Sunday, October 16, 2011

Istanbul Update

It's time to let you know how being a teacher has been for me 1 month through my assignment in Turkey. Adjustments to come aside, I've already settled into what seems to be a workable model of assessing my students needs and working through the material outlined in my school's not-so-creative curriculum. Teachers are sometimes defeated in private schools by the spoiled nature of the children whose parents only infrequently tell them "NO." Administrators however
can apply the rule of law with a bit more authority. I witnessed a tirade last week that would have been scandalous and led to the character in question's immediate resignation had it taken place in any Western country. I kept mum while wondering how I would react if the same situation arose in a school on US soil, whether as a teacher or a student. Such is the life of an ESL teacher, I suppose.
In this span of time, I've failed to seize several opportunities of sudden inspiration and have therefore little poetic output to show for the experiences I've been through thus far. Nonetheless, I'll try to impart a taste of what that output might have been.

Tomato's red
Like my face in the September sun still
scorching Istanbul

Succulent
Like the clouds of smoke gracefully puffing
over backgammon boards, spices and soaps of the
bazaar.

Moving people like people move
Ferryboats rock from port to port, but not
withholding their own sense of modest decency
Full of so many seeds.

Whether sown into the pockets of jeans
armpits of hand-me-down tees,
my fingers deftly thread the needle
of my life.

Though tempted to drop the needle, to stop,

To pick up two pieces of baklava
characteristic of my sweet tooth
But the sight of my breath on the air
wakens my sense of duty to hold the line

Keep threading seeds of confidence
into vendors introducing themselves
endlessly selling their personality, smile.

1 comment:

  1. Unsiezed opportunity goes by so fast
    Poetic output comes so slowly
    Sometime
    Output is good when it does
    and opportunity will present new challenges
    For more output, poetic or not.

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