Homeless: A Pantoum
The writing below is not only for a contest I'm involved in for fifty days of freewriting (@mariannewest), in which today's prompt is homeless, but also a pantoum which is a verse form of poetry that not only lends itself to obsessive-compulsive emotions, but seems an easy one, in my experience, in getting people to write a poem even though they think they're not able.
I was asked to help with a 7th grade career day this morning in which I was sharing a room with artists talking about ways in which career could be aligned with creativity. I decided why not kill two birds, and used the prompt in class.
Anyway, there are some varying versions of how to write a pantoum, but usually when I teach high school kids I instruct them on how to soften their focus and we then listen to a half hour of so of Alan Watts in which students are instructed to collect 10 sentences, phrases, word pairings and then use these in the pantoum pattern. It's sort of a cheat, but can be considered "found," poetry and usually the students are delighted with the complexity of their finished poems and no two are ever the same.
I've written much better than the following, but below is the quick three minute example using the steemit prompt I used to illustrate just how easy poetry can be--at least get the pen/pencil making some initial strokes towards word art.
Our writing contest includes taking a daily selfie (not what I love to do), but this is a picture of me standing in front of the local JC Penney's store, now out of business and the cage the owners have built in front of the covered entryway in order to prevent homeless peoples from sleeping there. Note the No Trespassing signs taped in the doors.
I am not sure how other communities are experiencing homelessness, but in ours methods are varied, but seem limited in really doing much to help, as I see more and more homeless people on our streets each year. And, a year or so ago, I did step on a man in a sleeping bag and had a long conversation with him after profusely apologizing to him. Not that that makes me any kind of saint, just what I thought of first reading the prompt.
Like a caterpillar cloaked in the night,
I tripped over him in his ratty bag.
We talked about Christ for an hour or more,
of bodies, lying, in doors.
I tripped over him in his ratty bag,
Messy, gray hair, he points to a yellowed paperback at his side.
Speaks of bodies, lying, in doors,
My sweater, not enough warmth, for me alone.
Messy, gray hair, he points to a yellowed paperback at his side,
He’d once known a Mary too.
My sweater, not enough warmth, for me alone.
Bid him sweet adieu, flowered, full-moons.
He’d once known a Mary too.
We talked about Christ for an hour or so
Bid him sweet adieu, flowered, full-moons,
Like a caterpillar cloaked in the night
This poem is beautiful and so heartbreaking. Even if it doesn't make you a saint that you had that conversation, it does mean that you're a more compassionate human than 95% of the people around us, who either ignore or treat the homeless as pariahs. From that poem it's clear that it had a very strong impact on you.
Second all of the above!!
Most of the times I do ignore the homeless, too. I once in a while give a smile, money or some food when I leave the groceries. Rarely I talk to them a little when I am in the right mood and feel strong enough. I see other people doing that, too. For the most part, I think, that the majority feels sorry for them. It may sound harsh but the homeless serve as a mirror to me. What they express (numbing through alcohol or other drugs), not wanting to fit in, not caring for their bodies, is a more powerful expression of which the not homeless practice as well. "Only" not in that strength but still. ...
Not being able to care for a home is also something I conclude when seeing a homeless.
I'm so glad there are teachers like you!
Your poem is very good. It reminds me of the art of the Dhamma teachings of Buddhists, which is expressed in the repetition of terms. Through permanent repetition, only in a slightly altered rhythm, lies a great effect of anchoring a message. Moreover, the teachings also come from this as a logical chain, at the beginning of which there is often the end of a term from the previous one.
Great that you let your students hear Alan Watts. He himself once told about young students whom he had asked: "What is a thing?" And after the majority of the students had called adjectives, a nine-year-old said, "A thing is a noun." You immediately understand what is meant, don't you? I was stunned that a girl expressed this and at the same time sad because I know that many people at that age are already so adapted and have suppressed their creativity. And only want to please the teacher by giving "right" answers.
But because teaching is not the imparting of knowledge, but relationship, the relationship is the first thing that matters and only then is knowledge.
Yes, it's all about relating, but you'd be surprised how many teachers/administrators don' want creative thought or too much relating as it gets in the way of what is RIGHT--correct socialization. Yes, most would say they value relationships and creativity and it's even built into common core curriculum, but becomes very absent in practice.