Through recent years, Zombies have become about as ubiquitous as the imagined apocalypse seems to suggest. They're everywhere like
we've been bitten by some kind of zombie fever. And I recently realized why.
While talking with an acquaintance, I understood that his responses could be replaced by *zombie noise* with barely any difference.
I asked, "How was your day?"
He responded *zombie noise* which I understood as, "Good, you?"
To which I replied *zombie noise* which he took to mean, "About the same."
And so out zombified conversation went on until it came time to part ways.
We shook hands, said our goodbyes, and each shuffled away.
Yet my revelation did not end with the zombification of conversation.
I traveled home to watch TV and see news stories moan about how our economy is in shambles;
the apocalypse, it seems, is walking far slower these days.
Yet this vision is not what made me think we've got a zombie problem on our cold hands.
A few hours later, I turned on to tune in again only to find a commercial claiming that I'm missing something.
The television blared a horde of images which transfixed me in place for some moments, and I heard *intense zombie noise* creep its way into my room which I
understood as, "Don't you wish you had a big screen TV?
After all, your stomach may be empty, your heart may be slow,
your brain my be tired, but you'll always know
you've got 60 inches or 5 feet through which you can watch the world just
waste
by."
The jingle was disheartening and it gave me a stroke
of insight as my eyes flooded wide, and I
realized zombies are popular because they're as close as the nearest mirror.
I decided that day to take my reflection back.
First, I'm cutting zombification from my conversation.
Of course, unsolicited life stories are about as grave as "good", so instead, I'm choosing epithets like
magnificent,
disheartening,
dilatory, hectic, epicurean, atrocious, absurd, or abhorrent to describe my day in ways that tax my brain.
Second, I've decided to heave my heart into my mouth because anything that doesn't stain my teeth with the pulse of truth
is barely worth the breath to sigh, so if I say [improvise!],
you can bet that somewhere deep in my chest,
my heart is echoing those same syllables beat for beat!
And lastly, if there's even a meager chance that, after death, my body will be reanimated to roam the streets and mindlessly consume,
then that's sure as hell the last thing I'll do while I'm still alive!
So, I implore you to join me;
join me in walking like a zombie only if it's on purpose,
speak the truth
even if blood stains your teeth, and
light up this night by holding your pen like it's a torch
bright enough to put sunspots into a blind man's eyes!
Join me; join me this night that way we may
move the living
and raise the dead!
Everyone is afraid of something. More often than not, we find ourselves afraid of things like the dark, blind corners, and strangers. This is partially because those things are inherently scary or that we have been warned to stay away from them, but I think it is more likely that we are afraid of these things because they represent the unknown. What, after all, is hiding in the dark? What is around the corner? What is in the heart of a stranger? This last question is one I want to focus on.
In order to take the fear out of something, we need to understand it. In order to understand it, we must experience what it is like to be that thing which we fear. For that reason:
I want you to try writing from the point of view of something you don't understand or something which scares you.
Try writing from the perspective of a spider. What does it see through its manifold eyes? What does it feel from the hair on its eight legs? If spiders scare you not, perhaps the slithering of a snake could give you inspiration to write. If animals do not scare you, try writing from the perspective of someone or something you do not understand. If you're a staunch republican, write from the point of view of a democrat, or vice versa.
I recently tried to write from a perspective I didn't completely understand, and I was able to come out with a poem that meant something and informed me more about what I had been previously missing. With any luck, not only will you discover a new and powerful poem with this prompt, but you'll also be able to find greater understanding where you couldn't before.
Everyone has dreams or goals or desires. Everyone has something that he or she would absolutely love to achieve. Problematically, we don't always know the "correct" path to walk in order to achieve those goals. This, however, is not necessarily important. When beginning to write a poem, I will generally have an idea of the concept I want to write about, but more often than not, what I end up with is not what I started with. This is okay. It's called the journey, and it leads to discovery. But let's get back to the prompt at hand.
