{"id":5703,"date":"2013-04-13T15:58:12","date_gmt":"2013-04-13T19:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/?p=5703"},"modified":"2013-04-13T15:58:12","modified_gmt":"2013-04-13T19:58:12","slug":"day-13-of-national-poetry-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/04\/day-13-of-national-poetry-month.html","title":{"rendered":"day 13 of National Poetry Month ~"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Having spent many years teaching at the ‘higher ed’ level (re: college), I feel qualified to say that the system is sick. Fattened on the blood of adjuncts, centred far too often on the desires of faculty and a profit-driven administration over the needs of students, it’s a system way past overripe. Think piece of fruit ready to implode…<\/p>\n

That said, I loved my time teaching university. Mostly because of students, I admit, but also because of the dear friends I made. And living in an environment where learning is important, is valued. I think the ability to exist in a state of heightened learning is an almost sacred state…<\/p>\n

So here’s a very cranky poem about what the tenure system does NOT buy us: poets. Any kind of master artist, really. Because the demands of the job suck a person dry, leaving only the fragile husk of some rare and unnamed bug…<\/p>\n

Here’s David Lehman, with today’s poem, ‘With Tenure’:<\/p>\n

With Tenure<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n

If Ezra Pound were alive today
\n(and he is)
\nhe\u2019d be teaching
\nat a small college in the Pacific Northwest
\nand attending the annual convention
\nof writing instructors in St. Louis
\nand railing against tenure,
\nsaying tenure
\nis a ladder whose rungs slip out
\nfrom under the scholar as he climbs
\nupwards to empty heaven
\nby the angels abandoned
\nfor tenure killeth the spirit
\n(with tenure no man becomes master)
\nTexts are unwritten with tenure,
\nunder the microscope, sous rature
\nit turneth the scholar into a drone
\ndecayeth the pipe in his jacket\u2019s breast pocket.
\nHamlet was not written with tenure,
\nnor were written Schubert\u2019s lieder
\nnor Manet\u2019s Olympia painted with tenure.
\nNo man of genius rises by tenure
\nNor woman (I see you smile).
\nPicasso came not by tenure
\nnor Charlie Parker;
\nCame not by tenure Wallace Stevens
\nNot by tenure Marcel Proust
\nNor Turner by tenure
\nWith tenure hath only the mediocre
\na sinecure unto death. Unto death, I say!
\nWITH TENURE
\nNature is constipated the sap doesn\u2019t flow
\nWith tenure the classroom is empty
\net in academia ego
\nthe ketchup is stuck inside the bottle
\nthe letter goes unanswered the bell doesn\u2019t ring.<\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Having spent many years teaching at the ‘higher ed’ level (re: college), I feel qualified to say that the system is sick. Fattened on the blood of adjuncts, centred far too often on the desires of faculty and a profit-driven administration over the needs of students, it’s a system way past overripe. Think piece of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":398,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[196,22,43],"tags":[11,1181,1187,262,499,478,318,1190,500],"class_list":["post-5703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-art","category-poetry","category-teaching","tag-beginners-heart","tag-britton-gildersleeve","tag-buddhism","tag-buddhist-blogs","tag-david-lehman","tag-ezra-pound","tag-national-poetry-month","tag-poetry","tag-with-tenure"],"yoast_head":"\nday 13 of National Poetry Month ~ - Beginner's Heart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Having spent many years teaching at the 'higher ed' level (re: college), I feel qualified to say that the system is sick. Fattened on the blood of\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/04\/day-13-of-national-poetry-month.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"day 13 of National Poetry Month ~ - Beginner's Heart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Having spent many years teaching at the 'higher ed' level (re: college), I feel qualified to say that the system is sick. Fattened on the blood of\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beginnersheart\/2013\/04\/day-13-of-national-poetry-month.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beginner's Heart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-04-13T19:58:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/beginnersheart\/files\/2013\/04\/college-classroom.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Britton Gildersleeve\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"day 13 of National Poetry Month ~ - Beginner's Heart","description":"Having spent many years teaching at the 'higher ed' level (re: college), I feel qualified to say that the system is sick. 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Years spent living on the margins - in places with exotic names and food shortages - have left her with a visceral response to folks \u2018without,\u2019 as well as a desire to live her Buddhism in an engaged fashion. She\u2019s a writer and a teacher, the former director of a federal non-profit for teachers who write. She believes that if we talk to each other, we can learn to love each other (but she's still learning how). And she believes in tea. 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