If I Were a Teacher...and YOU were Ignorant...

Here's a poem I wrote in the 10th grade. This was submitted as an assignment...and I remember how it caused quite a stir when my teacher read it aloud...

who is to say

that ignorance doesn't have a reason?

ignorance

lives and breathes

to figure "reason" out

it lives freely

(does not pay taxes or need shelter from weather)

but where do you send it

when you say "go home!"

and he resides in YOU?

for where is the comfort

in thinking this concept through:

the fact that ignorance is sharing a roof with you!

 

who is to say

that ignorance doesn't have a reason?

for its because of ignorance

my quest is for knowledge-

(the popular turtle that it is...)

it's purpose

is to give life plenty of examples

of tragedy and hope...

of flimsy paper, or melting plastic

(both completely unreliable, but are our only choices)

 

for if ignorance where a tree

and I were the soil

how many raindrops would the sky save

so that its seeds wouldn't grow or spoil

for we are all trinkets

in this tree's closet

and we choose everyday

which kind of trinkets we will be:

of costume or of dynasty (?)

of peace or of travisty (?)

would we choose calmly or hostily (?)

...and if you look closely at your history, see

we trinkets are held down by ignorance

and not gravity...

 

who is to say

that ignorance doesn't have a solution?

we read our books, ponder, then report

with our ignorance masked by so-called "intelligence"

...the mache derived from ignorant sources

 

...for if ignorance were a tunnel

and your conscience a train...

besides yourself and the road chosen

your derailment has no one else to blame...

for having a head on your shoulders

and being "smart" are not at all the same:

it's HUNGRY ignorance

and it's leech on our minds

that has no shame.

 

-Anarda Nashai

author of School Girl

Check out my website at:

www.anardanashai.webs.com

 

Reviews

[Corvus612]

I can't believe you wrote this in the 10th grade.
"...and if you look closely at your history, see

we trinkets are held down by ignorance

and not gravity..."
It's brilliant for you to make such observations at such a young age and to put so much thought into something, this is very true...very impressive.

[emmajoy]

Great writing, yet again. You use knowledge along with the 'tree' knowing that from the food of the root spreads the beauty of knowledge and the spread of it, branch by branch.

Maybe it's the 'ignorance ' touch that reached me more.. that life with lack of knowledge tarnishes supreme understanding of what there is, what there can be..

' for if ignorance where a tree / and I were the soil / how many raindrops would the sky save / so that its seeds wouldn't grow or spoil / for we are all trinkets / in this tree's closet / and we choose everyday / which kind of trinkets we will be: '

Thank you for giving me the chance to share such a thought provoking piece of finely written writing.

[KumaThree]

i really enjoyed how you characterized ignorance in this piece. Showing just how contagious and destructive if left to is own devices, especially when you say that ignorance is hungry. As if it were a predator or some monster ready to devour something. Great Job

[He@ther!]

Wow!!:) This is brilliant!!:) Lol the teacher read this out loud?! Lol thats awesome!!:) I bet that littlem scenario would make a great short story lol:)

-Heather

[Prose-full]

"...and if you look closely at your history, see
we trinkets are held down by ignorance
and not gravity..."---very powerful pondering..

"we read our books, ponder, then report
with our ignorance masked by so-called "intelligence"---another..

"besides yourself and the road chosen
your derailment has no one else to blame..."---love this!...very very brilliant..

"it's HUNGRY ignorance"--brilliance...


i love this..there is alot of -juicy- information in this write..
and again, this is very powerful pondering..thanks for submitting it..

do, keep writing...

[Laylani Mullane]

Wow, this defiently give you a lot to think about, I like it.
I also especially like this line "for if ignorance where a tree" because thinking metaphorically, usually trees are associated with knowledge so it's a nice twist, and the stanza filled the idea out perfectly. Lovely poem, hun. *thumbsup*