progress
When I first started teaching English this fall, I remember wondering (and perhaps blogging) if teaching poetry would be a mini-school for me as a poet. We’re reading such great authors this year–Whitman, Frost, Dickinson, Gwendolyn Brooks, Langston Hughes, John Donne and more–many of which I hadn’t read in years myself, and I figured that immersing myself in poetry, the craft and beauty of it, might be useful for me as a poet.
Well, so far I can say yes with a whole heart. I’ve written two new poems since the beginning of this school year and have revised several more, and I feel like it’s the best poetic work I’ve ever done. Part of that progress is due to the amazing help of my dear friend Alissa, who has been so helpful and kind, but I think also the hours I’ve spent choosing poems and discussing them with my students has really enhanced my eye for my own work.
The conundrum for writing teachers is that sometimes the work of teaching gets so overwhelming that writing gets put on the back burner, and I’m certainly behind on my grading as we speak! But I do believe that so far, it has been a great aid to my work as a poet.
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