Here’s my goal, stated in public: I’ve got to participate in more Read Write Poem prompts. I love them each week and then I lose them in the stream of work and episodes of So You Think You Can Dance. Since I want to start off fresh with the prompts, I figure that I may as well start with the Read Write Word prompt I help to organize. They are my favorites, after all. Below is my offering:
What I Learned in College
We did not wear fur; we cloaked ourselves in flannel
and denim. Enough to keep ourselves warm.
We coveted fire, the flaming ends of cigarettes, the burnt
scent of mashed potatoes, singe marks on lounge couches.
We slumped and sulked to class. We rolled down hills
on skateboards. We hitched rides. Never walked.
Every night, we hosted seances at a concrete wall. We
conjured spirits then stamped out their memories in inches
of black ash. How did we protect our hearts? We held them
close in our cages, turned them to ice. Even as we coveted
acuity and intimacy, we lost ourselves in empty halls
and the snow gray sky. Before we bought ourselves
work clothes, before mortgages, before copping
sanguine stares from nine to five daily, we once
loitered and loved, studied and slept, argued
and awed. We made and unmade ourselves daily.
The prompt words were: heart, seance, acuity, slump, flaming, sky, loiter, fur and sanguine.
9to5poet
singe marks on the lounge ,burnt mashed potato,
hitching…student life nostalgia and in my case so long ago.Love this poem…..am rolling it ino a little ball and placing it inside my glove,
By: rallentanda on July 16, 2009
at 2:08 AM
Thanks, Rallentanda for your nice comments!
My college experience is getting further and further away. Now that I work at a college, I wonder why I felt so grown up when I was such a little pup.
By: 9to5poet on July 16, 2009
at 6:50 AM
Hello 9to5,
Never went to college, so will have to take your word for it! Very evocative.
By: Derrick on July 16, 2009
at 8:31 AM
oh undergrad years! a very welcomed flashback to my days lounging on the quad and cavorting with friends. really enjoy the direction you took with the prompt. the format of line breaks jives well with the style and content. -lawrence
By: Lawrence Gladeview on July 16, 2009
at 8:59 AM
wonderful. I love the opening line, how it sets the tone.
I’m watching my daughters live this now and I miss the feelings of ‘making and unmaking daily’…but I don’t know that I’d want to be back there again.
(and thanks for the Wordle. it was fun!)
By: angie on July 16, 2009
at 9:41 AM
Great description of college life & great use of the words. Love this: “We made and unmade ourselves daily.”
By: Tamra at Laughing Dove on July 16, 2009
at 10:37 AM
Thanks everyone for stopping by! I appreciate the feedback.
angie — I love this idea of being able to watch your daughters make/unmake themselves. Since you’ve been through it, developmentally, I wonder if that makes it any easier to see in your kids.
By: 9to5poet on July 16, 2009
at 10:50 AM
I like the couplet!
acuity of touch
By: gautami tripathy on July 16, 2009
at 12:01 PM
I so felt this, seems like I sort of lived part of it. Or shuffled through it anyhow.
By: Mark on July 16, 2009
at 7:23 PM
What a vivid picture of college life. I can picture my students as I read this.
By: Erin on July 16, 2009
at 8:44 PM
Wow! This is really amazing. Perfect from beginning to end. I love the last line.
By: Jessica GC on July 16, 2009
at 9:37 PM
This connects vividly with my memories. I love when a poem does that.
By: nathan on July 17, 2009
at 11:48 AM
Oh, yes! Terrific!
By: Joyce Ellen Davis on July 17, 2009
at 6:37 PM
College days can never be forgetten! Very nice poem
By: Jeeves on July 18, 2009
at 3:10 AM
college hmmmmmmm….took me 15 years for first degree…..60 s you know…..then got second degree when i was 41…..then watched my 2 girls both get degrees in 5 yrs…..dads are soooooooooooooo slow…nice one
By: wayne on July 18, 2009
at 12:03 PM
Fabulous use of the words, fit together as if they were natural.
By: Deb on July 19, 2009
at 10:39 AM
Oh, Jett. This makes me cry.
By: Kate on July 20, 2009
at 12:41 PM
Don’t cry, Kate-ica!
By: 9to5poet on July 20, 2009
at 12:46 PM