I want you to think about something you really want to achieve. I don't want you to care about the how or the why of getting there or what you want to achieve; I just want you to have a solid picture of a goal in your brain. Do you want to make more money? Do you want to find love? Do you want to make a new friend? Ask a girl out? Ask a guy out? Be asked out? Win a competition? Something, anything so long as it is something you want. Got that image in your head of what you want? Good.
Now, write from the perspective of already having achieved this thing you have in your mind.
How does it feel? What are you doing? Let your mind go, and let your emotions wander with it. Write about how you feel now that you've successfully achieved this thing you want. Be creative, have fun, and write!
This is my response to October 15th's Prompt (which can be found here). The issue that I wrote about was the pressure that teachers have with standardized testing going unchecked and, in many ways, running rampant in our system. Additionally, this poses a large toll not only on teachers but on their students as well. I had a couple of teachers come up to me and tell me that they understood this poem very much. I am posting a link to the video of it. Please note that it is somewhat loud, so turn down your speakers a bit!
After the poem, I will outline some of my thoughts for how we can change this. If you'd like to view more of my poems, please click this to link to my YouTube channel. If you like what you see, please subscribe!
Curriculum and Voice
0 – [Sign Language] This is the voice
we teach our students to use when authority speaks
1 – [Whisper] This is the voice we
teach our students to use when whispering with the partner at their
elbow
2 – [Quiet Talk] This is the voice we
teach our students to use when the unravel the mysteries of their
quizzes in small groups
3 – [Normal Voice] This is the voice
we teach our students to use when they interact in the classroom
4 – [Outside Voice] This is the voice
we teach our students to use outside to manage teams and make plays
5 – [Screaming] This is the voice we
teach our students to use when it's an emergency!
Our students have a belief that their
voice travels
only as far as their arms because actions
speak
louder, and a fist is far more formidable than they've been
taught
their voices can be because
we shut them up. Say,
“sorry, but
there's no time in our curriculum for your
questions”
because finding an answer to “Why
am I the way
that I am?” will never be featured on any state sanctioned test.
We don't give them time to digest all
the facts but seem somehow surprised
when they throw up the rest.
Teachers are taught to teach to the test
because numbers are our
only measures of success, and standards
have been removed from a
point of high esteem and only seem
to hang above heads like the
sword of Damocles. Teachers
are punished when kids can't remember
facts they never cared to know.
They are statistics.
And numbers are the only things on
which we can count because
the same can't always be said for
parents or society – we
are failing our students,
not the
other way around.
With drop out rates soaring higher than
the system says our kids ever could, we've
waged a war of
attrition on our educational institutions but are somehow surprised
when our students
only know how to shoot. We
hold them back by
becoming the clasped hands of politicians
who've never set foot in
a classroom but still make dangerous generalizations
without
understanding that their voice and actions reach farther than their
arms, so
we should raise our voices to 5; we should scream
emergency because
our schools are punctuated by the shrill cry of
bells designed to turn
students into workers who slave to the tune
of minimum wage.
No, there is still no time in our
curriculum for your questions like
Why do dead bugs litter our
buildings or
Why are my textbooks older than me or
Why won't my
legs move as fast as my dreams or
Why is 5 grades ago the most I
can read or
What do these tests actually measure, but
all I can
say is we have a system that says your
questions will not fit into
our curriculum because
we've got a status quo to keep, and
this
consuming society by which we must abide, so
critical
thinking is the first to get pushed aside, and I'm
sick and tired of the silence we push
upon our students because
5
This is the voice
we should be teaching
so our students can see change
can't result
solely from the swing of a swift fist but can come
with the power of
their words
4
but
3
this is the voice
2
I'm required to
teach
1
my students
because
0
authority
has spoken.
Writing a poem and speaking it is not enough. We must also offer solutions. Here are some of my thoughts:
1. Decrease class sizes
"Sorry, but there's no time in our curriculum for your questions"
Students need personalized attention. No student learns the same way as another. The amount of variability in one classroom in terms of learning style is absolutely astounding. Teachers, while amazing, cannot do it on their own IF the class sizes are too large. The optimal number is about 20 students per teacher. In order to decrease class sizes, we need more teachers. It is plain and simple. Unfortunately, this would require a lot of money to achieve.
