post your favorite poem - Page 2

 beetree,

I can attest to the fact that most kids now are not taught to read anything worthwhile, including poetry, let alone how to critically read it. They cannot write the English language, cannot think for themselves about any topic and have no sense of history at all. I see it all the time in my classes. It is pathetic and when one sees how few teachers can do this, it is no wonder. The parents don't care, they are too busy living their own life. And music or art? Forget it. They know nothing of these things either. 

RAYMOND WOKE EARLY ONE MORNING.
THE EARTH LAY COOL AND STILL.
WHEN SUDDENLY A TINY BIRD
PERCHED ON HIS WINDOW SILL.
THE BIRDY SANG A SONG SO LOVELY
SO CAREFREE AND SO GAY

THAT SLOWLY ALL RAYRAYS TROUBLES
BEGAN TO SLIP AWAY.
BIRDY SANG OF FAROFF PLACES
OF LAUGHTER AND OF FUN
IT SEEMED HIS VERY TRILLING
BROUGHT UP THE MORNING SUN.

RAY STIRRED BENEATH THE COVERS
RAY CREPT SLOWLY OUT OF BED
THEN RAYRAY SHUT THE WINDOW

AND CRUSHED THE BIRDYS HEAD.
 

Hodie, I think you are right, about the dire straights of the English language and literature. I don't think it is all the parents fault though. I am dealing with this issue with my kids, and the problem is, they need to keep up with the technology. Technology doesn't give life experience, but the kids equate it as such. And it will only get worse, for us. The kids however are better to adapt because they don't have to compare their experience to anything. They don't miss what they don't know. They aren't interested in what I was interested in at that age. We've structured their creativity right out of them. The answer isn't backward though, it is looking forward. 

My son isn't being taught script! That is how obsolete manual communication is becoming.  Everywhere it is texting language our kids prefer to use. This e-communication is evolving all the while, we aren't even close to understanding what it means as a culture.

Ronnie,

You are a poet,
And I didn't
Know it!

Again I say RONNIE is a God!!! I bow to his greatness...LMFAO 

Ronnie made me literally laugh out loud! Thanks, I needed that giggle. Hodie, The problem is that these kids don't have to read at all to gewt through school. DVDs and the debilish books on tape are all they need to write a book report, or otherwise avoid actually reading a book. We may have fudged with Cliff's Notes, but you had to be LITERATE to use Cliff's Notes in the first place. I am always dismayed to see the shelves of books on tape...IN book-stores. No wonder we have a generation and a half that is only semi-literate at best. Favorite poem, btw is "Nikki-Rosa" by Nikki Giovanni.

ok...here's a poem.


Misty

my name is misty i am but three,
my eyes are swollen I cannot see,
i must be stupid I must be bad,
what else could have made my daddy so mad?
i wish i were better
i wish i weren't ugly,
then maybe my mommy would still want to hug me.
i can't speak at all,
i can't do a wrong,
or else i'm locked up all the day long.
when i awake i'm all alone,
the house is dark, my folks aren't home.
when my mommy does come i'll try and be nice,
so maybe i'll get just one whipping tonight.
don't make a sound, i just heard a car,
my daddy is back from charlie's bar.
i hear him curse,
my name he calls,
i press myself against the wall,
i try and hide from his evil eyes,
i'm so afraid now,
i'm starting to cry.
he finds me weeping,
he shouts ugly words,
he says it's my fault he suffers at work.
he slaps me and hits me and yells at me more,
i finally get free and i run for the door.
he's arleady locked it and i start to brawl,
he takes me and throws me against the hard wall.
i fall to the floor with my bones nearly broken,
and my daddy continues with more bad words spoken.
"i'm sorry!" I screamed,
but it's now much too late,
his face has been twisted into unimaginabel hate.
the hurt and the pain
again and again.
oh please god, have mercy!
oh please let it end!
and he finally stops and head for the door,
while i lay there motionless, sprawled on the floor.
my name is misty and i am but three,
tonight, my daddy murdered me.