The Daily News
1 Tuesday Morning, 3 a.m.
2 Well, almost.
3 Simon and Garfunkel had an album called Wednesday Morning, 3 a.m.
4 The entire concept of 3 a.m. has always inspired me.
5 I wrote an entire poem one time about waking up in the middle of the night. It was a Thanksgiving many moons ago that it happened.
6 We had company over, and I had to sleep in the garage, which was freezing. I slept on an old couch and pulled an element heater up next to me.
7 At around midnight everyone had gone to bed, and to floor as well. The place looked like summer camp, only in the middle of winter.
8 Awakening in the garage at 3 a.m. was completely weird. Everything had that stillness, yet everything also seemed alive with thought.
9 Garden tools stared over the side of a box. Louvre doors had conversations like a couple of cowboys in the old West. An old slicker jacket was a spy.
10 Everywhere my eyes shot I saw slanting shadows and weirdness, only it was frosty and still.
11 Yet everything had thought, or so it seemed.
12 I also felt somewhat trapped in that if I went inside, there was nowhere to go, and I'd wake people up. Going outside meant certain frostbite.
13 So I lay there wide awake on that couch, thinking and unable to do much of anything.
14 That couch was the most comfortable couch in my brief history on this planet. It was a bit beat down and faded, but even then, so was I.
15 Little did I know. = ) <-------sideways smiley guy.
16 Anyway I found a bent spiral notebook in a box, found a pencil at the bottom of a box and began writing.
17 It began with the words, "If not a poet I, then..."
18 It was funny because it had never even occurred to me that I was a poet, or even remotely close to being one. I've since written some pretty fun stuff over the years, but part of my thoughts questioned why I was experiencing so many things that seemed to be watching me, almost as though I were being observed by inanimate objects.
19 Someday I'll try to find that poem. I eventually typed it out with no regard for fonts, computer spacing, margins, nor any other modern mode of transportation. I had an old typewriter and really didn't care much about formatting and all. I just flew with it on a clacky old thing with a torn ribbon.
20 I know I kept the thing, so I'll look around. It really was fun to read because it caught waking up in the middle of the night so perfectly.
21 I did a mini-unit on Simon and Garfunkel. It went with all the lamps and mics and things, which are still set up in my room.
22 I never did that before, but I'm reaching a point where I'm going to bring things that I cherish into the classroom. Those songs have been virtually ignored by English books over the years, and I have no idea why. Well, there's a whole bunch I don't understand about education in the 21st century.
23 I remember years ago reading a poem called Dolor by Theodore Roethke. It was all about how schools create "endless duplication of lives and objects". I fought my entire life against that stuff, and seeing students as people, as friends, and as mutual inspirations.
24 In the long run, I think I won that battle.
25 My final paper in my final education class back then was entitled George and the Magical Comfy Chair, and it was all about changing the classroom environment to one that had couches, books, music, nice lighting, and a pre-Starbuck's feel.
26 It's funny that years and years later I see that it works, especially since the "pendulum" has swung so far the other way that it is almost in another county. All the research indicated that a more comfortable environment made for better learning.
27 Seems like common sense. My mom once told me that there is nothing common about common sense.
28 Well, it's almost Tuesday Morning at 3 a.m.
29 Think I'll go out to the garage and catch a few.
30 Win a few battles today; it'll do you good.
31 Peace.
~H~
www.xanga.com/bharrington
but the Yankees got killed 
.
Recent Comments