2. Reduce our dependence on standardized testing
"Teachers are punished when kids can't remember facts they never cared to know."
Not every student is a good test taker. While there are strategies one may employ in order to become a better test taker, it takes time to employ those strategies, explain them, and have the students practice them. Time is one of the many things that teachers don't have enough of.
Additionally, the way that No Child Left Behind currently focuses on standardized tests, including its punitive ramifications, are counter-intuitive and disgusting. By 2014, schools are supposed to have 100% passing grades on their tests. This means that every student must be proficient or better. This is an impossible feat to accomplish. Hercules could not do it. In addition, if these standards are not met, entire schools can be shut down. Teachers can be fired. Granted, I can see where the logic comes from. But this logic has not shown improvement, and it does not make sense to punish schools that have low test scores in the way that NCLB does.
For those who don't know, NCLB affords schools national government funding. However, if test scores are not proficient, that funding can be taken away. One of the best ways to bring scores up is through personalized attention. As mentioned earlier, this is expensive. NCLB all but ensures failure.
Beyond school performance, in 2013, a teacher's evaluation will be based almost 50% on their students' test scores. As a teacher with whom I worked has said multiple times, "I can't control if my students had a good breakfast, or if their parents struck them the day before - there is just too much variability in students for these tests to be a good measure of learning."
Finally, tests are not actually all that standardized. States determine what constitutes a test. In other words, the states determine what should be on the test. For a time, one state's test didn't even have science on it. Therefore, that curriculum was pushed to the back burner. When the test was changed to include science, the school systems had to try to educate their students through a massive deficit.
"Teachers are taught to teach to the test"
3. Shift our focus to students
"Because finding an answer to 'Why / am I the way that I am?' will never be featured on any state sanctioned test."
Knowledge availability is not like it used to be. Today, one can find information about almost anything he or she wants to find via the internet (or library if you're 'old school'). Thus, we MUST shift our focus from teaching everything one way and hoping that our students pick it up to teaching to the students. We MUST shift our focus from "teaching to the test" to "teaching to our students". In order to do this, we need to make sure that the first item on this list gets taken care of, but we must also strive to engage students more. Some kids love facts and are aces at memorizing statistics. Others want to create. Others want to argue. Others need to understand how everything works; they must break it down to put it together. Our curriculum must be free enough to allow this to happen.
The caveat:
In order to fly, you must first be grounded. In other words, we cannot let students simply go into the world on their own. While this is a viable method for learning, it is also a slow one. Students need mentors to help them guide their way through this world. They need discipline to keep them focused. They need someone to help them; they need to be encouraged to ask questions, and they need to have the drive instilled in them to actually go find the answer. We sometimes forget that everything we are was put there by someone else. Yes, we are ourselves, and we are the only ones who can be that, but we had help finding the materials to make ourselves along the way. We both build ourselves and are built by others. It it difficult to find time to encourage questions with so little time in the day and a test that is always looming.
4. Our schools need to be safe places
There is a line that I cut out of my original piece which said
"During a tornado drill, I saw students sit with knees and foreheads pressed against the wall, and I couldn't help but think that this is a little too close to home for some: sitting execution style."
We must not forget that life for students is very different. It most certainly is a scary time to be alive as a students. Bomb threats. Shootings. Standardized test. The economy. There are several different ways to fix these things, but I don't have answers to those. Unfortunately, the answer to this point hinges on the answers to those questions. Getting into those answers would turn into a book.
Anyhow, if a student feels unsafe, that student will have a much more difficult time learning. Every student deserves to have a safe place. Schools should offer that, but they can't do it on their own. Our culture needs to examine itself very thoroughly here in order to come up with a comprehensive solution. And this change WILL NOT come overnight. We need to be stalwart and demanding. We have high standards to uphold, after all.
