My first introduction to teaching came to me early one rainy morning over twenty years ago. I was just a bright eyed young man, twenty something years old, taking a job just like anybody else, this time assigned as an attendant in a school for children with disabilities.
Within the school a desk was situated in the center of three halls… each separating the level of disability. I went to go into the one with a big A sign over it, my green corduroy pants zipping as I walked. The attendant said to me, “No Mister Elmore, you’ll be over in C wing today.” Just then a child screamed and madly ran about, until a guy came, grabbed him rather forcefully, and dragged him into a room. I asked myself “What in the world have I got myself into?!”
What does this have to do with poetry? Everything.
First thing a teacher asked me to do was to help a young fellow 15 years old that had a terrible bathroom related accident. I had to take him into a room and change his protective undergarment and get him all cleaned up. That was my introduction to teaching… eventually as a one on one attendant for a cute little colored boy named Elton that couldn’t speak.
I went on to take over a class for a lady on a long extended absence. That’s when the teaching came in and I absorbed lesson plans to teach autistic kids about the weather, colors, the alphabet, and many other things for months.
After that I was offered a job as a daycare teacher for 3 to 5 year olds. I did that in the morning, then went on rocking in the evening with my rock band playing gigs. What a combination! The things we do for money…Then after a year, I discovered substituting kindergarten through high school paid more, so I did that too in so many places… in every grade… for quite some time. So many kids…
What does this have to do with poetry? Everything.
I learned so much from each experience. How younger children saw no differences in race or gender or anything like that… they just wanted to play together. My favorite grades. As they got older… emotions set in. Even older yet, perception. Then on to teenagers… and we all know what that entails!
Years later, I draw upon this awakening everyday. It changed me. My heart opened to us as people. I often look at older folks with wisened eyes and wonder what they were like in their youth. What have they experienced? I see past the surface into who and what they are inside… just a child learning how to get by in the world.
What does this have to do with poetry? Everything.
We live in a world that is clouded in dissonance, collectively divided by so many aspects that affect who we are as individuals. Yet there are also beautiful attributes… divine in form and facility.
Like the young man who had an accident… we have our accidents too. Faults that are not of our choosing but occur as roots to trip upon on our journey. We are only human.
As poets, we have to reconcile opposites. The good with the bad. Bad poems. Good poems. Poems that divide. Poems that untie. Poems that really say something. Pomes that say nothing at all. We are stewards of our own direction, and our works demonstrate this.
In this three part blog series I would like to invite you to ask yourself… what am I trying to achieve with all of this writing? What am I really trying to say? What is its worth really? Am I just writing for myself or writing for a greater purpose? Am I observing or interacting? And ultimately… does it all really matter when it’s all said and done?
Please join me next week as I begin to address these questions… and even more… start to formulate the “direction” that I believe all writers should, in one form or another, attempt to achieve in order to get to the next level.
Feel free to comment on this blog and tell me your story too. I want to know about you POET!! This is an INTERACTIVE forum, not entertainment. Answer some of the above questions and share your thoughts here. Dig a little deeper we will climb this mountain together. IF YOU CARE, SHARE!!!
See you next week!
Until then… write on! 🚀
Matt Elmore
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