Social and Philosophical Foundations of Education
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Barbara Kingslover's opinion of poetry
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Author:  Bobbi Faulkner [ Tue Nov 28, 2006 5:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Barbara Kingslover's opinion of poetry

Yep--you guessed it! I LOVE poetry! But Barbara Kingslover seems to think it is important, too!

Beating Time
Commemorating the removal of poetry as a requirement in Arizonia's schools, August 1997

The Governor interdicted: poetry is evicted
from our curricula,
for metaphor and rhyme take time
from science. Our children's self reliance rests
upon the things we count on. The laws
of engineering. Poeteering squanders time, and time
is money. He said: let the chips fall where they may.

The governor's voice fell down through quiksilver
microchip song hummed along and the law
was delivered of its hearing. The students
of engineering bent their numbers in silent
classrooms, where the fans overhead
whispered "I am I am" in iambic pentameter.
Unruly and fractious numbers were discarded at the bell.
In the crumpled, cast-off equations,
small black figures shaped like tadpoles
formed a nation, unobserved, in the wastepaper basket.

Outside, a storm is about to crack the sky.
Lightening will score dry riverbeds, peeling back the mud
like a plow, bellowing, taking out bridges,
completely unexpectedly.

The children too young to have heard
of poetry's demise turn their eyes
to the windows, to see what they can count on.
They will rise and dance to the iamb of the fans,
whispering illicit rhymes,
watching the sky for a sign
while the rain beats time.

--Barbara Kingslover

Don't you guys just love that last line?

Author:  Nora Vines [ Wed Nov 29, 2006 8:25 am ]
Post subject: 

Don't you just love that gal? Thank you for sharing all of these great selections Bobbi!!!

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