Nothing. When we realized you weren’t here
we sat with our hands folded on our desks
in silence, for the full two hours
Everything. I gave an exam worth
40 percent of the grade for this term
and assigned some reading due today
on which I’m about to hand out a quiz
worth 50 percent
Nothing. None of the content of this course
has value or meaning
Take as many days off as you like:
any activities we undertake as a class
I assure you will not matter either to you or me
and are without purpose
Everything. A few minutes after we began last time
a shaft of light suddenly descended and an angel
or other heavenly being appeared
and revealed to us what each woman or man must do
to attain divine wisdom in this life and
the hereafter
This is the last time the class will meet
before we disperse to bring the good news to all people on earth.
Nothing. When you are not present
how could something significant occur?
Everything. Contained in this classroom
is a microcosm of human experience
assembled for you to query and examine and ponder
This is not the only place such an opportunity has been gathered
but it was one place
And you weren’t here
4 Jan 2019: "Did I Miss Anything?" by Tom Wayman
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Contained in these comments to this poem is a microcosm of human experience... this isn't the only place, but it is one place, and I'm here.
ReplyDeleteThis is a question any teacher, must get old with. I see the narrator as a teacher who finally pops. The sarcasm and hyperbole shows the teacher's frustration, but like a good teacher, the teacher gets back to a teachable moment.
The last "Nothing.", is the perfect transition to the narrator's truth, "When you are not present
how could something significant occur?" This almost feels true. This must get that student, or any reader, thinking about this dilemma. If something happens during our absence, how important can it be? It's easy to find countless examples to prove this wrong, losing a loved one for instance, or getting fired, or dumped... The list goes on, and still something about it feels real. Maybe it's because I'm in the midst of a Bhagavad Gita kick.
The last "Everything." is the real truth. We could substitute anywhere for the classroom. The student missed out on one of those places. But we are limited to one place in time and space, and every instant we are missing out on everything else in the world. Dam, grapple with that for a bit. 7.7 billion people are alive today, around 100 billion people have lived over the last couple hundred thousand years. We've missed practically everything.
The most ironic part about this poem (and I say this as someone who loves this poem) is that the student probably doesn't care. That's just how students and teenagers are. A student that really cares wouldn't elicit such a response from a teacher. I can see the student agreeing or being polite, and when they leave the class thinking "fuck you teacher."
I often think about the assumptions we make about presence and the very places we find ourselves in each and every day. I mean, how often do we really feel ourselves "CONNECTED"?? Public schooling is such an interesting scene for this poem to take place because this particular student seems to be avert to connection of any kind in this place. Put him/her in a different space with a different teacher and the microcosm shifts...I think that shift from having to be in a place versus choosing to be there is when growth truly starts to occur within the mind. I know we have mentioned this idea of purpose before, but it's interesting to look at here. The aligning of purpose between student and teacher. The Bhagavad Gita is one of my favorite student/teacher dialogues because it is a story of connection and of self realization. The student in this poem has not even realized he has a self, yet one that can realize lol. And the teacher is waist deep in his. It is such a great example of two lives meeting in two entirely different places- how different perspective changes everything. But most of all, it reminds me to be more understanding and more patient as an educator. To allow any teaching to be presented, but to almost protect the emotional response to the receiving of those teachings without taking the reception personal. We all walk such a different path...
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