5. We need to empower our youth
"Our students have a belief that their voice travels only as far as their arms"
We need to empower our youth to ask questions and think critically. If a student can think through a question, he or she will find much more value in the answer than if he or she is told that answer. This is why the "Socratic method" of teaching is so powerful. Students learn that questions lead to understanding, and they begin to see their voices as tools for reaching information. Along with this, we MUST change our tests up to focus less on right or wrong answers. These kind of questions (true/false, multiple choice) do not engage a student's mind very thoroughly. Only by asking questions and having students seek out answers (synthesizing knowledge, evaluating, and critiquing) do students come to a better understanding of what they believe.
Generalizations are dangerous. They force us to see the world as a binary switch. Yes or no. This is not how the world works. The world is, to use a cliche, grey. It cannot always be completely quantified. In order to understand this, students need more time with a teacher who is not buried by grading papers. One of the best ways to get our students to where we want them to be, contributing members of society, is by giving them personalized attention and time. Time is worth more than money, but money, right now, is the only thing that we can trade for time. It's an unfair system, and it needs to be looked at. Possibly rebuilt, but definitely changed.
With everything going on in the world, it can sometimes feel as though we're just being swept along for the ride. It can feel as though we have little to no control over the issues that are important to us. This is why today's prompt is important.
Write about an issue that is important to you.
Is there something that's been on the back of your mind that you have difficulty keeping there? Perhaps it's been something you saw in the news or something you've experienced in your time alive, at your job, or with a friend. Is there something that bothers you because it remains largely unknown, ignored, or misrepresented? Allow your pen today to flow freely. Write a rant; pen out your pent up annoyance at something; tell people how you really feel. Take the time today to allow yourself to complain.
After you've written all you can, try asking the following question:
Is there anything I can do about this?
I am not advocating any sort of force or violence in order to make a change, but if there is a way you can help yourself, don't be afraid to find it.
"In Response" is a piece that I had written some time ago with this week's same prompt in mind. For those who'd like to hear, I've included a video of the poem. As always, however, the text is also provided! The poem to which I'm responding I came across at a library's teen poetry publication. I'll post the text up with the idea that it is protected under a creative commons license, but if it is not and I am notified of such, I will remove the text immediately.
NOTE: You may want to read the piece to which I was responding first; therefore, it can be found at the bottom of this post.
In Response
You asked me to understand. To just
Please
Understand. But
I can't.
You handed me your hand
written note and called it poetry.
You wrote about how, once upon a time,
you grew up under the auspices
of a stiff spine and hard head,
until somewhere along the way,
you ran into something tougher
than your brain or back could bear
and it snapped.
Suddenly, the stiffness of your spine left you with little to brace back on, so you
Crumpled
like a poem that wasn't written right.
You asked me to understand. To just
Please understand, but I can't
comprehend
the solace you've sought in statistics.
People are more than numbers, and you
are more than lines, and I know that's hard
to remember when other people only gloss across the stories that are
written in your hands that are
held in your heart that are
seen in your eyes and that are
carved in your arms. And I know this
because I once etched seven lines of ugly poetry into my skin
hoping that someday someone would notice something
besides shame written in them. Shame
like the same you feel your life has taken.
And you asked me to just,
Please,
Understand,
And I want, but I can't
Because you say that you're insane
for inhaling this pain and screaming
Back with no one to hear, and you say
that your lungs feel like wasted space like they
keep taking
and taking and
taking while
no one leaves words to
let you know that they understand, but
they do.
And we can't help but wonder if you've
held your breath
in place of that razor.
If you've ever held your breath until your lungs
understood what it felt like to miss something they knew so long, so
I don't understand how you can't see that
your presence is like air to someone's lungs!
Without you, someone out there will inhale nothingness
and scream back the air they wished you'd remembered
to breathe.
You asked me to understand.
To just
Please
Understand, but
I can't understand
How you can't see
that all these words I've spoken are true because
these words that I have, they're for you.
The poem to which I was responding: Sweet Release Gabriella C.
