Poetic Times

        For nikki[i]

Elated, I drive up the highway

to class, smiling.

My students—who I don’t own,

so I don’t know why I use the possessive—

see that poetry is not just a puzzling problem to perceive

the answer,

but an experience, a transformation, a view—when

then I approach an Amish farmer, plowing

with six rugged tan horses, three in a row,

he with a hat and focused ahead,

me and my cell phone focused abroad,

with the golden, red leaves spanning the horizon,

and his dog, marching beside,

and me speeding along a one-way highway.

I get to where I’m going,

and a student who teaches me says,

“Stop and Listen, and you may be able to understand

how to free

yourself

as well.”

                                                                   Lucia Elden 17 October 2012

---

[i] This poem is partly in response to nikki giovanni’s 1968 poem http://sbacari.tripod.com/poetry/forsaundra.htm  and also an online class discussion, including a quote from a student’s discussion forum post in response to a quote on freedom in “Sonny’s Blues” by James Baldwin