Yesterday, after I posted a Vaclav Havel poem, It Is I Who Must Begin, I realized there was more than just the poem at play. Sam Intrator in Teaching with Fire, which he co-edited with Megan Scribner, commented in a section entitled Tending the Fire: “Poetry, by its capacity to touch the human soul and tap into the deepest wellsprings of our being, opens up opportunities for us to stay vital and alive” (p. 210).
As I reflected on yesterday’s poem and the role that poetry plays in my life, I realized poetry is a series of conversations. It is both an internal and external process. I turn in with each word, symbol, and term and ask “What does that mean in my life?” I also, in that internal conversation, hear the poet, who is present, through his or her words.
I sit
Book in lap
Each word, space, punctuation
Each has meaning
A personal truth
For each heard differently.
I listen closer
My body leans in
I don’t want to miss any essence
I hear a voice
As in the company of another
Is the poet here with me?
Teacher as Transformer 