Poetry Friday: Joining NPM in Progress

National Poetry Month has been passing me by this year. I did participate in the Progressive Poem, but other than that I have barely read any poetry, let alone written any. 

 

Since I don't teach English any more, I don't come across as much poetry as I used to in the course of my daily teaching job. But since moving here to Uganda I have had the privilege of getting involved more with drama. We're doing a play right now, a musical adaptation of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and last night was our dress rehearsal. I was right in the middle of the front row in my position as prompter. 

 

There are lots of reasons to love drama, and one that I've been focusing on lately is how analog it is. The kids are just out there on the stage performing. If they make a mistake, so be it; they just keep going. There are no extra takes to make it perfect. They aren't watching someone else perform; they are doing it. They are present, body and soul, belting out their songs, declaiming their lines, giggling and being shushed backstage. 

 

Last night as I turned the pages of my script and supplied words as needed, I found myself enjoying myself so much. I've seen how much our middle school actors have improved over the weeks of practice, the challenges they faced, the rehearsals before and after school, and even on a Saturday. 

 

Does the world need another performance, when you could watch YouTube for the rest of time without repeating yourself? Arguably, no. But is it worth it to put in all this work to make a play? Yes, absolutely it is! How much pleasure the audience will get on our opening night, a couple of hours from now!  

 

This morning, after dragging myself into school, I sat at my desk and lost track of time reading poems online. I just celebrated my 20th blog birthday yesterday, so I was reading past poetry posts. I was thinking back to those days when I used to write a lot of poems. In fact, I was thinking so much that I missed the morning faculty meeting. 

 

Does the world need more poems from me, when there are millions of poems on the internet, just one click away? When there are piles of books of poetry? When AI can write you a ditty in a jiffy? Arguably, no. But how much pleasure there is to be found in the slow, analog creation of something on the page that wasn't there before!

 

Here are two past posts that seem appropriate.  One is about one time in 2018 when I was late to a faculty meeting (at least I didn't miss it completely like this morning), this time due to tomatoes. And the other is one I wrote in 2012 about purple flowers in a field.

 

Irene is hosting the roundup today. Did you know she just came out with her first adult novel? You can get it on your Kindle for 99 cents here. I have it on mine and I can't wait to read it!