Array ( [sid] => 146051 [catid] => 1 [aid] => mick [title] => Everything I Need to Know I Learned from the Classics [time] => 2008-11-01 18:18:57 [hometext] => [bodytext] => I missed so much in high school,
My nose always buried in a book...
Doing only the homework I assigned myself.
Stumbling on all I cared to know
In the fiction rows of Dewey Decimal.
So now I am grown and numbers baffle me-
My checkbook such a mystery-
And maps astound me
Countries in spots I never would have guessed
Names and dates of Presidents
Float around in cluttered storerooms in my head.

But I learned enough.
I learned enough of life and death and joy and loss
From preface to epilogue
From writers I have never met
But who must have met me
They knew me inside out
And proved it in the pages of their books

I learned from Huck Finn to keep moving.
Get on that river and keep the raft moving.
They can’t hit a moving target.
Being civilized ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.

And Lenny, mouse or man,
you taught me to keep my eyes on the horizon....
Look straight ahead.
Don’t turn around to see the gun....

And Gatsby, great as you were,
I know now all that glitters isn’t gold....
if I sit too close to the circus,
all I see are pit stains and torn sequins
and frustrated, hopeless looks on painted faces....
it’s better to watch some things from across the bay....

And Randal P. McMurphy [RPM]
I know now what you discovered...
they’re out there...
they’re everywhere....
and if I don’t fight hard and keep laughing,
they’ll steal my brain and me
and tell me it’s for my own good....

And Yossarian, caught in the catch....
You were right....
they were trying to kill you
and it does make a difference....
and thanks for telling me the truth....
that I can put my spirit in a little yellow raft
and go home if I don’t like the way the game is played.
And if I don’t
I might find my soul on the curb as garbage...

And Jude,
I learned to dodge the pizels of life from you...

And Hester,
I learned from you that you aren’t what you wear...

And Will,
I learned that if I weave a tangled web in Act One,
I’ll pay for it by Act Five

And Holden,
I too want to be a Catcher in the Rye

And so

I teach

the books that saved my life.

[comments] => 3 [counter] => 150 [topic] => 21 [informant] => terifoltz [notes] => [ihome] => 0 [alanguage] => english [acomm] => 0 [haspoll] => 0 [pollID] => 0 [score] => 0 [ratings] => 0 [editpoem] => 1 [associated] => [topicname] => Lifepoems ) Your Poetry Dot Com - Everything I Need to Know I Learned from the Classics


Everything I Need to Know I Learned from the Classics
Date: Saturday, 1st November 2008 @ 06:18:57 PM AEST
Topic: Sad Poetry

Contributed By: terifoltz
I missed so much in high school,
My nose always buried in a book...
Doing only the homework I assigned myself.
Stumbling on all I cared to know
In the fiction rows of Dewey Decimal.
So now I am grown and numbers baffle me-
My checkbook such a mystery-
And maps astound me
Countries in spots I never would have guessed
Names and dates of Presidents
Float around in cluttered storerooms in my head.

But I learned enough.
I learned enough of life and death and joy and loss
From preface to epilogue
From writers I have never met
But who must have met me
They knew me inside out
And proved it in the pages of their books

I learned from Huck Finn to keep moving.
Get on that river and keep the raft moving.
They can’t hit a moving target.
Being civilized ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.

And Lenny, mouse or man,
you taught me to keep my eyes on the horizon....
Look straight ahead.
Don’t turn around to see the gun....

And Gatsby, great as you were,
I know now all that glitters isn’t gold....
if I sit too close to the circus,
all I see are pit stains and torn sequins
and frustrated, hopeless looks on painted faces....
it’s better to watch some things from across the bay....

And Randal P. McMurphy [RPM]
I know now what you discovered...
they’re out there...
they’re everywhere....
and if I don’t fight hard and keep laughing,
they’ll steal my brain and me
and tell me it’s for my own good....

And Yossarian, caught in the catch....
You were right....
they were trying to kill you
and it does make a difference....
and thanks for telling me the truth....
that I can put my spirit in a little yellow raft
and go home if I don’t like the way the game is played.
And if I don’t
I might find my soul on the curb as garbage...

And Jude,
I learned to dodge the pizels of life from you...

And Hester,
I learned from you that you aren’t what you wear...

And Will,
I learned that if I weave a tangled web in Act One,
I’ll pay for it by Act Five

And Holden,
I too want to be a Catcher in the Rye

And so

I teach

the books that saved my life.



This poem is Copyright © terifoltz


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