My (Not Really) Funny Valentine
Valentine's Day has never been a Holiday I hold close to my heart. A holiday of love is pointless when you rarely have anyone with whom you can celebrate it. This year, however, I decided to mark it in a special way by sharing a one-off episode from 4 Cents a Podcast.
Since my college days, I've written poetry. Not for publication, but for the sheer joy of it. I got into the habit thanks to one Professor I had named Dr. Drucilla Wall.
As an English Major (yes, I know, spare me the jokes), I knew that I was going to have to read a lot of poetry in my coming college years. There was just one problem: I didn't like poetry. My displeasure came namely because I never really understood it, and though it might sound like a slander to all the teachers I had who tried to teach me poetry before Dr. Wall, I don't think they taught it very well. At least, they didn't teach it well enough to the point where I understood it.
So I arrived at the University of Missouri-St. Louis for my freshman year, fully aware that I had this considerable gap in my understanding. However, during my first semester I abstained from taking any real English courses. Instead, I focused on taking prerequisite classes, preferable ones that covered multiple general education requirements as possible. The semester ended, fairly well grade-wise, but I knew starting the next semester that I'd have to start taking real courses towards my major.
Still, I had to find a way to patch the gap. In that malleable frame of mind I got an odd idea: what if I learned to write poetry so as to learn better how to read it?
It just so happened that the next semester there was a Poetry Writing Workshop class available, so I went ahead and enrolled.
In that class was where I first encountered Dr. Wall.
Drucilla Wall was a slightly odd person, in some ways. She had the air of a true "flower child" about her. A little absent-minded. Quite carefree. But very bright, with expertise both in poetry and Native American Literature, and a brilliant teacher.
What made her such a good teacher was a skill that, I believe, is the single true hallmark of all good teachers: she was not only well-versed and enthusiastic about her field of expertise, but she had the ability to communicate both her knowledge and her enthusiasm to us, her students.
She taught us about different forms of poetry. Different meters in poetry. Different rhyme schemes. Then, not only would she give us great examples of each to read, but she'd then challenge us to write in these forms as well.
This is where the workshopping process really began. She wanted us to try and write a poem for every class. Every class, she'd expect us to turn in a new poem, one either using the bits of knowledge she'd give us or one of our own creation from what we'd learned previously.
The result was that, by the end of the semester, most of us had written close to 40 poems.
It built a genuine writing habit that's lasted for years since then, and it gave me an insider knowledge of the workings of poetry that I've carried with me since then. Now, when I look at a poem, I image I view it the same way a skilled mechanic looks at an engine in need of repair or a computer programmer looks at a line of code. I'm able to understand it in a way that allows me to draw meaning out of it that, I imagine, many readers coming to poetry cold might lack.
With that understanding came both a deep respect for poets and a deep love of poetry.
Dr. Wall was, undoubtedly, one of the best teachers I had in college. Her teaching style and my way of thinking chimed so well that I wound up taking multiple classes with her, including British Lit 1 and Native American Literature. I will always appreciate her for giving me the gift of poetry.
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