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No Telling 
When I was in high school, we wouldn’t have dared write something like that (though we didn’t have weekly poetry readings either). I know it’s depressing when the primary mode of expressing yourself is either limited or stifled completely. I don’t remember the first time my mom ever used the “f-bomb” but I know that until I was 17 or 18, I had a running number of how many times she had said it. The last number I remember was “17” before she starting saying them faster than I could count.
Ha! We tend to get more fluid with the f-bomb when we’ve got kids who are 17 or 18. But that’s my generation. I can still count my mom’s bombs on one finger.F-bomb poetry is a rite of passage. Poets either do it in high school or as college freshmen, but almost all of them do it. It’s freeing.
i’ve written my share of f-bomb poems, though they are largely in my collection of “private poetry.” my car died today. next week is finals week, then i’m leaving for new york. i don’t have the time or the money to get it fixed. and you know what? i did drop the f-bomb once. sign of maturity? or astounding realization that sometimes this just f*ck up and, and you’ve got to roll with it?
and by “this,” i meant “things.” f-bomb.
Bad news on the car, Tim. I’m hoping you weren’t counting on it to get to New York.I suspect the f-bomb thing and maturity has more to do with audience. When you’re young, you need someone to hear you say it. Maturity is satisfied with slinging it into our own ears.Oooops. must go hear the Repub debates. Loser, all.
A wonderful post on the Catch-22 of teaching poetry to young people.I had a similar experience when I taught at a state Governor’s School. The hypocrisy of the situation (<>be totally free…within the self-prescribed state moral codes, of course<>) eventually became inescapable. My internal split intensified when regular “visitors” began to turn up in classes — unannounced — heads bent — hands scribbling furiously in notepads. <>How do you spell your name?<>I “retired.”
Governor’s schools are an incredible opportunity for students. My daughter still says her summer there was the best academic and creative experience she ever had. This was just before “helicopter parents” hit the landing pad. Things have changed. I hate it. It’s too compromising to be an academic somnambulist.