some things never questioned

      —to the first, second and third person

i am beside myself
you are not with me
and it just aint workin out
when we are not ourselves
when you are not for us
when they just don’t give a damn
for them who are not us
for you who are not we 

the things you never question
are the things that keep everything unclear
your certainty
is why i have had to doubt you 

how could you reduce yourself
to such enormous pretension
as if it was logic
and not something less than common sense

for lack of a better world
i’ll call it greed

I’ve spent a lot of time in classrooms, as a student and as a teacher. School will always be a metaphor and a place of worship. It will be a place with the promise for understanding and learning for the future. But school also contains memories, as in old school, and humor, as in Proving Myself.

Classroom series

Proving Myself

Let me be me
Let why be unknown
Let i be a function of why me
Let you be variable
Let it be constant

If i is not myself, then
i is something else
If i is something else, then
all the hope and anguish
i feels is not felt by me,
which is absurd 

Therefore, i exist
Therefore, i insist

Non-Euclidean Geometry

Definitions:
A point is that which has no part.
The extremities of a line are points.
The whole is equal to the sum of its parts.
Things which are equal to the same thing are
also equal to one another.

Common Notions:
People come in all shapes and sizes.
The world is a stage, and we each must play a part.
You can fool some of the people some of the time.
Space is the place.
Now is the time.

Propositions (to be demonstrated):
Some people are squares.
A square has a number of points.
A square has no part.
A fool has no point.
Some people are out of this world.
There is no royal road to geometry.

old school

i’m old school
i like it to have a rhyme and a reason
i like to know where one is
i like to slow dance 

i’m old school
i believe in roots and powers
i believe in the value of place
i believe in carrying the one 

i’m from the old school
you know, the one with all the broken windows,
textbooks from before the war
and real blackboards 

i’m from the old school
i believe in starting with a clean slate
i believe in quiet time
i believe in snacks

i’m from the old school
i believe in not talkin out of turn
i believe in workin on it till i get it
i believe in raisin my hand

i’m from the old school
i believe in assembly
i believe in recess
i believe in physical education

i’m old school
i believe in reading between the lines
i believe in spelling things out
i believe in carrying the one 

i’m old school
i like it to have a rhyme and a reason
i like to slow dance
i like to take it to the next level