Words! I love words
When I was about 20 and still in the army, I began falling in love with words, with how they held my tongue and clenched my teeth. I learned I could camouflage myself with words and began writing poems from O.P.s. Words became all I desired, so I exited the army and entered college, and , as an English major, I discovered Wallace Stevens.
I was lulled into Stevens’ poetry because of his sounds and imagery, and it didn’t take long before I was head-over-heels for the mysterious, unnamed muse of “The Idea of Order at Key West“, of “Bouquet of Belle Scavoir“, and of “Sunday Morning“, and having heard her siren song, I read on and on … Eventually, I found “The Necessary Angel.”
“The question concerns the function of the poet today”
In Stevens’ essays, I realized my desire for words and poetry were precursors of a vocation. For me, “The Noble Rider and The Sound of Words” and “The Figure of the Youth as Virile Poet” were clarification of my “obligations” as a poet, of my human responsibility to help others discover the imagination and the words it uses to express itself, which brings me to the point of this blog.
“Poetry is the scholar’s art.”
I’m here as a believer in and advocate for the “inalienable right of the individual to human development.”
I’m here as a citizen concerned about the standardization of public education.
I’m here as a professional to defend my profession.
I’m here as a high school teacher who wants to help others achieve their aspirations.
I’m here as a poet.
“A Gift”
Let this be a rose
Brought forth by trembling hands,
A single bud of crimson
Atop a green stem of eagle claws,
Let it be red unfolding,
A ceremonial Sundance
Offering enchantment,
Like the clumsy hands of a child
Cupped around the thin wings
Of a butterfly –
Let this piercing of flesh
Be my gift to you.
“I am the truth, since I am part of what is real, but neither more nor less than those around me. And I am imagination, in a leaden time and in a world that does not move for the weight of its own heaviness.”
A special thanks to Dr. Paul Thomas 
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