A Poem

My teaching supplies of old exams and a never ending collection of "interesting and difficult" questions always gets all jumbled up during exam time. Sorting through my "need to sort" stack I got sidetracked by booklet of poems that I often use with my high school students. I never enjoyed poetry until grade ten when my English teacher, Mr. McGonnagal, read "David" by Earle Birney. That poem hooked me on poetry for life. This country has a rich heritage of poetry and the following is one of my favorites especially this time of year. For some reason whenever I see the Salvation Army Kettle I think of this poem. Also, my brief visit to Ottawa this summer drove the point home.


Lanterns

the blizzard came
after the first frost--
the hired man left the house
with a lantern
to see how the cattle
were taking the storm
in the north pasture

my father found him
three days later
near the fence on the east side
of the pasture

the faithful dog froze
beside him--curled up
like a lover in the man's arms
(the broken lantern
lay near a stone the glass shattered)

men freeze this way everywhere
when lanterns fall apart
(even within one's arms
inside the city's rim)

Andrew Suknaski

Andrew Suknaski was born in 1942 in Wood Mountain, Saskatchewan.

As a little aside I have to say I was truly blessed in my English teachers throughout my junior high and high school years. (University was a completely different story.) Growing up I cannot recall a single English teacher that did not inspire me. Of course my parents started it all with giving me the gift for a love of words and the joys of reading. Mrs. Montgomery instilled in me a love of short stories and plays. Mr. Knutilla opened the door to Shakespeare and that led me on a fantastic journey through all of his plays and Sophocles and then oddly enough philosophy. Not books about philosophy but the works of the old philosophers. Although words don't pour out of me easily I enjoy writing and I would have to credit my teachers for that. I don't think it's something I ever would have bothered about if it hadn't been for them. I would have stuck to easier things.




This is not a wide sweeping statement by any means but I was lucky that my teachers actually taught us the material. Too many of my students are assigned Hamlet and assigned poetry that they don't go over in class. They are simply given a big packet of questions and told to answer them. Gee, and then the teachers complain that they copied their answers from the Internet! I don't think many kids could possibly understand Shakespeare the first couple of times on their own!

Any poetry lovers out there? If so what's a poem that you enjoy?