Rainy Day Healing

A TIPSY TEACHER’S RANT – TAMAR ZHGHENTI

“- Hate reading poems, do you? 

Well, here’s the scoop –

you’re all poetryholics, deep down.

Disdain the tangled grammar, 

rhyme schemes or their lack,

fancy words, lofty talk, 

plot’s absence and such,

but don’t kid yourself into thinking 

you hate poetry. Not quite.

For all of you, without exception,

are hooked on poetic essence—

that bliss of the unnecessary,

the joy of the needless.

Think of skipping stones in streams,

running fingers through a hedge,

cloud-watching or stargazing,

dancing in the rain,

silly selfies, shower singing,

love at first sight, 

and many more

non-functionals that make us whole, _

all spring from poetry’s soul.

Now, we know this for sure:

Thirteen millennia ago,

In the grip of the ice age,

Wrapped in layers of fur and hide

A cave-dweller got spellbound

by a pair of reindeer, 

crossing a thawed pond.

Then, by a baffling urge,

The cave-dweller grabbed a tusk

and spent hours carving the scene:

Male trailing female, nose to tail—

The renowned ‘Swimming Reindeer’,

Let me google it. Here.

Now, had the cave-dweller made these pair

into, say, the haft of a spear, 

perhaps an instrument, or even a bowl,

there’d be no mystery. Though,

our ancestor went for a statue.

How so? 

In the harshest of climates,

when starvation loomed,

what made a human spawn

this super idle piece, we may ask.

What indeed, if not poetry, of course!

That greater-than-life hunger for

doing things for their own sake!

Yes, my friends, we’ve always been,

and will probably remain a whimsical lot –

authors of unwanted wonders,

poetryholics, in short.

Doesn’t make sense?

Think outside the box, or rather, the text.

For poetry you don’t need words,

It is whatever you relish,

whatever warms your soul.

So, this is today’s takeaway, folks:

Mock all structured or freeform lines,

but poetry is everything you do with delight.

It’s an addiction we all share,

to the unnecessary that brings cheer.

Mm… I didn’t need to rhyme,

but couldn’t help it, you know?

That’s it.

You can go now.

Enjoy the morning sun.”