- "Poem for the First Day
of the Poetry Unit in Language Arts Class."
Not everyone who studies the sky
has to become a begoggled balloon pilot.
Some just like looking at the clouds
because they're pretty.
Some are more concerned with weather patterns
than effect on crops.
Some are just charting a course
from point A to point B, a matter of routine.
It is okay if you don't like poetry.
I don't really like the sky.
The sun gives me a migraine.
Wind blows in my face.
It snows on days I don't want it to snow.
You will never find me in the gondola
of a hot air balloon a thousand paces
from where I should be pacing.
But language has made me weightless
if only for a moment, a poem, like once or twice
has guided me home.
So, I want to say something like, you know,
when your teacher makes you write a poem for class,
don't think of it as an assignment,
think of it as an opportunity.
But that's kind of corny.
A lot of things that are true are kind of corny
this isn't a very good poem.
I wrote it like yesterday
and yeah it'd be better if it were better
but sometimes you see a stage and it's the sky
waiting for you to scream something alive into it.
So tell your story.
Whether it rhymes or not, tell the truth.
Whether it gets a good grade or not.
Write something that means something to you,
even if you don't perform it or publish it
or share it with anyone, poetry is not just
about how elegantly we can put some words next
to some other words.
It's like think of all the materials
with which you could quilt a giant balloon into being.
The flags of 100 nations,
the banners of 100 warriors,
the baby blankets of 100 lost children
but no matter how beautiful or colorful
or well constructed the balloon itself is,
none of that makes it fly.
And yeah, in this class we will study
how balloons work, we will read old maps
but your job is not just to look up and imagine,
your job is to look down and laugh.
Your job is not just to understand flight,
it's to fly because you, I would imagine
are more than whatever container currently holds you,
more than the scraps from which you have been sewn together
and the poem you will write does not have
to be the first step on some illustrious career
as a professional poet.
The poem does not have to save anyone.
The poem doesn't even have to be good,
let it be honest, and let that be enough.
Let it say this is who I am and this is what I believe
and let that fill as much space as it can,
rise off the ground and meet the sky.
The first poem I ever wrote
was about the end of the world
and I'm old enough now to have lived through the end
of many.
I don't remember the words, just a landscape
for the dark cloud in me to rain upon.
Just the feeling of rising through that cloud
and for the first time seeing the stars behind it.
I don't remember the words, but I remember the light
and I've been walking in it's direction ever since.