to enter the world of books as a young person - what treasures and delights await!
ReplyDeleteSuch an adventure and so fortunate for you to be the one offering this voyage to a new country. For some reason snow changes everything too. Season's greetings!
Yes, Elizabeth. What's better than curling up with a good book on a wintry day?
DeleteWhy was Chiron, that great mentor, half-human, half-horse? Is it that it takes one who can see the perfection of the glass globe and yet know it is only so because it must be so violently shaken from time to time? Teacher is the road I couldn't travel because of my many sins -- I had to go with corporate work -- but how warmly I think of that advising office as I tried to make my way as a student. Season's happiness to you from balmy Florida. - B
ReplyDeleteI imagine you there in college, Brendan, gobbling up every line of literature offered you. Wishing you a happy Christmas from a very winter-stormy Michigan again today.
DeleteI love your sphere to sphere perspective. You offer a gift to your students to stop and read, think, learn, understand. Some will accept it, some will not but the gift is precious. Imagine- four years to do such things with our time! Changed my life, sounds like yours, too. May their hearts be open.
ReplyDeleteMary, the gift truly is precious (though not for everyone, I think). Yes, it changed my life, but much, much later, in my forties, when I finally finished my BA. Poetry was the special gift, for writing it carried me through a difficult shift in life.
DeleteTo no avail, I tried twice to comment on this post with my ipad while on a trip to California during the past five days. Now that I've returned, however, I want you to know that I can think of no pursuit more noble that trying to "shake loose what happily obscures our all-too-clear vision."
ReplyDeleteGeorge, it's great to hear from you, and I'm sorry you had trouble with the comment box. I have had trouble with Blogger in comments and in "search this blog" functions lately myself. But I'm glad you came back to affirm this vision of shaking up what we think we know. While it is wonderful to connect with those who agree with us, it is also a privilege to encounter those who break open our too-ready concepts. I should do this every day, because it is too easy to let my brain synapses harden in their patterns and habits.
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