And the story of my life, was once I was clean,
I was pure, life was serene,
But I hit a wall, the wall called life,
And I grew up once upon a time,
My backbone grew stiff,
And my head grew hard,
But yet I was so weak,
so insecure,
When you think I am sober, I am drunk,
When you think I'm sleeping, I am still up,
With a box cutter to my wrist, and a tear running slow,
When I'll stop this cycle? No one knows.
I'm just another statistic,
And I chose this path,
But I'm afraid this cut,
Might end up being my last,
I hurt no one purposely,
Yet my life is a shame,
I thought I was good,
But now I'm insane,
They say insanity is doing something over again,
hoping for the outcome to be different in the end,
So am I lost?
In my mind so alone,
Or am I screaming for help,
But no one is home,
I once was a girl,
With hopes and dreams,
Now I'm a disgrace,
Not wanting to be seen,
I say I live, day by day,
But the truth is, I've lost track of time,
And these days are just moments,
Moments intertwined,
Moments that blend,
One day they will mend,
And on that day it will not matter,
Because of how reckless I have been,
I'll lie in peace,
All hopes and dreams gone,
With eyes so empty,
And skin so cold,
So please just remember,
I wasn't always this way.
When you stand over my casket,
With no words to say,
I lived with a heart full of love,
Love I shared with you,
But my mind got a hold of me,
And these words I say are true,
So I ask for forgiveness,
While I still can,
Don't cry, I'm not worth it,
Just please, understand.
I had a particularly poignant experience today while reading a poem I had written earlier in response to a prompt from last week's poetry club meeting. The prompt: Write something personal. I almost lost my emotions with the reading of the first line, and I realized how closed off I can be from my emotions at times. So, I wanted to share not only the words of the poem but also my reading of it. The lighting may not be perfect, but here it is posted, and I have included the text so that you can read along! Thank you for listening (or reading or both), and feel free to leave a comment!
8 Words
I was 10 when 8 words changed the world,
sent my heart into my stomach,
had me wishing that my mom, like God
was wrong, had made a mistake.
I was 10 when 8 words changed the world.
A response to a question I had though God
wouldn't allow across lips that had never been kissed,
over outstretched hands that had never known
the coldness of a coffin - that hadn't
clasped themselves in prayer before bed but
opted for rest instead. Was He dead?
Deaf? Was this
punishment part of penance or plan?
I was 10 when 8 words changed the world.
Before boarding into the family car bound for the hospital, around
the kitchen table, I asked my mom,
in full view of God, "Will this change
my life?"
8 words in reply: If it's what I think it is,
yes.
As promised, here is the first week's prompt. The purpose of this exercise is to get you thinking about what another poem is about - you must interpret what another poem is saying and attempt to craft a response in your own poem. This response can take any form whatsoever: A sonnet, a limerick, free verse, blank verse, anything just so long as it responds to another piece of writing. Today, try writing a response to another piece of writing. Imagine you are a character responding to the character, subject, or concept of the initial piece. Pretend like you are having a dialogue, an argument, or perhaps a sit down with an old friend. Let your imagination go along with your pen and be sure to check back later on in the week!
Good luck and have fun writing!
This won't really be a poem or work of creative non-fiction or the like. I kind of just wanted to talk about what I want to do with this blog thing so that, if I don't follow through, perhaps someone out there will remind me of what I wanted my dreams to be.
I'm going to start posting some poems and performances on here. I will achieve this via YouTube. If you would like to see some of the poems I already have up, feel free to search for my name or my channel name, "Key0fZ". The 'O' in "Of" is actually a zero (0). Anyhow, I have a few martial arts demonstrations up there in addition to a few poems on there as well.
Some may ask, "Why? Why add videos and such?" Well, in terms of poetry, I think that it should be heard as well as read. And not a lot of people like to read poetry out loud. It's a little weird to read aloud to ourselves, after all. Society says that reading is a silent activity. Good thing that society isn't Simon; otherwise, we really would have to listen. Additionally, I think that something gets a bit lost when a poem isn't heard. While most of us have a voice in the back of our heads that sounds the words as we read them, there is something very musical about listening to another person perform.
