what is poetry

i was going through my backpack and all its contents after returning to public school (i work in the school but am neither a student nor employee of the school system) and came across some notes and goodies i had written last year. most of which are the product of boredom and mixed interest in what the english teacher was teaching. good times!!!

What is poetry?
Words conjoined to convey meaning deep and frivolous, unrestrained by convention motivated by intuition. Suggested by two of the students in the class: 1) An expression of words overt in emotion 2) Pointless jumble of words that don't make no sense.

Comments about coffee:
warm, hot, brimming, steaming and mean
caramel coated, swirling milky way, the galaxy of latté
con leche y surgar
1st held like a chalice, an offering to the morning Gods
tickling columbian hairs wafting upwards
percolating permeation
A ceremony.
I used to hate coffee. It's bitter arced taste; it's poop staining quality.
The fact that the coffee mug, no matter what, always leaves a ring of condensed water even in the most dry of conditions.

After the student i was with heard a poem that the teacher read aloud, he was asked to write a poem considering the following questions: 1) What does it do to me? 2) What do I think of it? Well the kid didn't write anything, so I decided to write something that he might write given his behaviors. Here it is.

Thinking little, not thinking
Bored of words not enjoyed well or
poorly, misshapingly
spoken aloud

My thoughts disappeared, Wait, I have
no thoughts only bowed faced down feeling
bogged down weighty
ness

Imprints of flatness and a developing
Mayan forehead. The Poem does little
But the desk keeps
me afloat.

this one i wrote for a kid who seemingly couldn't think due to prescribed stupefaction. good kid but highly medicated.

Sitting here
Dazed and confused

Left with no doubt
Feeling utterly used

Hatred, self-doubt
It’s who I am

Can’t concentrate
Never to grow up
Becoming a man

This one I wrote beginning with the 1st word that came to mind (I wanted a beer).

My fish
Owned by my daughter
Loved by the whole family
Sits in the kitchen
On the countertop
Never to leave the bowl

lastly, i will present a quote that i presented to the class on the virtues of NOT USING THE PHONE

"What a lot we lost when we stopped writing letters. You can't reread a phone call." ---Liz Carpenter---