Month of Poetry, 2014, Day 11: A Missed Opportunity

A Missed Opportunity

My seventh-grade English teacher,

in a lame and transparent (to me now,

28 years later) to make poetry “relevant,”

told us to write down the words to a song

that was like a poem. 

I chose U2’s “October” 

-- nine lines long 

(even then I resisted authority) --

October

And the trees are stripped bare

Of all they wear

What do I care?

October

And kingdoms rise 

And kingdoms fall

But you go on

And on

Mrs. B. -- who equated quality with quantity --

doubted this was a whole song. “What? Do

they just repeat it again and again?”

She did not invite the class to bring in tapes

of our songs, or she would have heard the 

haunting piano instrumental. She did not use 

"October" as an example of metaphor, of saying a lot

with a few words, of “this leaving-out business.”

She merely “harumphed” my song and my

attitude and gave me a B.