Finally, I will be posting weekly writing prompts with a short description about them. Some of the prompts will be just useful things to get you to write. Others will require some work and may function more like a workshop than a prompt. In addition to this, I would like to encourage others to share their work in the comments or send me a link to a YouTube video of your work.
The title of this blog is "Life is Rumored to be Written Here". Not "My Life". Just "Life". Thus, I'd love to hear and be able to showcase other perspectives. Granted, the current audience is limited to mostly close friends and family and whoever else clicks on a link I place to Facebook. However, this is still a place to share your story if you'd like to. I can't speak for anyone but myself, and I can't tell your story better than you.
The first prompt will be posted on Monday, October 8th. Get ready to write, and please don't hesitate to share!
If this does not come to fruition, I urge you to call me out on it. Send me emails. If you know me via Facebook, you have my permission to assault my wall. If you have my number, you have my permission to text. I probably haven't talked to you in awhile and would appreciate the message anyhow.
A very good friend of mine was recently married to the love of his life. I'm incredibly happy to have known him as a person and to have trained with him when he was younger as a martial artist.
I went to his reception but being quite... unable to afford a gift, I decided to write a poem for my friend. Because, as another poet once said, "Being a poet around wedding time is like being the guy with the truck around moving time."
While the inside jokes may not be understood by all, I hope that anyone reading it is able to take something from it.
Hey Nate,
Do you remember martial arts? Demonstration team, training,
the minutes, moments, years, bruises and tears? I do. Almost
like it was yesterday. There's still a spot on my left leg
tender from the day we threw well over 1,000 kicks.
Remember how that following weekend we
all hung out as a team and competed to tell about which
one of us had it hardest to wake up and walk stairs that morning?
We decided it'd be fun to then hit each other's legs and say,
"Did you know that your eyes..."
And we grew to despise the question that followed, but that
is another story.
Remember when we'd blame you for everything?
The weather? Your fault.
That time I accidentally broke David's sister's foot?
Your fault. When
someone fell? Your fault.
When we performed a kata
wrong? Your fault.
See, but we knew your smile was strong enough to bear it.
And your arms? Well, they are still a little weak, but
your heart is strong enough to lift people's spirits, and I'm happy to have
been able to train alongside that strength even back in the day.
Now, years later, it's almost hard to believe that
we've gone our separate ways, but you've stayed you; you've
stayed with that strong smile and heart hardy enough to lift
your wife's spirits.
See, being a poet, I know the weight the world takes, and sometimes it seems that
it's all too much to carry until the corners of our lips collapse
into a frown. But you - you have the strength to keep your
smile shining, and not only that, you have that same strength to
sustain your wife's smile, and it's beautiful.
But don't forget where you come from, though I know you won't.
Don't forget the playful side when you're enmeshed in matrimony.
Sometimes, relationships can be difficult, but I think you should approach
your marriage as you did those fight scenes in which we used to be.
This is not to mean that you should punch it, but I mean you
should approach it with the same excitement and energy and patience that
you would apply to all of our practices. And, yes, some days,
it will feel like it did back in the day, back in the dojo.
This is to say you will be blamed for things like
the dishes.
Like the laundry.
Like the weather. Like
when she smiles so
brightly it rivals the sun, like when
the moments are so beautiful
between you two that you almost lose focus, but don't!
Because love
is like martial arts:
It is a way of life;
you can train in it
for eternity without every mastering its subtle graces; and occasionally,
it hurts. Occasionally,
it will be like back in the day, back
in the dojo like when we ran many minutes straight and
if anyone fell or stopped mid stride, the time would extend, and after 5 we
weren't sure if we could go on... but then - then we learned
that the burden could be shared. Love - love is like that. Love is
a marathon where we pick each other up and run because
we're not sure when time will run out.
Yet even when we ran, you had
the strength of spirit to keep your smile shining bright, and it,
like the life I know you and your wife will share,
is beautiful.
