If I were to read a poem at a meeting
I would probably choose, “The Trouble With Poetry,”
not because it is my favorite, but rather
because Emily Dickinson, Edgar Poe, even
Homer, Chaucer, and Dante Alighieri
Just have not been able to crack this
thing wide open on their own.
Really, if I could begin the next faculty meeting
with something other than how many
students are in crisis, how many mandates
the state has enacted but neglected
to fund, I think I could leave Billy Collins
to those of us who love beautiful irony
as opposed to the crueler variety.
But, no, the revolution he began,
to bring poetry outside of the classroom
closet, has found its way back
to the steps of the schoolhouse,
knocking and waiting, waiting and
knocking, for a chance
to instruct, not the students,
but the teachers, not the masses,
but me.
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