This morning I was thinking of the place I grew up....North Muskegon, Michigan....My train of thought was, about which of my school teachers that had actually lived in our small "bedroom community". I Thought of Mrs. Tyler's English class, my Senior Year. Mrs. Tyler seemed more alive than most of my teachers. (Most of them seemed as bored or even more bored than we were!) I knew where she lived, I knew she had a bunch of kids, the youngest, a daughter, was the year behind me. I remember she used the song lyrics of "You're so Vain" as an example for something in class once (the song was a bit older even then, but still contemporary) and she knew almost the whole song...But what I was remembering this morning was near the end of our senior year we had a poetry project, where we had to memorize and recite so many minutes of poetry. (I think it was 10 minutes worth, {maybe it was 5 minutes} --more or less, it seemed like an eternity though)...She gave two suggestions, one I remember was a single long poem---it seemed sorta like "the Highway man" ( of Anne of Green Gables fame), but I think it had ships in it--as you can see that did not seem like an option for me....pages and pages of words words words, I remember getting ill just thinking of trying to remember it all. There was another suggestion, which I can't remember, which I also nixed as an option for myself immediately for some reason I can't recall. i chose to pick poetry myself, my criteria---it had to mean something to me -- a poem I thought I could remember...I remember searching and searching --I finally had a few short poems, I remember my strategy was to recite them vvveeerrry sssslloooooowleeeeeeyyyy so they would take more time.... I think this is very funny now....because I was a dork and did it....Because it was the end of Senior year-- and maybe it was optional-- I can't remember, not too many kids did it, and the ones that did, usually did the second option and recited the poems fast like machine gun fire with--seemingly no thought to meaning-- there was one guy---David B., he memorized the long one! and actually got through the whole thing!! A bit fast but accurate...I was really impressed....I have this memory of that reciting....my turn, in the front of the class with the vague awareness of my teacher Mrs Tyler at her desk to the side of me and slightly behind me....I see myself like I am standing right next to my face and I am focused on my mouth moving....vague awareness of the student in their desks, and my mouth is saying sloooowleeeey
"Isn't it strange
that princes and kings
and clowns
that caper in sawdust rings
and common people like
you and me---
are builders
of
eternity....(?)
each is given
a bag of tools
a shapeless mass
a book of rules
and
each must
make---
ere life is flown....
a stumbling block
or a
stepping stone...
-----I still remember bits of the other poems also....one starts..."Somebody said that it couldn't be done, but he with a chuckle replied, that maybe it couldn't--but he would be one that wouldn't say so til he tried".....There were no ovations when I finished, I was still a dork and pretty much friendless, but there was a slight smile on Mrs. Tyler's face and she nodded as I sat down...
