FriendBurst Blog

Welcome to the August 2013 Edition of PICK-APART POETRY
as we once more celebrate the unofficial end of summer
which coincides with Labor Day

 

 

and with the beginning of a new school year.

 

 

 

And as we look forward to autumn and some cooler weather,
we feature two poems,
one celebrating work and the worker
and the second celebrating the pursuit of knowledge.

 

Edgar Guest’s “IT COULDN’T BE DONE” celebrates
that spirit of ingenuity and perserverance
that motivates the worker in any field:

Somebody said it couldn’t be done,
But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing and he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
At least no one has ever done it”;
But he took off his coat and he took of his hat,
And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing and he tackled the thing
That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing
That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.

 

****************

 

And we hope our students will exhibit
at least some of what
Adelaide Crapsey (1878–1914) called
THE PROPERLY SCHOLARLY ATTITUDE
in these rather humorous poetic excerpts:

 

The poet pursues his beautiful theme;
The preacher his golden beatitude;
And I run after a vanishing dream—
The glittering, will-o’-the-wispish gleam
Of the properly scholarly attitude—
The highly desirable, the very advisable,
The hardly acquirable, properly scholarly attitude.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

I work and I work till I nearly am dead,
And could say what the watchman said—that I could!
But still, with a sigh and a shake of the head,
“You don’t understand,” it is ruthlessly said,
“The properly scholarly attitude—
The aye to be sought for, wrought for and fought for,
The ne’er to be caught for, properly scholarly attitude—”

 

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

 

And then there is the STUDENT PRAYER by Anonymous

 

Now I lay me down to rest,
I pray I pass tomorrow’s test.
If I should die before I wake,
That’s one less test I’ll have to take.

And, on a more serious note,

some thoughts apropos to this time of year . . . .

Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.  ~Chinese Proverb

All the world is a laboratory to the inquiring mind.  ~Martin H. Fischer

When the student is ready, the master appears.  ~Buddhist Proverb

You can teach a student a lesson for a day;

but if you can teach him to learn by creating curiosity,

he will continue the learning process as long as he lives.  ~Clay P. Bedford

You learn something every day if you pay attention.  ~Ray LeBlond

A teacher affects eternity;

he (she)can never tell where

his(her) influence stops.  ~Henry Brooks Adams

 

The mediocre teacher tells.

The good teacher explains.

The superior teacher demonstrates.

The great teacher inspires.  ~William Arthur Ward

 

The teacher who is indeed wise does not bid you

to enter the house of his wisdom

but rather leads you

to the threshold of your mind.  ~Kahlil Gibran

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Please select 25 words from poetry and quotations

posted and create a new piece.

 

And just a reminder.

 

Words may be used more than once
and the tenses and forms may be changed
so that the poem you create may certainly
end up being longer than 25 words.

 

 

 

 

There is no word limit to our poem(s).

 

Our only goal is simply
to be creative
and to have fun.

We are so very much looking forward
to what each of us creates
and brings back to share.

 

~Barb K and Cherie~