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Not the Same Thing Anymore
Of most who go to school these days
__It sadly must be stated,
No longer can they be appraised
__As being educated.
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Kids’ Most Common Mistake
The most common mistake that young people can make
__And some kids sadly do it a lot,
Is believe that in school other kids are so cool
__But that they themselves surely are not.
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Government Efficiency
Of sights seen on the Interstate
__The most familiar one,
Is road work making drivers late
__With no work getting done.
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“I’ve Been Busy”
The most common excuse that you hear people make
For well-nigh all the things they did not undertake
Is that their being “busy” precluded the task,
But how much time was needed, we fairly might ask.
To respond to most texts takes just seconds, you know,
And calls can be mere minutes if you need to go.
Could it thus be their true reason was they did not
Want to do what they didn’t or that they forgot?
Folks should not choose to lower their own stature twice,
First by blowing off something which would have been nice,
Then by claiming a reason that’s patent pretense,
With the hope others won’t see it makes little sense.
If folks choose to employ higher standards each day,
“I’ve been busy” won’t be something they’re heard to say.
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The Emotional Support Eagle
The fish were biting near the shore,
My family pulled in ten or more.
We’d always catch and then release,
But sadly one fish was deceased.
We felt so bad to see it float
Atop the water near our boat.
Then hours later from the sky
A massive eagle dropped right by.
And very clearly on its mind
Was that small fish we’d left behind.
But us nearby had cramped his style,
So he perched on a tree awhile.
The current was not strong that day,
But slowly pushed the fish away.
The eagle saw his chance to feed,
And swooped with awe-inspiring speed.
It snared the fish in fearsome talons,
Vision merged with perfect balance,
Then it flew around the lake,
Before deciding to partake.
We followed him along his path,
With care to not incur his wrath.
Then watched him vigorously eat,
Profoundly savoring his treat.
The fish we’d killed brought great remorse,
But Mother Nature took her course,
Converting all our mental pain
Into the midst of Earth’s food chain.
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Russel Winick recently started writing poetry after ending a long legal career. He resides in Naperville, Illinois.
You have made some admirable points in each of your three compact poems along with two eloquent poems on excuses that need not be given in the fourth one and the concept of emotional support in the fifth one. I always get great enjoyment from reading your poetry and envy the fact that you often have multiple poems published at one time.
Thanks so much Roy – your comments are always uplifting! But any envy is misplaced – I could never write the fabulous things that others regularly post on this great site!
The first grabbed my attention; especially after I read an editorial in today’s local paper about a 19-year-old woman who was promoted through public schools; and although she has lived in this country since age 5, she’s functionally illiterate. She can’t read or write. Even worse, in spite of the fact that she couldn’t write an essay or complete the SAT, she was accepted to UConn, which she’s now attending!
Yes Cheryl, that’s absurd and depressing, and it’s on top of the political brainwashing that goes on now in public schools.
I can second Cheryl’s comment from my own experience. Today, most public school systems in the United States exist primarily as as a welfare-and-benefits system for unionized teachers, and a free daytime babysitting service for parents. Anything else that happens is purely accidental.
Professor – FYI, it was your earlier comments on this site which gave me the idea for the poem you refer to. Thanks!
You make great points in a very entertaining way. Thanks for sharing.
Thank you Warren – that’s exactly what I aim for. I much appreciate your feedback.
These are all very enjoyable. Yes, the meaning of the word “educated” has certainly changed. It was true for me that I thought I wasn’t one of the cool kids. And I sure have experienced the irony of road construction barrels but nobody actually working on the road.
Thanks Cynthia – join the clubs!
Russel, I am always busy–but that’s usually my excuse to myself for not doing things that take a little time. Therefore I’m not often “heard to say” so. I’ll work on higher standards! And right now, let me take a minute to suggest consistency of pronouns in your eagle poem. You really want that eagle to be male, so you have eight masculine pronouns for him. but you also use the neuter “it” three times. Thus I feel confident you’ll take time to change line 9 to “on his mind,” and line 17 to “He snared the fish” and line 19 to “he flew.” There’s also a grammar mistake in line 11, where you say, “us had cramped his style.” You didn’t notice it because the adverb “nearby” barged in, but the subject of that verb needs to be “we.” The poem is plenty good to enjoy anyway, but I promise to like it better if you make the change.
Margaret – Thank you as always for sharing your thoughts and suggestions regarding my poems. I’m terribly sorry if “I’ve Been Busy” offended you or struck a nerve. From what you wrote, it would not seem that the poem applies to you in any way. Here’s where I was coming from with it. Over the last forty years, I became increasingly aware that growing segments of our society seemed to be comfortable with non-performance, as long as they had an excuse to supposedly cover it. This was particularly true from my long experience as a business owner, and it even led to some of the lawsuits that I handled. I couldn’t believe the number of times that people claimed to have been “too busy” to respond to an email or text, or to return a phone call, over a period of weeks or even months, especially in important matters where people were paying good money and relying on the unresponsive person. None of this bears any resemblance to anything that you mentioned. As for the eagle poem, you are right in that I made the eagle a male, as that was the consensus among the folks in our boat, given its size. However, with eagles I’m much like Ketanji Brown Jackson is with humans – I can’t tell a female from a male. Further, this seems to be a case of what is, I assume, grammatically correct versus what “sounds better” to my admittedly non-expert ear. But in any event, I can’t change the poem now unless Evan does it for me – which would be fine – because once Evan or anyone else has published a poem of mine, I don’t do anything else with it. I don’t submit it to other journals, and I don’t see book publishers rushing anytime soon to commercialize even “everyday” pieces by a poet who has also written conservative works. Again, thanks Margaret, for your feedback.
Dear Russel, you can always change a poem published here. Many, many of us have asked our moderator Mike Bryant to correct something, either by addressing a public comment to him (“Mike, please fix this!”) or by sending an e-mail to [email protected] The only requirement is that the author (not some critical commentor) ask for the change. And give him time to respond. I will say he is very efficient, and we should all be grateful for the work he does. His oversight keeps our comment space free of accidental duplicates or junk that may be placed here as advertising, for example.
No offense whatsoever taken by me about the “Busy” poem. You can hardly write about “the most common excuse that you hear people make” and expect that no classical poet ever made it! I certainly have. It would be lying self-righteousness to criticize “busyness” if we all patted ourselves on the back, pretending only our enemies have this widespread foible. It’s good to notice such things in your light tone, and remind us quietly to do better–as you are so cleverly capable of doing.
The fourth poem, Russel, reminded me of the adage that if you want something to get done, then ask a busy person to do it.
Exactly!
These are all wonderful and insightful. I think “Government Efficiency” grabs me the most. That especially rings true for me. And I like the way the efficiency of words in the poem starkly contrasts with the government’s inefficiency.
Thanks Daniel. You have interpreted “Government Efficiency” exactly as I intended it.