Ah, Education

The pastor of the host church host opened with prayer:
“We will begin with a time of silence.”

And we did, centering.
Then he thanked God.

The professor offered a meditation on the time of year:
A season of contrasts: rest, but unsettled;

We celebrate a birth
That we know ends in torture and death.

The cold weather comes in January and February
But all that time, the light is increasing.

She offered an invitation on the time of year:
Take the time to examine your life’s blueprint to see if you need to adjust.

The professor had packets of poems for all.
(She prepares these collections for each class:

Poems of insomnia, poems of opposites.
My friend has a full set from a class, a gift.)

We looked, then, at two of the poems in the packet.
She read them aloud, mentioned

That we enjoyed a “cold reading,”
Special, as it only happens once.

We talked about hot spots,
The places that jumped out.

(And unlike my college experience,
She offered additional insight into every comment.)

Next we did two directed five-minute writings:
Keep writing the whole time. Engage the brain.

One on a time when you felt close to God.
One on a time when you doubted.

Then she introduced a form of poetry I had never met:
Erasure, where the poet takes extant text

And removes much to create a new work.
We looked at multiple examples, beautiful, accessible.

Then a detailed explanation of the process we would follow,
Providing us newsprint and practice paper,

Linen paper for the art itself, fancy pens,
And a slew of interesting visuals from calendars, journals.

We had the time and the space to create, or maybe co-create,
A little sanctuary on a Saturday morning in Advent.

An incredible array of gorgeous creations
Emerged all over the room.

And as I left, I thought back to my college poetry class,
Where the professor clearly didn’t care much,

Stated that a bus schedule could be a poem,
Offered naught but a Norton Anthology.

A season of contrast. Thankfulness for this moment.
Sorrow that this could have been my education, and was not.